Straight Gate, Narrow Path

Chicken of the Sea?

2011-04-07T01:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had fried chicken strips. As they were frying in the pan I noticed something interesting...

What do they look like to you?

Tim's Christmas Recital

2010-12-22T23:32:00.000-08:00

This was Tim's first official piano recital. He was so excited! He has been taking piano lessons for about two years now.

He played "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "We Three Kings."

He did a great job! I think he only made one mistake but he quickly recovered and went on.

Here he is getting his certificate from his teacher.

This is the group shot of all the piano students that participated with their instructor, Mrs. West. I love Kambry's (the little girl on the left) and Timmy's eyes! What were they up to?!

We all had a lot of fun eating goodies and visiting afterwards.

That's Better...

2010-11-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

I finally figured out how to center things up and I changed the backgroud so it wasn't so busy.

Such a Mess

2010-10-30T01:32:00.001-07:00

I am playing around with the new Blogger templates so things are a bit messy. Sorry.

God IS in control

2010-10-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

This was part of Haley's bible reading in her school work...

I love this verse. It's all God's holy Word, but don't you love it when a verse pops out at you like that?! He was there before the beginning and created everything out of nothing with His words alone. Breath taking to think about.

Sigh...

2010-10-29T23:23:00.000-07:00

I sure would like to be here right now:

Missing my friends, Martha, Susie, and Sharon and it would be nice to attend the SAICFF.

A.J. Graduates Homeschool

2010-06-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

Note: This post has taken me 3 months to put together! Sorry. It has been a busy summer. A.J. has now started college and is doing well so far! He really enjoys his classes, especially 3D Animation. (Who would have guessed?!) He is studying Drafting and trying to figure out what he wants to be when he grows up. Lol! Seriously though, please pray that God will lead him and guide him and give him a vision of what He wants him to do. Thanks! Now on with the post...

One down... two more to go!

Here are the pictures from A.J.'s graduation... finally! We put on our own ceremony for our homeschool group. It was our first time organizing this type of event and it went pretty well. There were lots of memorable moments and every one laughed and cried. We so enjoyed being able to share this time with our family and dear friends. Thank you to all of you who were able to be there and if you couldn't be there, then maybe this post will help you feel like you were.

Here is his announcements. (Front and back.)

Here is the program from the graduation ceremony:

The Class of 2010:

Emilie, Andrew, A.J., and Carissa

Andrew and A.J.

A.J. and Tim

Brothers and sister. A.J., Haley, and Tim.

A.J. and Grandma Lanna.

Cousins before the ceremony.

Lendl Meyer gives the welcome and Elise Burk played Pomp and Circumstance as the graduates entered.

Graduates wait on stage for their turn to get their diplomas.

I pledge allegiance to the flag...

Still waiting...

I don't know what this was about, but it sure is funny! I asked A.J. later and he can't remember either!

Carissa gets her diploma.

Carissa gives her Mom and Dad a diploma... another one of those laughing and crying at the same time moments!

The Burk family.

Here is A.J.'s slide show from the graduation. There was one for each of the graduates.

Such sweet memories! The song in the background is called "The Letter" written and performed by The Newsboys. It says just what Alan and I want to say to A.J. It is really supposed to be God speaking to His children. Listen to the words!

A.J. gets his diploma.

We kind of fumbled the diploma pass here. We were all nervous! Alan was going to give it to him and I got in the way some how (I'm good at that...) so he ended up handing to me and I handed it to A.J.

Here we are, minus one, after the ceremony.

Tim had already left with friends.

Emilie gets her diploma. There was not a dry eye in the place!

Andrew gets his diploma.

The Stauffer Family

The graduates with their friend and master of ceremonies, Lendl.

Grandma Vicki, A.J. and Grandpa

A.J. with Uncle Don

Aingel, A.J., and Aunty Wendy

A.J. and Zach

A.J. and Seth

Jumping for joy!

The Graduation Cake

Response to Mexico President Calderon

2010-05-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

Timmy Quote

2010-05-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

Tonight at dinner Tim said, "But I don't want meat, I want broccoli!" Perhaps a budding vegetarian? He won't make it far in this meat and potatoes family! Well, I suppose he could eat a lot of potatoes. :)

2010-05-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, remember me?!

I just went to see "Letters from Juliet" with my sister, niece, and one of her friends. It was your typical chick flick, you know what I am talking about: girl is with the wrong guy, meets other guy who at first seems to be the unfeeling jerk but turns out to be her one true love. It all works out in the end, of course. It was cute. It was a fairytale. It has the potential to make you feel utterly discontent with your current life situation. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. It was set in Verona, Italy and the storyline takes you all over the Italian countryside. Someday I would like to go there! It had a few parts I could have lived without. If you want to know more you can ask and I will be happy to elaborate, expound, etc., etc. It is rated PG.

All in all, it was a nice way to spend my Saturday afternoon. I had a nice time with my sis. Now back to real life! On to that question that haunts us all everyday of our lives; "What's for dinner?"

Are You Wearing Green Today?

2010-03-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

AJ went back to work at the airport today! He has been off for almost a year because of a slow down in business at the company he works for. People were just not getting their airplanes painted. With the economy being so bad, I guess it was not on the top of their priority list! :) but things are picking up again and he is working again! Thank you, Lord! So, he was up and off to work by 7 AM. So much for sleeping in over spring break!

Beautiful Sound

2010-03-02T23:28:00.000-08:00

Turn the page
Can't turn the light out.
Every word, every line carries to my soul.
Dark letters on a page singing so loud
Where did I go wrong not to hear your song?

It's a beautiful song
And we've only just begun to understand.
Rediscovering You!

To have found You and still be looking for You,
It's "The Soul's Paradox of Love"
You fill my cup, I lift it up for more.
I won't stop now that I'm free,
I'll be chasing You like You chase me.

Lead us, break us,
Form us, make us,
Mold us, bend us,
Push us, shape us,
This is poetry in motion
Mercies new everyday
This faith cannot stay still
Until we see You face to face.

These are some of the lyrics to a song I have heard many times before but I never really heard the words until recently. I want to hunger and thirst, I want to long for Jesus and His Word like this song describes. I have moments that I do, but I want it to be continuous!

Lord Jesus, help me to remember that only one thing is needful; to sit at Your feet and hear Your Word. (Luke 10:37-42) I want to find You and still be looking for You! I want to sit up late and not be able to turn the light out because I am so sucked into Your Word that I can't put it down and I can't wait to turn the page! I want You to change me and make me more like You. "We are His workmanship..." (Ephesians 2:10) I was told that in the original Greek the word "workmanship" means poem... we are His poem! It is "poetry in motion" to be transformed everyday into the image of Christ! Please keep working on me, Lord! I have so, so, so far to go! I am soooo thankful that Your mercies are new everyday, I need a lot of mercy! Thank you, Lord!

If you want to hear the actual song, I have added it to the music player at the bottom of this blog. It's the first song, just press the play button.

Something for me to Remember...

2010-02-01T23:31:00.000-08:00

"Do you want the kind of home that others delight to be in? Do you want the kind of church body that people would move to be a part of? Obey Him. He will bless you, wherever He calls you to go. And when you, like me, fail, rejoice that He cursed the One who hung upon a tree."

-R.C. Sproul Jr.

Thanks, R.C., I needed that.

Precious Children are Dying in Haiti

2010-01-30T11:32:00.001-08:00

Today I read this on Doug Phillips' blog. The situation in Haiti is heart breaking. I wish there was something I could do with my own two hands. It would be wonderful to go over and lend assistance in person, but I can't. At least, the Lord has not opened any doors for me to actually go there. But I can pray for the children and those that are going over to help and maybe I can help financially in some small way. Mr. Phillips will be posting video updates on his blog. If you are interested in finding out what is really going on over there from a Christian perspective you can check for updates HERE.

Haitian Orphan Relief Video

2010-01-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

Haitian Orphan Relief Video from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

John Leininger of comments on the orphan crisis in Haiti.

Timothy Looses Some More of his Babyhood

2010-01-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

Our little guy is growing up. How can I tell, you say? Well, I didn't get it posted on here, but he has gone through that rite of passage that all children go through to show that they are big kids now... Timothy has lost his first tooth. He actually lost it on Christmas Eve. We teased him that the Tooth Fairy and Santa would both be there that night and perhaps they would have a little break from their labors and would eat cookies and milk together. They would have a nice chat and then would get on with their work. How often does the tooth fairy and Santa Claus visit on the same night?! Now, all of our family knows the truth about Santa and the Tooth Fairy, even Tim, but we enjoy pretending. It was great fun and it made our holiday a little more memorable!

The first lost tooth, empty space proudly displayed:

And to our joy and amazement, he pulled out his second tooth today! He just yanked it right out. It was VERY loose. Here is the tooth (in the bag) and the second empty space, also proudly displayed:

Timothy is six years and nine months old. He is growing so fast!

Here is a spring tree he drew today on the white board.

Life is Sweet...

2010-01-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

I just put one of my famous home made chicken pot pies in the oven and that lovely man in the big brown truck (the UPS man!) just brought "Return to Cranford" to our front door... life is sweet! Thank you, Lord, for small blessings!

Feast on God's Word!

2010-01-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

Random Thoughts

2010-01-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

"Though none go with me, still I will follow..."

Does anyone remember that old chorus? It came to me this evening while I was mulling over some various things in my head. Horatio Hornblower never snitched, wined, or complained, even when he had just cause. (Another random thought.) I feel sorry for myself, often. I like to blame my circumstances on others. I am a daughter of Eve. When I get fed up with myself, I decide to fix things and usually end up making things worse. The next step in my distorted process is failure and then depression. Next, I give up and I say "Whatever will be, will be..." I have a little bit of false peace at this stage, I relax and let everything fall apart. Then I listen to an inspirational sermon or a friend will encourage me or I will read an inspiring blog and I decide that the Lord wants us to be more deliberate and intentional. We should not just float along waiting for something to happen. So I will fix things, and I fail, again, and the cycle continues.

Being a wife and mother is a wonderful and beautiful thing, at least I keep telling myself that. I know that is the way it is supposed to be according to God's Word and preachers and teachers I love and respect. Reality is what you make it. I really do love being a wife and mom. I love my husband and children. It's just, at times, it is a thankless and mundane job. You do the same things over and over again everyday. You train and teach your children, everyday. It takes a l-o-n-g time to see the fruit of your labours. It can be quite discouraging at times. I get tired, tired of fighting.

And then an old chorus pops into my mind right in the middle of the dark thoughts,

"Though none go with me, still I will follow..."

Somehow, God's light pierces the darkness and you find enough strength to push on. He never said it would be easy. He did say not to grow weary with doing good, to fight the good fight, press toward the mark. "But, but, no one else in my family is helping me or doing what they are supposed to do." (whine, sob, pout, sniff.) JOYFULLY, trust and obey, let the Lord work on them. There is true peace in knowing that you have obeyed and the rest is in God's hands.

Persevere.

"Though none go with me, still I will follow... No turning back, No turning back."

Of Tamales, Peanut Brittle, and the Internet

2009-12-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

I have been busy the last couple of weeks with all the usual holiday bustle. It has thrown me all out of whack and off schedule! That aspect of it has not been that great for my family and myself but I have made a couple of pretty major break throughs in my Christmas cooking, both of which I have the Internet to thank for. First, I wanted to make tamales. I made some last year and they turned out O.K. but not like real tamales. I bought the red chile I used from the grocery store, frozen. (Gasp!) I bought prepared masa from our local tortilla factory and used it straight out of the bag. This year I had a thought, "Why not ask the Internet?" So I got on my computer and typed in the search box, "How to prepare dried red chilies for tamales," and I found THIS. All I thought I needed was the directions on how to prepare the red chile sauce, I had already cooked the meat. As I read the rest of the recipe I realized that I needed to add some things to the masa as well. Here are some pictures from my tamale making adventure.

Soaking the chilies in the broth from the meat. Aren't they pretty?

Blending the Chilies, broth, fresh garlic, cumin and salt.

Getting ready to spread the masa on the corn husks and roll the tamales.

Update: Here are some pictures of the finished product. After assembling all the Tamales, I froze some for later and I steamed some so we could eat them that night. I steamed them for 2 hours. They were delicious! Freezing them has worked out well for us. I just pull however many I need out of the freezer and steam them for two hours, no thawing required.

My Mom requested that I put an olive in a few.

The next major hurdle on my list was peanut brittle. I had learned how to make this years ago but could never seem to get it right the last few times I made it. I was so frustrated with it that I quit making it all together. Haley (my dd) and I were really craving some this year, so with much fear and trepidation, I added it to the holiday baking list. I had such great results on the Internet with the tamales I decided to try the same thing with the peanut brittle. I am soooo glad I did! I found THIS. It is very similar to the recipe I already had but I realized I had been putting the peanuts in at the wrong time. What a difference it made! Now it is so easy Haley and I could whip up a batch in less than half an hour! In fact we did! It was awesome!

North to Alaska 2009

2009-09-28T01:51:00.000-07:00

I know, I am really s l o w at putting pictures up. I promised these quite a while back. I'm just testing you all to see how patient you can be. :) That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Here are the guys with this years catch.

Someday we are going to be on one of these ships! Someday!

Alan took these shots out of his hotel room window. (Above and 2 below)

Ketchikan, Alaska

First day out:

Rough seas. This is the day that Alan got sea sick. He's smiling now... but it's coming.

Dad inside the boat.

Jay and the Morenci guys (Vince, Alan, Dad-Steve).

Ketchikan from the boat

They had two boats to take them fishing. This is a shot Alan took of the other boat. Randy (one of Alan's co-workers in the Safford office) is taking a picture of the boat Alan was on.

2nd Day out: Weather is much better. Smooth sailing! And he is making sure he is taking those Dramamines!

Home with the spoils!

It's Here!

2009-09-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

Happy First Day of Autumn, everyone!

Top ten things I love about fall:

10. Hot Chocolate

9. Sweaters

8. Chill in the air

7. Baking goodies

6. Thanksgiving

5. Pumpkin Patches

4. That crunch noise when you step on fallen leaves

3. Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, Brown Leaves

2. Big, yellow, harvest moon rising

(Drum roll, please) The #1 thing I love about fall is....

1. Sitting on the back porch swing with my Sweety and watching the kids play with the twinkle lights lit, a fire going, and tiki lamps lit.

I hope you all are enjoying the first day of this wonderful season! May the Lord bless you and remind you of His awesome power and love as you watch the seasons change.

P.S. Happy Birthday Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! Yes. I confess, I am a Lord of the Rings fan. For those of you who have only seen the movies, you are missing so much! Go and read the books or listen to them, unabridged, on tape/CD. If you have only seen the movies then you don't know it was Frodo's birthday as well as Bilbo's. Bilbo was 111 and Frodo was 33. This made their combined age 144 years. Bilbo thought this was significant and amusing and invited 144 guests to his birthday party, "One gross," as he put it. This offended several of his guests as the term was not to be used in reference to people. Hobbits give gifts instead of receiving gifts on their birthdays. Isn't that an interesting idea? I may try it someday. See! Look how much you are missing!

Full Production

2009-09-22T20:28:00.001-07:00

Folks, we have an annoucement. Our chickens are at full production! Everyone of our hens laid an egg yesterday! That's a total of 9 eggs! Isn't that EGGCITING!!!

Here is a picture so you can see our lovely assortment of eggs that our ladies produce.

The carton was not full then but, believe me, it's full now! We have three 18 pack cartons and they are all full with 9 more on the way tomorrow! Anyone need some eggs?

Cookies, Sisters, and Stars

2009-09-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Lord's Day!

I am baking chocolate chip cookies and in between batches I went outside to visit with my husband out on the backyard swing. He was visiting with a couple of his sisters via text messaging. He was having a hard time keeping up! They are a lot better at it than he is, they have had a lot more practice. As I was coming back into the house,

Oh, hold on a second. The timer is going off for the cookies...

OK, I am back...

As I was coming back into the house, I looked up and saw the stars. If you just glance at them and go on about your business you won't pay them any mind. But if you stop and give them a good look you might be reminded of this scripture:

^"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Psalm 8:3-4, King James Version)

Why would God, The Almighty Creator of all things, be mindful of me? It is an awesome feeling... a feeling of smallness, and yet a warm feeling that He is, indeed, mindful of me. His Word is true, and that's what it says. Strange.

Alaska Update- Coming Home

2009-09-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry about not updating sooner. In answer to the question of weather or not Alan got sick again, I am happy to report that he did not. :) Everyone on their boat did get sick at one point or another. Ralf visited all 5 guys. Alan got his visit over with the first day and was fine the rest of the trip. Thanks be to God.

Alan and all the guys are all safely home and back to work. Alan is tired but he had a great time. He brought home two big boxes of Halibut and Salmon. We were just finishing last year's. We still have 5 packages of each left.

I will post pictures as soon as I can figure out the new camera's software so I can download them.

The Evening Alaska Report

2009-08-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Alan called me this evening to give me the news of the day. Here is what he said.

They caught their limit of Salmon. The limit is 6 per person. The salmon are smaller than the halibut but they fight a lot harder so they go salmon fishing in the morning so they won’t be too tired out from halibut fishing to bring in the salmon. Vince (one of Alan’s supervisors) caught an 83lb. halibut after lunch, the biggest fish of the day.

It started to rain in the late afternoon and the ocean was pretty choppy for the rest of their time fishing. On the ride back, Alan said the waves were reaching about 5ft. high. He and 3 of the other guys got sick. Two lost their lunch and two almost did but managed to keep it down. Alan says tomorrow he will take another Dramamine at lunch in hopes of keeping it and not feeding the fish! My Dad was one of the one's who was pretty queasy but did not through up.

He saw some seals and a bald eagle today. He took pictures of both. I hope they turn out! We had to buy a new camera at the last minute because ours was not focusing properly. When I say, “the last minute,” I mean it! I was, literally, down at Wal-mart 15 minutes before he had to leave trying to pick out a camera.

Tune in tomorrow when we ask the question: Will Alan loose his lunch, or will he keep it down? I know you are all dying to find out!

North to Alaska- The Saga Continues

2009-08-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

Remember this? and this? Well, guess what? Oh, you will never guess, so I will just tell you...

Alan has arrived safely in Ketchikan, Alaska for another round of Halibut and Salmon fishing. He is very blessed to get the chance to do it again. We thought last year was a once in a lifetime trip. We never imagined... he would get the opportunity to go again. God is so very good!

They are out on the boat as I type. I will update when Alan calls tonight and let you know how they did.

Chicken Update

2009-08-13T23:36:00.000-07:00

It's time for a chicken update, folks. They are about 4 and a half months old. Look at how much they have grown....

Here is the Tough Puff. There is no doubt about it now, he is a rooster. He struts his stuff around the yard all day. He has some very handsome, green, tail feathers. He starts crowing right around 5 A.M. and continues, off and on, throughout the day. It is a neat sound and he doesn't bother us, we only hope he is not bothering the neighbors. No complaints as of the time of this report.

Below are some of our ladies.

We interrupt this report to bring you breaking news from our on-site corespondent, Timothy.

(Press the play button.)

There you have it folks! Our first EGG!!

Tim was so excited! We all were!

Tim had his first freshly laid egg, from his own chickens, for breakfast this morning. He really enjoyed it. He let me have a few bites. It was delicious!

Zucchini Aplenty

2009-07-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

Zucchini, zucchini, what to do with all of this Zucchini?

My beloved daughter has planted a garden with the help of her wonderful Grandmother. There are pictures of it on her blog if you would like to see it. They planted three zucchini plants. Now, if you have ever planted zucchini you know that the plants are abundant producers, which is a good thing, as long as you know what to do with it.

I do have a couple of recipes that I use it in. All the adults in our family like it sauteed in butter with onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes, sprinkled with grated cheese. It is very yummy!

Then, of course, there is zucchini bread. I use my Mother's recipe. It is delicious!

I have grated the zucchini and frozen it before for zucchini bread. That works pretty well. But it doesn't work to well to slice it and freeze it for sauteing. It tends to get mushy and a bit slimy.

Do you all have any ideas as to how to preserve it or any yummy recipes you can share with me?

Diana is my Bosom Friend...

2009-07-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

...except my name is not Anne! My friend Diana guessed right; I am listening to Anne of Green Gables. She should win some sort of a prize or something. Hmmmm.... I will have to think of something! Thanks, Diana, for playing along!

It has been a great book so far. I am surprised at how the movie has been so faithful to the book, at least to this point. I'm on chapter 23, there are 38 chapters in all. My favorite quote from this book so far is,

"Oh, Matthew, isn't it a wonderful morning? The world looks like something God had just imagined for His own pleasure, doesn't it?" -Anne Shirley

If only I could always look on the world in this way. I do, sometimes, but I wish I could always remember to enjoy this world Jesus has imagined and created for His own pleasure. It reminded me of this scripture:

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Revelation 4:11

I love Anne's imagination, even though she can get a bit carried away at times. Marilla is so good for her. She loves Anne dearly, but keeps her feet firmly planted on the ground. Of course, Anne is good for Marilla as well. Anne helps her to soften and to imagine a bit. Her life, though good, was a bit dull before Anne came into it.

Well I had better get to bed! Good night!

So Much Scope for the Imagination

2009-06-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever listened to a book on tape/CD? I aspire to be a great reader, but it seems that almost every time I pick up a book I am called away by an adoring child with a need that is most urgent, or I find that the day has slipped away it it is time to cook dinner, the laundry is calling or that pile (or shall I say piles?) of papers on the... well, flat surface of any kind really should be tidied up. The list goes on, and on, and... you get the general idea. I have also tried to read before I go to bed when the house has quieted down, but I inevitably end up falling asleep after a few paragraphs. I found a solution a few years back. It's audio books. There is so much scope for the imagination with audio books! And best of all my hands are free to do those household tasks that do not require my full attention. I can fold the laundry, sweep and mop the floor, prepare dinner, while I am out and about doing errands in the van, etc., etc.! So far, my favorites are from Recorded Books. I like most of their reader's voices and they are all unabridged. They are quite expensive, but I have been blessed to find one at a thrift store, a few at CBD, Amazon.com, and our local library has several titles available. I have been enjoying a book on CD the last couple of days. Just for fun, let's see if anyone can guess what it is. I already gave you a clue, but here are a few more: it's a classic book, it is the first of a series, the story takes place in Canada... What else can I say without totally giving it away? Hmmm... I borrowed it from my daughter so it is a bit of a girly book. It has been made into a movie, but most classic books have, so that's not much of a clue. Well let's see if anyone can guess it with those clues. If not, I will give you all another clue in a couple of days.

If no one tries to guess, I can imagine that someone has... that's a clue too!

I Like Mondays

2009-06-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Why do people hate Mondays? I guess it's because some have to go back to work and they don't care much for their job, or they would rather be with their families. That is understandable. I like Mondays. I also LOVE my job, so I guess that makes all the difference in the world. What is my job, you ask? It is the most important job in the world... I am a domestic engineer, otherwise known as wife, mom, teacher, and all around home manager. Monday is my day to start fresh, to get back in the swing of things. Some Mondays are better than others. Today has been one of those "better" Mondays. We (the children and I) have completed all our scheduled tasks for the day, early. I actually have time to blog and play around on the computer, guilt free, before my husband gets home! Dinner is planned and ready to be cooked, and I even had time to read my Charlotte Mason Companion book that my friend, Heather, and I have been getting together once a week to talk about. It has been a great book so far. Very helpful! And it has been a lot of fun and helpful to be able to talk about it.

Anyways... I am rambling, it is soooo nice to be able to ramble a bit on my blog.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Thrasher Music

2009-06-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I broke my camera last week. :( I was so sad! I'll tell you the whole story in another post. I took the first picture and the video in this post with my camera, before it broke, a while back. The others are with my Mom's camera.

We have been doing a bit of bird watching this spring and summer. It has been a lot of fun. They are very relaxing to watch. I have tried to take pictures of some of them. Here is a video of a Curve-billed Thrasher singing earlier this spring.

Pa and Ma Thrasher had been working away on a nest that was started a couple of years ago in our Cholla cactus. It is quite large. Now there are little baby Curve-billed Thrashers, 4 of them!

Here is Ma bringing food to the hungry babies. It is a full time job! Pa has been keeping a close eye on his family and has been bringing food for them too.

Pa and Ma are very happy with the blessings God has given them, and assure me that they have a multi-generational vision for their family!
BTW, my friend Heather, has been doing some serious bird watching with her family. She has a long list of the birds her family has spotted on her blog.

Flower Photos

2009-05-19T01:13:00.001-07:00

I like to take pictures. I went through a couple years when I didn't do it for some reason, but now I have picked up my camera again and started clicking away. Lately, I have really been into taking pics of flowers. Spring is in the air, I suppose! The Lord shows us so much in His creation if we will slow down long enough to look. As I was downloading these pictures the Lord brought to my memory the "Consider the lilies" scripture in Matthew 6. I was reminded to "be anxious for nothing," and to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (food, clothing) will be added to you."

There are 3 sets of flower pictures, first the close up and then one that is zoomed out.

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even

Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Chick Update

2009-05-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Our chicks are officially living in their coop now. This is their 3rd night outside and they seem to be doing very well. Here are some pictures of them now, 7 and a half weeks old and in their new home.

Here they are having their first watermelon. They didn't know what to think at first, but they figured it out and thoroughly enjoyed every peck. We gave them our corn cobs from dinner and they liked that too.

This is their nesting and roosting area.

Here are our Black Sex Links. You have to be careful looking them up on an internet search! We had all of our chickens named, but it is increasingly difficult to tell them apart. This is either Victoria, Midnight Star, or Ebony.

Here is our Tough Puff at 7 and a half weeks old. We still don't know if this is a rooster or not. He/she is still very different than the others.

A Sunday afternoon hanging out (after church) with the chicks.

Timmy loves his chickens. He is rather partial to Mazy May and Lily (our 2 Americana chicks) and Ebony (the smallest black one), and the Tough Puff, and the... well, he loves them all!

This one was taken when the chicks were about a month old. Alan had just got home from work. He really enjoys sitting in the backyard watching the Chickens.

They are so fun to watch!

Happy Anniversary, Grandpa and Grandma!

2009-05-07T17:25:00.001-07:00

Today is my Grandpa and Grandma's 65th wedding anniversary. I am so blessed to have grandparents that love and serve the Lord.

Here is a picture from their wedding day. They are the couple on the left. Isn't my Grandpa handsome and my Grandma beautiful?!

My Grandpa served in the U.S. Air Force for 21 years.

L-R: (standing) Grandma, Uncle Louis, (sitting) Grandpa, and Uncle George.

In the above picture we all met at my Grandma's brother's house about 18 years ago. We sang songs of praise to the Lord and had a sweet time of fellowship. My grandparents have known the Lord for over 50 years. Through the testimony and prayers of my grandparents (and God's saving grace) all of my Grandma's brothers and sisters came to know the Lord.

I am thankful that, for the most part, they are healthy and that the Lord has allowed them to continue to be a witness to their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

They are still very much in love after all these years.

We love you, Grandpa and Grandma!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Chicken Scare

2009-05-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

We had a scary moment here today. We have been putting the chickens outside in their chicken coup everyday for a few hours so they can work up to being out there full time in the next couple of weeks. Alan finished it last weekend. Timmy was checking on them off and on throughout the day. The dogs seemed really excited about the chickens today, and were hanging out at the chicken coup more than usual. We already had to take measures against them digging under the fence, trying to get into the chicken run. Anyways, Tim went out to check on the chicks. A few moments later he came running into the house crying a really scary cry, not the usual whiny cry. I asked him what happened and he wouldn't say for a few seconds, he was crying so hard. Then he said in a heartbreaking voice, that he didn't mean to and that he was going to loose some of his chickens. My first thought was that he must have accidentally left the door to the chicken coup open. I ran to the backyard. My Mom was already in the chicken coup with a chicken in her hands. I was scared at this point. I ran back there to find that the dogs did get in and scared the chicks but all was well and no one was hurt. Just a few ruffled feathers.

I went back in the house to tell my poor little boy that all his chickens were fine. After he calmed down, he told us what happened. When he opened the door 2 of the dogs pushed there way in past him. He yelled at them to get out but they wouldn't listen. He ran back to the house crying for help and thinking the worst. Then he saw Grandma and she went running back to the coup to get the dogs and save the chicks. (He always smiles when he tells this part!) Grandma saves the day again!

We are not sure if the dogs were trying to hurt the chicks. One was in the chicken run watching one of the chicks and the other dog was in the coup holding one of the chicks down with his paw. They were flapping all about so maybe he was trying to keep them still? We can only hope that their intentions were honorable! Needless to say Tim will bring reinforcements with him when he wants to check on his flock next time!

Swine Flu

2009-05-01T10:27:00.001-07:00

Kim C. over at Life in a Shoe did a great post about Swine Flu on her blog. Check it out. I borrowed the You tube video from her! This looks like just another example of big government.

Confirming the Knowledge of God

2009-04-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." 1 John 2:1-6

This scripture passage just hit me like a ton of bricks. Listen to THIS. It is a sermon by Matthew Hudson.

In this letter that he wrote to the churches, John wanted to encourage the people that they were true believers in Christ. The gnostics had infiltrated the church and began to spread lies and doubt and the people began to ask themselves "Am I a true believer in Christ?"

"John wanted to give confirmation to believers that they know the true God through Christ if their lives are marked by obedience to His commands." (from the sermon discription)

We are not saved by our works, but our lives should bare the mark of obedience to Christ.

I have some praying to do.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. 51:10

Here a Chick, There a Chick

2009-04-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

Here is part 2 of the last chick post. In this video the chicks are almost 3 weeks old. It was the first time we had taken all of them outside at once. It was soooo cute!

Here Tim is nursing a scratched arm. He scratched his arm on the chicken wire trying to get the chicks out of there cage. Beware of the chicken wire! Dangerous stuff.

Here is our two headed chickens. Oh! did I forget to tell you we had a couple of two headed chickens?!

This is Lily and Midnight Star. Star, the black one, has always had these little bald spots. We thought the others were pecking her at first, but we never saw any of them doing anything to her. She seems healthy in every other way.

Me with the chicks.

I have to say that raising these chickens has been way easier than I thought it would be, and a lot more fun as well. We have all enjoyed it, even my oldest dear son who is not much of an animal person. Here is another video of the whole family out in the backyard with the chicks. It is only a couple days past the last video, but you can see a difference in them. It is amazing how fast they grow!

I tell this story in the video, but for those of you who have slower internet connections and can't see it, I will tell it again here. I asked Timmy if he was the chicks daddy since they are "his" and he said "Nooo," and then in a rather thoughtful voice he said, "I'm more like their brother."

See! Chicks bring families closer together!

This is one of our dogs, Luke. He is the one, out of the five dogs we have, that is the most interested in the chicks. He gets all excited and wines when he gets near their cage. We are not sure if he wants to protect them and take care of them or if he wants to eat them! It is funny to watch his reaction to them.

Here are a couple of our Buff Orpingtons. We have pretty much named all our chicks, but it is pretty hard to tell the Buffs apart, except for the Tough Puff! Haley is better than any of us at telling which on is which.

This is our little Tough Puff. There is much discussion and debate as to weather he or she is a rooster. He/She is bigger, more colorful than the rest, and has a more pronounced comb with a little crop under his/her chin growing as well. We bought all pullet chicks that are supposed to be 90% guaranteed to be hens. We really did not want a rooster. They can be so agressive, but we have all become quite attached to our little Tough Puff. Feel free to give your opinion in the comments.

Of Chicks and Shakespeare

2009-04-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

First, let me say, a great big "Happy Birthday!" to William Shakespeare. He was born on this day 393 years ago. He also died on this day, this makes it easier for students who are trying to memorize dates. Wasn't that kind of him?! To celebrate our family plans on reading Bard Of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare and we hope to watch a cleaned up version of the movie Much Ado About Nothing.

Now for an update on our Chicks...

The chicks are three weeks old today. They are growing very fast!

They went from little babies:

to this (1 and a half weeks old):

They are starting to get their wing feathers.

to this (2 weeks):

They were getting to big for our little pet crate so we moved them to a larger one we used for one of our big dogs to sleep in at night. Alan put Chicken wire around the outside so none would escape through the gaps. They were very happy to have more space to practice flying around in! Alan also made them some perches.

They are starting to get their little combs. This one must be the oldest. She is the biggest. Tim calls her the Big Tough Puff.

I will have to make this post into two parts. I have a lot to do today and I am out of time. So stay tuned and I will finish it up tomorrow.

A Cowboy Needs a Horse

2009-04-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

They don't make cartoons like they used to! I found this on YouTube as I was searching for the song that is used in it. We have the song on an old Disney sing-a-long songs VHS tape. It is one of my favorites. I had never seen the whole cartoon. It is really cute! Enjoy!

He Lives!

2009-04-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

"Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See, I have told you." So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.""

Matthew 28:1-10

Happy Resurrection Day everyone! I hope you all had a blessed Easter!

We had a lovely day celebrating our risen Lord with the Pickle family.

They prepared a wonderful lunch for us. Heather is a great cook and Elissa is following right in her footsteps! You can see for yourself over at Elissa's blog. I also highly recommend their recipe blog as well, Food For Her Household, for lots of yummy recipes you can try.

We had a blessed time of fellowship and Steve gave a great teaching on the ressurection of Christ. After lunch the older kids hid eggs for the our little boys, then the dads hid eggs for all the kids. The kids all enjoyed that!

We are very thankful to the Lord for bringing their family to live here!

Surprise!

2009-04-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

Oh, the lovely surprises we housewives find when we are going about our daily house work! Look what I found under the pillows of my bed as I was making it a couple of days ago.

Isn't she a beauty?!

I wish I could have had a Steve Irwin like response, one full of wonder and admiration for God's creation, but I must admit it was more like...

"Aaaaahhhhh! Mommmmm!"

I must remind you that I am a grown woman with 3 children, one of which is 17 years old. I am blessed that my Mother came to live with us a few years back, so my Mommy came running to the rescue. I am sooo thankful! I could of handled it on my own, of course, but why? That's what moms are for, right? Thanks, Mom. : )

Needless to say, that evening at bedtime, my husband and I were checking to make sure there were no more surprises in our bed, and we were a bit nervous and a little jumpy as we went to sleep that night!

*The picture above is not the actual critter that was in our bed. I did not have the presence of mind in the heat of the moment to grab the camera, but it looks exactly like it. Creepy!

Birthday Blessings

2009-04-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

We had a very busy day yesterday... a little too busy for our comfort level. We were all tired when the day was done! Overall, it was a very nice day.

My Mother made a really cute dinosaur bones cake for Tim. He thought it was so cool! So did everyone else!

Later on that afternoon Timmy had a few friends over. They had lots of fun decorating cupcakes, playing outside, bouncing balloons around, and, of course, opening presents.

Later that evening we had chicken fingers for dinner, Timmy's favorite. Then we sang "Happy Birthday" and opened gifts from Grandma, Auntie, cousins, brother, sister, and Uncle.

It was a nice day. Busy, but nice!

Now We Are Six... and Have Chicks!

2009-04-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Today is Timothy's birthday. He arrived the day after April Fool's Day and since we were supposed to go to the hospital to have him April 1st and ended up not going until the 2nd we always say he fooled us!

We are so thankful to the Lord for giving us Tim. He is such a blessing to us! We did not think we would have anymore children after Haley was born. We had a boy and a girl, the perfect family, right? I am sooo glad that God revealed to us how misguided we were. We were thinking like the world and not according to God's word which tells us, "children are a blessing," and "the fruit of the womb is His reward." We were so backward and upside down! Thank you, Lord Jesus, for setting us straight!

Timothy really wanted to have chickens. To be more precise, and I quote, "Five chickens and two ducks." So that is what his daddy decided to get him for his birthday. We are going to wait a while on the ducks but we went to the feed store and picked out 5 sweet little chicks. Here is the happy lad with his newly acquired flock.

Aren't they cute?!

San Antonio Independant Christian Film Festival (2009)

2009-03-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

I know, I know! It is taking me forever to post about this Texas trip! Sorry! Life just keeps getting in the way. It tends to do that quite a bit.

This was our first day at the festival. We had just arrived and registered. Alan snapped this picture of the kids and I outside the convention center.

Tim and A.J. decide which movie to see first.

Look who we ran into! Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their precious family. We were so glad we got to meet the Duggars in real life. They were very sweet and personable. We love to watch them on TLC. My sister tapes them for us since we don't have cable. They are such a wonderful witness for Christ and an inspiration to our family.

Here are the kids looking down at the river and some more of them enjoying the park behind the convention center.

It was great to see internet friends in real life and visit with them in person.
Here I am with Kim C. from Life in a Shoe. She is so funny and very encouraging to me. Her 8 girls are really sweet. Little "Red" (Rachel) is in the picture with us. She and her husband, Perry, also have a son who is all boy and loves to protect his sisters. He is so cute!

This is John Moore and Cameron Heidrick from The Widow's Might. It was one of my favorites and it won Best of Festival and the $101,000 prize. The biggest cash prize for an independent film in the United States and, I think, the world.

There were lots of great movies. We all had different favorites except for the boys: Alan-Pendragon: Sword of his Father, A.J. and Timmy- Wars of Humanity III, Haley- The Sword, and mine was The Widow's Might. Fireproof was playing too, but we knew we would be buying it in just a couple of weeks and there were so many movies and workshops to choose from that we decided to wait until we were home to see it so we could see some of the others films we didn't know if we would be able to watch at home. When we did get around to seeing Fireproof we all loved it! The Kendrick brothers did a great job, again!

The film festival was the grand finale of our trip. It was a lot of fun and it was great to be encouraged in the Lord and to see so many other families striving to live according to God's Word and raising their children to love and serve God and others. We were very blessed.

If you want to know more about some of the films we saw I have posted links to them on the left side bar.

Birthday Celebrations

2009-03-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday Friday, the 13th. I was born on a Friday the 13th too. I think it is kind of fun. I don't believe in all that bad luck stuff. It has always been a blessed day for me!

I had a very nice birthday. I made my own cake because no one knew how to make the kind I wanted. I had been craving carrot cake for a while so that's what I made. My Mom tried her hand at decorating it, but the frosting was pretty soft and she didn't have the right colors, but it still turned out cute!

I have been harping on my poor family to get me a Sony Blu-ray player since before Christmas last year. I like to watch movies, I don't get to do it very often, but when I do, I like to imagine I am at the theater. I had the nice T.V. and the surround sound, all that was left was the high definition, 1080p, picture. Well, my sweet, little sister finally shut me up and got me and Alan one for our birthdays. OH YA! It is AWESOME! My wonderful husband bought me the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy on Blu-ray, some of my favorite movies. To say the least, I had a really nice birthday!

Alan's birthday was on the 17th. Our birthdays are exactly two years and three days apart. We celebrated his day by having a steak dinner just for two. The kids served us and cleaned up the dishes. Alan left them a tip for doing such a good job. It was better than going to a restraunt. We both enjoyed it so much we thought we might do it more often, maybe once a month.

Frankie and Soccer in Dallas

2009-02-18T17:10:00.000-08:00

When we were out visiting Alan's family, the Lord made it possible for us to see Frankie play a soccer game in Dallas. It truly was the Lord, because we did not know before hand that he was going to be playing there and he doesn't play in Dallas very often, he usually plays in Mexico. We are so grateful! We had a wonderful time. We had not seen Frankie since he was a little boy. We got to visit with him at his hotel before the game for a while. He has turned into a very nice young man and we are very proud of him.

Here is Lisa hugging Frankie they had not seen each other in almost 9 months. There were reporters taking their picture and waiting to interview them.

Frankie and his brother James

James will graduate from High School this year and probably start a career in soccer too.

James, Frankie, Lisa, Katelynn, and Maria. (That's James' friend next to him.)

Frankie and Marcus

Katelynn, Haley, and Maria

Jose, Frankie, and Maria

Frankie and Alan

Us with Frankie

Frankie signing Alan's new Pachuca hat. Thanks for the hat, Lisa!

Warming up before the game.

A.J. and Haley enjoying the game. It was our first soccer game. Lisa had to explain everything to us!

Here is another picture of all of us, except Tim, he stayed home with Aunt Regina.

After the game, (Pachuca won 4-0!) Frankie came over to the fans to shake hands and sign autographs. It was kind of crazy! We did not understand how well known he was! Needless to say, we do now!

Fox Sports interviewed him after the game.

Lisa and Poncho, proud parents

After the game we waited to watch them get on the bus to go back to the hotel. Reporters were out there too and a big crowd of people. When the players came out they greeted the fans, signed more autographs and got on the bus. After they were gone people started asking for Lisa and Poncho for their autograph!

It was very exciting and we had a great time!

In Which We Go to the Great State of Texas and See Long Lost Family

2009-02-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: This is a really long post, mostly due to pictures. Proceed at your own risk.
Sorry it took so long. I wanted it to be really good! We had such a nice time! I wanted that to show in the post. :)

O.K. Here we go, finally!

In these posts about our Texas trip I am going to try to go in chronological order.

We left Arizona New Years Eve, some time right around midnight. The first place we wanted to get to was Longview,Tx. to see Alan's family. It was going to be a long haul, but Alan had slept all afternoon and evening so he was wide awake and ready to go. The kids slept at least half the way. We arrived about 15 hours later New Years Day. What a way to start the new year!

Alan was born in this part of the country. We had not been out there since his Dad passed away, about 17 years ago. They had been out here a couple of times and Alan had flown over for a funeral when his brother in law passed away a few years ago. Anyways, to say the least it had been a long time since we had seen anyone. He has three sisters and one brother that live in Longview. (There are seven in all.) His oldest sister (she's not that old, but she is the oldest sister!) and her family decided to come down from Alabama and surprise Alan. He did not know she would be there. It was so funny when we walked into the house. We were all hugging and saying hello and Alan hugged her and didn't realize who it was at first. He has four sisters, he did not realize it was the one that did not live there! We all laughed about that for quite a while!

It was so good to see everyone again! We had a great time catching up with each other and meeting each others kids that had not been born the last time we were together. I have a great bunch of nephews and nieces! Since we've been home, I have missed them very much.

Well, on with the pictures!

This first one is of Alan and his sisters. Alan's youngest brother was not able to come over because he was sick the whole time we were there and did not want to infect us. He missed out on a fun evening, and we missed his joking around and his laugh. Maybe next time Lord willing.

L to R: Regina, Alan, Becky, Lisa, and Leslie.

Here they all are being funny!

Here are our boys that were all born in 1991. L to R: A.J. (who is our oldest), Travis (Regina's), and James (Lisa's). They are all 17 yrs. old but they all have very different personalities! James is the oldest, Travis is the baby, and that leaves A.J., stuck in the middle!

Here they are again being goofy. It was great to see them together!

Here are all my nieces and nephews (on Alan's side of the family) that were there. I still have more in Alabama and Pennsylvania, one in New Mexico, one in Mexico playing soccer, and James, one of the '91ers above, was not there that night. I wish you all could have been there too!

All the uncles and nephews/sons that were there. Except Uncle Greg, he was sleeping. It was late!

Maria, Haley, and Katelyn.

All the kids that were there.

Here are all the sisters, sisters in law, and neices/daughters that were there, except for my daughter, Haley, somehow she escaped. (Above) We are missing a sister in law (Hi Zelphia!), and a few neices/daughters. It is tradition to put your hand on your hip. Alan's Mother started it. We all miss her. Below, is a picture of us with Alan's Mom from 1988 right after Alan and I got married. L-R: Regina, Jody, Lisa, Mom, Zelphia, and Leslie.

Here is Becky and Jose with their kids, Micheal, Maria, and Andrew. (Above)

Regina with her boys. Her Husband and daughter are still in New Mexico. He works down there, but he is trying to get a job in Longview.

Lisa and her daughter Katelyn.

Here is our family.

Here are a few of the cousins at an awesome park we went to.
This first one is good of the olders, and the next one is good of the youngers so I had to put them both in.

Here I am with Alan's sisters (except Becky who had to work this day).

Here is A.J. riding his Rip Stick. You can kind of see what a neat park it was.

Here is Leslie with her youngest son, Kristopher. Oh, and there is Katelyn (Lisa's daughter) looking out in the background.

Captain Micheal

Haley and Katelyn.

Timmy and Kristopher.

Well, I have more pictures to post and stories to tell, but I have to get this posted! I will post more later.

A Merrier World

2009-02-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song

above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

--J.R.R. Tolkien

I found this inspiring quote over at Dr. George Grant's blog and thought I would share it here as well. What a lovely thought! And here is another:

"It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life."

Hi everyone!

2009-02-07T22:08:00.001-08:00

Just so you know, I am working on more posts, really! I have about four in the works. I have titles and pictures, now I just need to add words! Why does this take so long? I know I can't type and downloading pictures to Blogger was taking forever. (It is better now.) Could it be that my mind is swirling with a bunch of other things, such as school work, kids getting up when they are supposed to, me getting up when I am supposed to, homeschool group outings, birthdays, what's for dinner, Alan is out of hazelnut creamer, got to get to Walmart, Demographic Winter, email, wiping hard drives, kids practicing piano, how long has he been playing that video game, that "thought provoking" post over at Life in a Shoe....?

Sorry.... I got a little dizzy there.

Once again the Lord is faithful to remind me in some way, that I need to keep my eyes set on Him, even amongst all this distraction. As I am typing this post I was listening to 4 Him singing "Be Thou My Vision." It is one of my favorite hymns. "Thou my best thought by day or by night." He IS the best thought I could possibly have, why does He tend to slip down under the pile of other thoughts?

Lord, help me to set my eyes like a flint upon you, even in the midst of all of this "life" happening around me. "Be thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart."

Now, off to bed, so I can get up when I am supposed to!

Snowy Mountain Sunsets, Rainbows, and Fog

2009-02-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

I have always enjoyed taking pictures. I kind of got out of the habit of doing it for a few years, I am not sure why, but now I have picked it up again. I had forgotten how much fun it could be. I used to take a lot of pictures of people, but lately I have been shooting more scenery. It has been very relaxing, and has reminded me of God's faithfulness, strength, creativity, majesty, sovereignty, the list goes on. I only have a little point and shoot digital, I aspire to get a better camera at some point, hopefully in the not to distant future. (My birthday is coming up... hint, hint!)

Here is another gorgeous Arizona sunset. The snow on Mt. Graham and the low lying clouds made it especially beautiful.

This one was taken the same day in the other direction. So much beauty in one evening!

A close up of the mountains above, or at least as close up as my little camera could zoom without chopping the sides off to much. I actually drove to get closer to them. I had to pick A.J. up from work any how. I was a bit late because of stopping to take pictures!

This was not on the same day and it was morning, but
I had to document this rare occurrence in our southwestern Arizona town...

What is it?!

FOG.

Strange.

Alan's Latest Adventure

2009-01-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

I know, I said I would blog about the Texas trip next, but then we had an unexpected adventure yesterday (Tuesday). Alan was at work, driving back to the shop from a job, when a semi-truck that was parked along the side of the road decided to make a U-turn back on to the road. As he pulled out he hit Alan on the rear passenger side of his work truck. (See Pics) There was another truck traveling down the road in front of Alan. He must have thought, "After this truck I can go." He apparently did not see Alan coming behind the other truck. They were in the middle of a small town so they were only going about 25 to 30 mph. and the semi was just pulling out, but it still caused quite a bit of damage. The axle was broke and the drive line fell off. Alan can't get into the bins on that side to get his tools. They took him in an ambulance to the local clinic on a stetcher and in a neck brace. The Dr. there said he was going to be real sore and have a headache the next day, otherwise he was fine. And he was fine all the rest of that day and the next. He was a little sore but that was it. Then he went to the chiropractor and he took X-rays and checked him all out and told him he had minor whiplash and that he had better take the next couple of days off of work to let his body recover. That night he did not sleep well and he had a headache. He decided to follow the Dr.s advice and took today and tomorrow off. He says he feels like a kid ditching school.

We are praising God for protecting Alan and ask that you all pray for his quick recovery.

Hi everyone! Remember me?!

2009-01-22T00:03:00.000-08:00

I know, I know! It has been FOREVER since I last posted. I am running about a month and a half behind. Sorry! It does not help that my computer is running soooo s-l-o-w. I am working on a solution to this problem. I hope I don't make things worse! In the meantime here is a post that has taken me (I kid you not!) at least 5 hours to post! Downloading the pictures to Blogger has been the major time muncher.

A lot has been happening and I hope to post about all the fun we have been having, including our trip to Texas to see Alan's dear sisters and all our sweet nieces and nephews! We also got to see a few very dear friends, and we were able to attend the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. (It was awesome!) Stay tuned....

This Christmas most of our family participated in a production of "A Christmas Carol" at the church my Mom and sister attend. It was great to get to know some of the people they go to church with. We had a lot of fun!

Here we are, all in costume. Haley was a dancer at the Fezziwig Christmas party, A.J. played a young man going to see a Christmas play, and our own Tiny Tim (who did not play Tiny Tim) played the boy who hands out cookies to everyone after the play.

Pretty hair. A sweet lady in our homeschool group took the time to do some of the girls' hair with beads and braids. They loved it.

My Mom (center) made all of these dresses, except for the girl's in the lavender. They were all part of the Fezziwig scene. Mom blinked right when I took the picture... she was really tired after making all those dresses!

My Niece, Aingel, and her friend, Jessica, were some of the dancers at the Fezziwig party.

The Fezziwig party with my beloved as Mr. Fezziwig himself! (Back row, 3rd from the right.)

Scrooge and the spirit of Chrismas Past.

Dancing at the Fezziwig Christmas party.

Mr. Fezziwig trying to convince young Scrooge to join in the celebration of Christ's birth.

More dancing!

Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig exit stage left.

The spirit of Christmas Past and Scrooge look on as Young Scrooge looses the girl.
Don't let her walk away! Go after her!

Scrooge and the spirit of Christmas Present.

"The Cratchet Family" I was Mrs. Cratchet. My Mommy made my dress too.

Me on stage with my pretend daughter, Martha.

Scrooge and the spirit of Christmas Yet to Come.

My sister, Wendy and her friend, Yessie, played the to wenches selling Scrooge's things after he has died. They were so funny!

Scrooge in the graveyard with the spirit of Christmas Yet to Come.

Scrooge repenting for all his stingy ways and asking Jesus to be Lord of his life.

And as Tiny Tim observed, "God bless us, everyone!"

Snow in the Arizona Desert!

2008-12-30T23:58:00.000-08:00

Look what God gave us for Christmas this year! It was the day after Christmas, actually. It didn't stay long, it was gone the next day, but it sure was pretty!

2nd Annual Fine Arts Festival

2008-11-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

I am sorry it has been soooooo long since I last posted. It has been a busy month! I will try to fill you in on the interesting stuff that has been happening.

First there was our homeschool groups 2nd Annual Fine Arts Festival (Oct. 25th) which I am in charge of coordinating. It turned out really well, thanks to all our talented families! It was a lot of fun. We had over 85 entries in the art gallery and 15 entries in the performing arts. Here are some pictures of the art gallery:

This is a group project we did for the county fair in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe. It is becoming a tradition to exhibit them at our Fine Arts Festival as well. Don't they look great?!

I wonder who did those Sonic pictures?!

Here is Timmy showing a friend his art work.

The artist with his masterpiece. (The sunset picture with the animals.)

My Rosey and I. She is such a help to me.

The goody table.

Haley enjoyed serving the punch.

My Dad and my niece, Aingel, came to check things out.

Here is my honey who played the greeter and handed out the programs.

Haley played a simplified arrangement of Dvoraks Symphony "From the New World."

A.J. played Beethoven's Fur Elise.

Seth, Robby and Tim after the show.

It was a wonderful evening. I look forward to doing it again next year.

Wow, this post has taken a while to do. I will have to go for now and catch you all up more later. Tomorrow we are having our Thanksgiving celebration since my Mom is off from work. So, I had better get to bed!

Frankie Gets His Shot!

2008-10-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

Our nephew, Jose Torres (Frankie), got his shot to play for the US Men's National team. He played two games, the first one in Washington D.C. It was a dream come true for him. They won that game. Click here to listen to Frankie tell about it in his own words. The second game was at Port of Spain, October 15th. Unfortunately, they lost this one. You can read more about the game at the official US Soccer website.

Salsa Fest

2008-10-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we went to a Salsa Fest. We did not taste any salsa, I am quite a weenie when it comes to spicy foods, but they had a hot air balloon glow and an art gallery we were glad to check out. It was our first time this close to hot air balloons. We had a great time.
Here are some of the pictures we took.

Watching the burner light up was A.J.'s favorite part.

This was AJ's favorite painting in the art gallery it is called "In the Beginning." It looks a bit "big bangish" but we are hoping that the artist did not intend that. The painting below this one by the same artist was named "Genesis."

This was Haley's favorite. It is called "The Babysitters." Haley likes horses.

Tim has a passion for sea creatures so it was no surprise when he picked this one. It is called "King Crab" and is an actual crab embellished with little "jewels."

The next morning they were supposed to have a balloon launching, where we would be able to see about 11 hot air balloons take off, but it was too windy and only one actually launched. It was still neat to see them in daylight and to watch the one take off.

Haley, Alan, and A.J.

Here is the lone launcher.

It was a beautiful day!

My Friend is Here!

2008-09-29T23:56:00.001-07:00

Diana Hart from The Hart Family arrived in AZ last Friday. She stopped in for a visit with her oldest and youngest Saturday. We plan to get together for church, Lord willing, with Heather and her family sometime while they are here. It is such a blessing to have them here! Of course they will have to come for dinner and have some of that 190 Lb. Halibut Alan caught last month. I will try to get a picture of their whole family and post it later in the week.

Taping and Puddy Coating

2008-09-29T23:31:00.000-07:00

I do not know why blogger posted this video sideways. It is not like that on my computer. Oh well! You can still see what they are doing, just tilt your head a little to the left! : )

My sweet husband started fixing our kitchen walls last weekend. There were some cracks in the walls due to settling and a bad drywall job when the house was built. My honey is a drywaller by trade. He has been doing it for almost 15 yrs. He learned from the best, my Dad, who has been doing drywall for 30 yrs. In this video Alan teaches Timmy to "puddycoat." This is what drywallers do to make the walls smooth. Our walls had "knock down" on them. This means the drywall mud was sprayed on to create texture. We don't care for this type of texture. After Alan is done making the walls smooth he will sand them a bit and put on his special hand texture that my Dad taught him to do. I will post pictures when he gets to this stage so you can see what it looks like.

Voddie Baucham on Sarah Palin

2008-09-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

Voddie Baucham "tells it like it is" and he does it with kindness too, in this interview from CNN a couple of weeks ago. I was cheering in my computer chair. Pause the music and press the play button.

Autumn is Here!

2008-09-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Happy first day of autumn everyone! It's my favorite time of year.

I also have to say happy birthday to my brother in law, Matt. He shares his birthday with some of my favorite literary characters, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. I dare say Matt is not 111 like Bilbo was, though he may be 33 like Frodo, I can't remember! ANYWAYS!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Timmy's Questions

2008-09-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

My youngest son Timmy (5), has been asking some great questions lately. Questions about God. He asked me why God died on the cross, what sin was, and we had a great discussion about how God is everywhere.

His cousin, Aingel, made him some balloon animals and he said "When I get to heaven I will show these to God." I told him that God could see them right now, that God sees everything.
He said "He can see through the windows but not through the roof and the walls."
I told him yes He can he is everywhere and sees everything. He thought that was great so he proceeded to show God his balloon animals. One by one he held them up to God and said "See, God? This is an elephant." He did this with each of them. It is amazing to see his little spiritual eyes open to God's truth. It was beautiful to see my child's faith as he spoke to God as if He was standing right there with him, after all, He was and is.

Tim asked me this morning, "Can God hear me play the piano?"
"Yes," I replied.
Then he asked, "Is God in heaven?"
I said, "Yes, but he is right here with us too."
"Yes, but He is invisible," he replied.
Then he proceeded to tell me how our dog, Olive, couldn't see God. She could look up and down, but she can't see Him because He is invisible.

Soooo sweet!

Sometimes I think that all the teaching and discipline that my husband and I do is for nothing. Sometimes, a lot of the time, we see very little fruit for all our labors. But then our 5 yr. old start asking questions, and we remember that God's Word does not return void. It seems like these things happen when I am most discouraged. God is faithful. He loves me. I forget that sometimes. He encourages me to keep going, to keep trying, to "press towards the mark" as Paul put it.

"You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?" Psalm 71:19

Thank You, Lord!

Give-a-way At Steven's Rib

2008-09-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

My friend, Heather, over at Steven's Rib is doing a giveaway in honor of the her 100th post. She is giving away some beautiful Autumn things made by herself and her sweet daughter, Elissa, and a few other pretty things. All you have to do is post on her blog to enter.

Check it out, and tell her I sent you!

Vision Forum Products- On Sale

2008-09-08T00:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Ya'll!

The girls over at Life in a Shoe are selling some Vision Forum products at great prices to raise money for the Persecution Project. Check it out!

http://inashoe.com/for-sale/

Of Butterflies and Alfalfa

2008-09-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get discontent with where I am, with living here, with my life. I, sometimes, get discouraged with myself, with the way things are going with homeschooling. I wonder if I am ruining my kids, if I am not giving them the opportunities they need to live according to God's Word, if I am setting a good example for them... the list goes on and on... Then I start to murmur and complain.

The day drudges on, and I find myself longing for this life to be over. I want to go to Heaven where there are no tears or death or disagreements. Where I never say the wrong thing or mess up, where there is no stress or pressure. There is nothing wrong with longing to be in heaven with Jesus, after all we are pilgrims in this land, just passing through. But I have a propensity to want to escape my problems rather than face them. That can be a problem.

Then it is time to drive my son to work. He does not have his driver's licence yet, only his learner's permit. I yell for him to hurry up and tell him we are going to be late. We jump in the van and away we go. This happens everyday, Monday through Friday. It can be such a pain, stopping everything, right in the middle of the day, to haul him back and forth to work. More murmuring and complaining.

But wait... something recently happened on the way that changed my perspective.

There is a river and fields of cotton and alfalfa along the road that leads to my son's place of employment. The valley we live in is surrounded by mountains. It is quite beautiful. As I drive along, my Lord Jesus, often reminds me of how small my problems are and how powerful He is. That he has my life and the lives of my husband and children in the palm of His hand. I recall reading in my Bible that this life is a vapor and that all of life's trials will soon be over, way faster than I can possibly imagine. He reassures me that He has prepared a place for me and that I will be with Him, face to face, in His good time.

In the meantime, He has called me to be faithful, to run the race and fight the good fight, to obey His commandments, not because my salvation depends upon it, but because I love Him. Anyone who truly loves Him will honor and obey His commandments. Not to say that we won't make mistakes, but when we do we are quick to ask for forgiveness and change our ways with the help of the Holy Spirit. We can not change on our own.

For the last few weeks the fields of cotton and alfalfa have been blooming. What a sight it has been! I did not know hay, the same hay that horses and cows eat, is so beautiful when it is growing. The fields have been alive with thousands of yellow, playful, happy, fluttering, butterflies. The pictures do not do it justice, so here is a little video. It's not that great either, but use your imagination! :) There is sound, but you can't hear it while the music is playing, so you might want to scroll up top and pause it.

God is so faithful even when I am not! He opened my eyes to this joyful sight and used it to encourage and strengthen my heart. Who am I, that the magnificent Creator of all this beauty would care for me? It is shocking and a relief to realize that he is in control of all my circumstances, that HE who began a good work in me (and my husband and children) will be faithful to complete it. (Philippians 1:6) He is doing the work, I just need to be still and submit to His hand. He knows where I live and what my family has need of. My heart can safely trust in Him. I don't even have to depend on my own joy because HIS joy is my strength!

I encourage anyone else who may be reading this to go outside for a minute and look around, I mean really look. Jesus truly is the King of kings and Lord of lords! Let Him show you His power and strength through His creation. Trust Him.

Here are some more pictures of God's handy work.

Alfalfa field and Mt. Graham. If you look closely, you can see the observatory, the little box shape, on top of the mountain.

Cotton blooming.

More Alfalfa.

Cotton fields and Mt. Graham looking west.

Cotton fields and mountains looking east.

P.S. We went to church today and guess what we studied... Philippians 2. Here is verses 12-16:

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain."

North to Alaska: They Are Home!

2008-09-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

The guys got back about 10:30 last night. I couldn't wait to see the pictures and hear all the stories. Needless to say we were up late last night! Without further ado, here are some of the pictures and the exciting news from the last day of fishing I was telling you about.

This is Mt. Saint Helen's from the airplane ride over there. Isn't it beautiful?! I remember when it erupted, it did not look this peaceful and was not covered in snow then!

Here is Jay and my Dad getting ready to go fishing on the first day. Jay is a very kind, generous man and a faithful Christian. He is the one that blessed the guys with this trip. Thank you, Jay, for a time Alan will never forget!

All the guys and the first days catch. All the guys standing on the dock. L-R: Dave, Brian, Jay, Yanci, Vince, Alan (My Honey), Randy, Steve (My Dad), and Chad. Chad and Yanci are Jay's grandsons and Brian is Jay's son who is part owner in the business. The rest of the guys work for Jay's Construction.

Here is my Dad the second day out. It was really hard work bringing those fish in. They were all pretty sore at the end of each day. Of course, they still enjoyed it and the soreness was worth it!

Alan the second day.

Here is the second day's catch.

Now for the exciting part, or should I say, even more exciting part?! They were having a great time already, but wait until you see this next picture...

Alan caught this 190 LB. Halibut! Isn't it amazing?! He fought this fish for a long time. He doesn't know how long, he wasn't thinking about that at the moment. My Dad thinks it was at least 25 minutes. The other guys were not able to help him. They all had fish of their own on their lines. When Shane (their guide) had finished helping the other 3 guys bring in their fish, the back of the boat was clear. Then Alan was able to move to the back corner of the boat where there was more room. His back was killing him. Chad was free now, so he helped him bring it in the rest of the way. The fish was not hooked good so Shane had to hurry up and spear it. Then he shot it with a 410 shot gun in the head. When they get one that big they have to shoot it before they bring it up on deck. It was an awesome experience!

Here are all the guys with the third day's catch. They all came home with two big boxes of fish to fill their freezers. Salmon, Red Snapper, Ling Cod, Rockfish, and Halibut.

I will post more pictures later or maybe I will put a slide show up, if I can figure out how to do it!

North to Alaska: Day 4

2008-08-30T23:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Alan called tonight and you won't believe what happened...

Since Alan will be home tomorrow evening, with pictures and video, you will be able to see for yourself. I don't want to spoil the surprise! I will say that this was probably the most exciting day of the trip!

Tune in Monday to find out what happened.

I hope you all have a happy Lord's Day!

North to Alaska: Day 3

2008-08-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

It was another wonderful, sunny, day on the *Tongass Narrows. My Dad and Alan didn't get sea sick today and they caught 50 lb. Halibuts. They caught some Salmon too, but not as much as yesterday. They saw another whale or, I should say, they saw one surface and blow water and air out of its blowhole. By the end of the day they were very tired and a bit sore from reeling in those big fish.

Tomorrow they are going to get off the boat a little early and take a drive down to a spot where there are supposed to be lots of Salmon and there is a good chance they will see a few bears too.

Tomorrow is there last fishing day. I hope they catch some really big fish and get to see some more whales, dolphin, etc., a little closer up. They are flying back on Sunday. I am so glad that Alan got to go on this trip but I can't wait to have him back home again!

*Tongass Narrows is Ketchikan’s “main street.” This channel is used by cruise ships, commercial tugs, fishing boats, and floatplanes.

North to Alaska: Part 3- Day 2

2008-08-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

Alan called this morning at 7 AM and said the Lord had answered their prayers (and ours!) for good weather. The sky was crystal blue and the sun was shining. He was calling from the deck of the fishing boat. He said he was looking at a huge cruise ship right next to their boat. There are three in the harbor right now. He was so excited.

He called again this evening and said they had caught their daily limit of Halibut and were only one short of their limit of Salmon. They were all about 20 to 30 lbs. When they got back to the dock there was a man with a 101 lb. Halibut! They are hoping to catch some bigger ones tomorrow.

My Dad (Did I mention that my Dad is there too?) and Alan both got a bit sea sick today. They both took Dramamine before they got on the boat and that helped until a little after noon. Alan said he took another Dramamine, drank some water, ate some salty chips, and sat down for a while. Then he felt better. The captain said they would feel better tomorrow. The first day is always the worst and then your body adjusts. I guess they are getting their "sea legs!"

They saw a whale. They were not close enough to get a good picture. They also saw a dolphin, a seal, and a bear.

They are having a great time!

Cape Fox Lodge

2008-08-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures I found on the net of the hotel where Alan is staying. Isn't it beautiful?!

Here is a picture of one of their rooms...

Here is some pictures taken from the hotel...

Ketchikan Video

2008-08-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a neat video of Ketchican, Alaska where Alan is at. It is beautiful to say the least. Alan called tonight and said it was really misty and drizzling, so he couldn't see a lot. The go fishing out on the boat at 7 AM tomorrow morning.

He's There!

2008-08-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

The fog cleared and they were able to land safely in Ketchikan. He called and said he would call again when he got to the hotel. Thank you to all of you who prayed!

North to Alaska: Heavy Fog

2008-08-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

Heavy fog in Ketchikan has prevented the airplane from landing. They tried to land three times before being rerouted to Sitka to refuel. They are getting ready to try again. If they still can't land they will have to go back to Seattle. Please pray that the fog will lift and they can land.

North to Alaska: Part 2- Day 1

2008-08-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

Latest news from Alan on his Alaskan adventure: He is safe and sound at the hotel in Phoenix. They arrived at about 8 P.M. It is a very nice hotel. He is very tired and is going to bed. This is no wonder since he got up at 5:00 A.M. and worked all day.

Update: 8/27/08 10 AM- Alan called from Seattle, WA. where they had to change planes and said all was good. He couldn't talk long because they were boarding. He said he would call when they got there.

I will update again tonight.

North to Alaska

2008-08-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

My dear husband is gone. His boss has taken him deep sea fishing in Alaska! He is soooo excited. He loves to fish and he has never been in a boat on the ocean before. He has never been to Alaska before either. Here is a picture of him waiting to be picked up.

I miss him already! He is driving to Phoenix tonight and flying out in the morning.

I will post more when he calls me and lets me know what's happening.

To be continued...

Our Nephew the Soccer Player

2008-08-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

We are so proud of our nephew (Alan's sister, Lisa's son) Frankie. He has pursued his dream of being a professional soccer player and has accomplished it! He plays for a team in Mexico called the Tuzo’s of Pachuca. Pachuca is a city in Hidalgo and "tuzo" Lisa tells us, is Spanish for groundhog. The team chose this name because Pachuca is a mining town. Club de Futbol Pachuca is the oldest club in Mexico, the Tuzos have recently become one of the best in the First Division. He was asked by the United States to play on their team for this years Olympics, but he decided it was not the right time, yet. Hear Frankie talk about his decision, in his own words, here.

Here are some pictures of him...

Here is a picture of the the whole family from 2006. L-R: James, Pancho, Frankie, Lisa, and Katelynn.

Last Saturday, 8/16/2008, Frankie was injured in a game. He had to get stitches on his face. Here is a link to a video that shows what happened. The audio is all in Spanish, but you don't have to understand what they are saying to see how painful it was. He is #18. The part with Frankie is at the 2:00 minute mark on the slider at the bottom of the video. Lisa says, "Frankie is doing fine. They had to do a running stitch on the inside of the cut and then several on the out side. But he’s doing fine and will be playing in the next game." We are thanking the Lord for that report!

Frankie, We are praying that the Lord would bless you and keep you safe, that He would draw you even closer to Himself, and that everything you do would be for His glory! We will also pray that the Lord Jesus will give you wisdom in all the decisions you have to make. We love you and hope to see you again soon.

Fishing Through the Years

2008-08-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

I promised to post pictures from past fishing trips to this years. The above picture is one of the first times they went in 2005.

Here is a group photo from this year after they got home. See how much the kids have changed over the years? They are all a lot taller!

This one is of my Dad, Alan and Tim with the biggest fish they caught this time. The fishing was not as good this time, but they had a great time anyways.

This was just one of the adventures we had with Krystal on her visit this year. Stay tuned for more.

Movie Quote of the Week and the Joys of Shakespeare

2008-08-11T23:20:00.001-07:00

I have added a movie sound clip of the week thingy on the left and down a bit. To make it work click the play button. (BTW, if you get tired of my music, press the pause button. That's why I keep it on top so you can access it easily.) This week is a quote from Kenneth Branagh's Much ado About Nothing. It is Benedick's idea of a perfect woman. He is a sworn bachelor but if he ever was to marry, this is what he thinks she should be like. Little does he know that a plan has been hatched to get him to fall in love with the last woman he would ever think of. I hope you laugh when you listen to it and I hope it makes you want to find out more.

Now for the disclaimer: I love this movie, BUT the version I have was taped off the Disney channel years ago. I can not in good conscience recommend that you see the uncut, Hollywood-ized version. If you happen to still watch TV (we gave up!) maybe you can catch the edited version.

I can recommend that you read Shakespeare's plays, and I do. I know Shakespeare can be hard to understand at first, it gets easier the more you read. It helps to get one of the books that has a translation of some of the old language that is used, like this one that has the original play on one side of the page and the translation into modern English on the other side. The Interlinear Editions are great too, but are hard to find. They are little, red (or sometimes orange), hard cover books with the modern translation directly above the more problematic language.

The way our family first got hooked on Shakespeare was when my good friend, Martha, told me about a book her family was reading called The Shakespeare Stealer. (You can get it at Amazon too.) We loved this book. It really brought Shakespeare to life for us.

P.S. The song "Sigh No More" on my little player thingy is also from Much Ado About Nothing.

Desert Camping and Fishing

2008-08-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

My family has left Timmy and I all alone this weekend so they can go lay by the lake and bask in the sun. Yes, they are, right now, as I am typing this, enjoying the the happiness that only the desert can provide.

My niece, Krystal, is here, staying with her mom (my sister, Wendy) for a few weeks. When she is here, my Dad and Alan always take the kids fishing. (Tim could not go because there was not room in the truck for him. He was one sad little boy, but Daddy promised to take him fishing next weekend.) They go to a hot desert lake, in August when temperatures are running in the low 100's, with no trees, thus no shade. They have to make their own shade. Here is a picture from last year that shows Alan relaxing in their man-made shade:

See the tarp? They attach the tarp to their truck racks. (My Dad takes his truck and Alan takes his.)

They also do this to cool off.

They have a great time. That's my Dad with Haley and A.J.

Needless to say, it is not my cup of tea. So I stay home and hold down the fort while they go have "fun." I have always been a bit of an indoor girl. I like to go for walks in the woods, along babbling brooks, down mysterious paths, and come home, when the day is through, to a nice shower and a comfy bed. Something like these pictures we took at the Cat Walk in New Mexico last May:

Waterfalls are an added bonus!

This is probably the main reason they have so much fun:

Notice the happy, sun burnt, faces and the rather large fish.

Timmy and I are bearing the loneliness the best we can. It is hard sitting here in the air conditioning and peace and quiet! They will be home tomorrow with a fresh catch of fish (Lord willing), lots of stories to tell, pictures from this years trip, and they will be totally worn out from the heat and lack of sleep. They will be happily satisfied with their adventure, just like always, and glad to be home. We will be glad to hear about it over a delicious dinner of fried fish.

I will post this year's pictures as soon as I can. Stay tuned...

2008 Az Families for Home Education Convention

2008-07-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

Every year we go to our state homeschool convention. We try to make a mini vacation out of it. This year we spent four fun filled days in the Phoenix metro area. The first day we spent at Bookman's (a used bookstore) and the mall going to movies, eating yummy mall food (Auntie Ann's Pretzels, Cinnabon, and Chick-fil-a!), and looking around at fun shops like the Rain Forest Cafe.

Timmy was a bit scared of the animatronic animals at first, but he got used to them and then we could hardly get him to leave! He loved the huge salt water fish tanks with the colorful fish. He really likes ocean animals.

Tim took these two pictures, above and below. Not to bad for a five year old! He actually has taken a lot better pictures than these. I will do a post about it sometime and share some of his better photos.

We found a bean bag shop with huge bean bags. Here is Grandma and Tim relaxing in one.

At our hotel they had a large Chess set that was pretty neat. Alan, AJ, and Tim had fun playing a game. Tim helped Dad to move the pieces. It was a long game and in the end AJ won.

The movies we saw were WALL-E and Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D. Both were good, clean, family fun.

The thing that stood out to me the most in WALL-E was how the people were so zoned out of what was going on around them. They were totally sucked into their computers that they had forgotten there was a real world out there. Something about it was familiar...

I think that the Journey to the Center of the Earth was a bit short on the story line. We will have to read the book to get the rest of the story! Since it is in 3-D, the emphasis was on the action. It was still entertaining and the kids thought it was great. The whole 3-D thing kind of hurts my head. My eyes kept trying to adjust, they seemed to be saying the whole time, "Something is not quite right here."

The next two days were filled with the AFHE homeschool convention. The speakers were encouraging, but not life changing like they have been in the past. (ie. 2001 Doug Phillips) Next year sounds very promising though. Dr. Voddie Baucham is going to be speaking! It was great to see friends and to be with the homeschooling community. Five families from our local homeschool group went, including ours. That's almost half our group! The curriculum hall was great as always. I bought several things from Doorposts and I was able to purchase Susan Bradrick's Understanding Writing, thanks to my friend, Heather, who found it and told me where it was.

Sunday we were blessed to be able to attend church at Legacy Baptist Church. It was great to worship with like-minded believers. We wish they were not three hours away! God is in control, and He knows what He is doing. We are so very blessed that He has placed Heather and her family here. We are praying that the Lord will send more like-minded families to this area.

After all that, we headed home. It was a fun trip, but there is no place like home!

In Which We Get A Kitten

2008-07-24T19:50:00.001-07:00

It all started when the neighbor's cat had kittens. My children, especially my daughter, love to play with their children and were thrilled when the kittens arrived. They loved to hold them and pet them.

One day the neighbor's 18 month old daughter was playing with the 4 week old kittens and accidentally pushed a board over on top of two of them. One of them was dazed, but O.K. the other was hurt pretty badly. This all happened on a day that our poor neighbors were going out of town for vacation. (Isn't that the way it always goes?!) My Daughter was already scheduled out to feed their animals for them, but now they would have to leave the poor injured kitten in her care too. They felt so bad. They were worried that she would come down to feed them and find the kitten dead.

My Mom, who loves animals, went into action. She went right over and assessed the situation. It was indeed grim. The kitten could not move. it was clear she was in pain. My Mother was sure she would not make it through the night and almost sent my brother in law down to put her out of her misery. But she decided to wait and see how she was in the morning.

When morning came, much to every one's delight, the kitten was better but still very weak. We all think it was the mighty hand of God working in the small things of this life! He is sooo good!My Mom went right down to the local pet shop and got her some kitten formula because she was too weak to nurse. My Mom took such good care of her and nursed her back to health. Of course she could not give her up, she had to keep her. My Mom lives with us, which makes us all the proud owners of a kitten!

We have never had, or cared to have cats. Before my Mom moved in with us we had a turtle. Now we have five dogs, two Pit bulls, a Chow mix, a Border Collie mix, and a Chihuahua. I know, strange combination! Believe it or not Olive, our Chihuahua, rules the roost. Anyways... that is one reason why we do not have a cat. We were always afraid the dogs would eat it. Not to mention the whole litter box thing. Olive loves the kitten who is now named Patches. She protected her and cared for her as if she were her puppy. Now, even the big dogs are getting used to her. It is really quite amazing.

Well, as Paul Harvey always says, "Now you know the rest of the story."

Rain in the Desert

2008-07-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

The summer rains have come, and we are loving it. Almost every afternoon it tries to rain. The wind blows dark, ominous clouds in, and lightning flashes in the distance. It comes closer. We begin to hear the roll of thunder. Then, if the Lord blesses us, the lightning cracks the sky, the thunder booms, and we get a down pour of wonderful wet stuff that I have heard some people call rain. We don't get rain here in southeastern Arizona very often, as my friend, Heather, over at Steven's Rib observed in this post. (Hi Heather!)

2008-02-16T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just for fun, I thought you might be interested...

Here's what we are reading:

AJ: The Three Musketeers
Haley: On the Banks of Plum Creek
Timmy: Frog Cops
Alan: the Bible (The rest of us are reading that too!)

Here is the link to the book I am reading.

Want to know what were listening to? Go to this link, scroll down and see if you can listen to any of the samples. Try What A Wonderful World and A Kiss to Build a Dream On. It's our first Jazz CD, besides Vince Guaraldi (Charlie Brown).

And this:

Scroll down to the samples and try Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. We are geting some sheet music by him as well. (Piano teachers request.) This is our first Ragtime CD as well.

We all enjoy listening to soundtracks. Currently in my CD player: Pride and Prejudice (A&E version) and POTC: At Worlds End. I think my current favorite Pirates of the Caribbean song is Up Is Down. I like how the music grows and more instruments join in. It gets bigger and bigger. Have you heard it yet? If not, try it out, turn it up, and enjoy!

Jody

Autumn Entry

2007-09-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

Autumn is my favorite time of year. Here in Arizona we don't get to see the leaves change like other parts of the country. We do get some color change in the leaves -green to yellow to brown- but not those magnificent oranges and reds like they have back east. So I have to fake it and hang silk leaves all over my house and put autumn pictures on the screen saver and desktop of my computer! Not that I am complaining... God gave Arizona it's own kind of beauty, you should see the wild flowers and the cactus bloom. But I would love to go walking down a path lined with trees and their turning leaves slowly drifting down upon me. Maybe some day the Lord will see fit to allow us to visit such a place some day.

Until then... here is our entry way. Aren't the paper lanterns cool?!

Ballantyne Book Giveaway

2007-09-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Kim over at Life in a Shoe is hosting a giveaway of Vision Forum's exciting new adventure series, Ballantyne books. I would love to win these books. I know they will be good. I can't wait to read one. Thanks, Kim, for doing this!

My Grandma

2007-09-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

The top picture was taken on her 90th birthday and that is my husband, Alan, with her. The next picture was taken a couple of months ago and that is my youngest son, Tim, with her.

My Grandma McDowell passed away Thusday, September 6th. She was 92 years old. She was a wonderful Grandma. She was spunky and strong and would help anybody anyway she could. She loved us and we loved her. Here are the memories I shared at her funeral service Monday:

Our Memories of Grandma

There are lots of things my sister Wendy and I remember about Grandma, but one of the most important things she did was bring our family together. Thanksgiving and Christmas were always a time that we kids looked forward to with much anticipation. All our Aunts, Uncles, and cousins would all gather at Grandpa and Grandma’s house and all of us have special memories of those days.

All of us cousins had wonderful adventures there. The front porch was made of thick concrete that was always cold even in the summer and in the front yard grew the tallest Oleander bushes I have ever seen. They were thick and full of beautiful flowers and at the base of them were tunnels that you could crawl through. You could even fit a wagon through them and we older cousins would take the younger cousins for rides through the "haunted" tunnels, of course they were not really haunted, but we had very active imaginations. Grandma would call us in to eat and line us all up to wash our hands since Oleander bushes were poisonous! In the back of the house were Great Grandpa Collier’s cotton fields and we used to have dirt clod fights on the dry irrigation ditches. Like my Dad remembers, we were outside most of the time too. When we were inside we enjoyed playing in the middle room where we combed all the hair off of Grandma’s Krissy dolls and played with those little wooden Fisher Price people with the hole in the bottom, those holes were great for suctioning to your tongue! We had so much fun!

Grandma was a great cook and the food was always delicious. It was always a special treat when Grandma made her famous strawberry ice cream. My parents made it for us and now I make it for my family.

When we got older and had children of our own, I remember how much she loved her great grand-babies. She couldn’t wait to hold them and many times was the first visitor we had in the hospital when they were born.

Another special memory I have of my Grandma is that she enjoyed reading. She always had a book near by that she was in the middle of. She really liked westerns; Zane Gray and Louis Lamour were a couple of her favorite authors. She inspired me to take more time to read. I took her advice and I am very grateful to her for it.

She liked good old movies too. My Husband, Alan, remembers coming to visit and Grandma would be watching a John Wayne movie. He would always sit down and finish watching it with her. Grandma would always tug on his beard and ask him when he was going to shave.

Our children always loved to go to "Dolly" Grandma’s house. They knew that she would have cans of Pringles and M&M’s for them. She kept a box in the living room full of interesting toys for the kids to play with when they came. Then, of course, there were the dolls. Our daughter, Haley, and my sister’s daughters would always look with awe and wonder at Grandma’s beautiful dolls. She always took an interest in what our son, AJ, was building with his Legos and contributed to his collection of bricks often. Timmy loved to share his snacks with Dolly Grandma and drink the water out of her cup. Our kids were always glad when we told them we were going to Grandma’s. They will miss her and so will we.

Here is what my Aunt Marj put in our local paper about her:

Blanche was born Aug. 7, 1917, in Vernon, Texas, to Willie Renshaw and Maud Collier. She grew up in the Phoenix and Chandler area. After graduating from high school, she received her nurse’s training at Good Samaritan. Blanche worked at St. Joseph Hospital as a neonatal nurse when the program first started. She was one of the first neonatal nurses to fly in a helicopter to pick up sick babies and fly them to St. Joseph Hospital. Blanche married Howard McDowell in Globe on Sept. 5, 1936. They were blessed with five sons and one daughter. In her later years, she started collecting dolls, and she traveled to many doll shows, where she displayed and sold them. Her collection contained more than 300 dolls. She was fondly called "Dolly Grandma." Blanche loved her family, and her family loved her very much.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Howard McDowell; sons, Gene and Charles McDowell; brother, Junior Collier; and sister, Avys Judge. Blanche is survived by a daughter, Marjorie Griffin of Thatcher; sons, Clifton McDowell of Kenya, Africa, Stephen McDowell of Safford, Walter McDowell of Oakland, Calif.; sister, Helen Evans of Gilbert.; 13 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren.

What I'm Reading

2007-08-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading To Have and To Hold today. I enjoyed this book so much that I could hardly put it down. I highly recommend it. Here is some of the book description and the link to Vision Forum:

http://www.visionforum.com/booksandmedia/productdetail.aspx?categoryid=178&productid=12850

A Story of Providence and Perseverance in Colonial Jamestown

A fledgling colony on the shores of the James River struggles desperately to survive and earn the good will of the King of England while Spanish dons, ruthless pirates, and lurking Indians plot to destroy Jamestown and its handful of colonists. Meanwhile, a simple, godly soldier braves all odds to defend his honor and his duty to uphold God’s sacred laws. The brother of the Indian princess Pocahontas fights fiercely for what he believes to be true, but on whose side? An evil English nobleman, empowered by the King, will stop at nothing to gain what his heart most desires, while young Lady Jocelyn Leigh, newly arrived from the King’s court, must decide whether to honor her husband and her God or bow to a King’s unrighteous command.

This enhanced edition of To Have and to Hold brings to life the exciting beginnings of America, weaving a story of adventure and intrigue with providence and perseverance in colonial Jamestown, while outlining the trials endured by our forefathers as they built this country. Read about swashbucklers, savages, and noblemen as fictional characters mingle with the real Jamestown leaders and colonists. Seen through the eyes of Ralph Percy, a valiant warrior protecting and cherishing his wife, his duty, and the honor of God’s holy law, this story will leave you with an appreciation for the sacrifice of those who have gone before, as well as a better understanding of the history of our nation.

Published in 1907 for the Jamestown tercentennial, and newly republished for its four hundredth anniversary, this expanded commemorative edition of To Have and to Hold features a new cast of characters list, chapter endnotes to help explain many little-known historical details, thirty-nine action-packed chapters, and an introduction by historian William Potter who provides an overview of the first twenty years of the Jamestown colony. Readers of all ages will enjoy this captivating tale of stirring adventure. A great family read-aloud!

The Lake Country

2007-08-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

While my Mom, Sister and nieces enjoy their vacation at Disneyland, we are enjoying the lake country. Here are some pics of our front and back yard thanks to the heavy rain Saturday and to the farmers who were irrigating their fields at the same time. This has happened a couple times before. It is always such a treat! Especially after a couple days when it changes from lake country to everglades... bog... swamp... Dragonflies, frogs, and mosquitos... Oh My! The kids are enjoying it!

2007-07-24T08:51:00.002-07:00

This is us, the Mezzell family. We homeschool and are pretty busy so I have not figured out a regular time to post. I have a lot rolling around in my brain that I would like to get out on to this blog. Where the Lord guides, He provides. So If He wants me to post my thoughts He will provide a time to do it!

Right now we are getting ready for a field trip with our homeschool group to one of the local museums so I better get going!