It's a Picnik!

I just wanted to share a cool website I've used to play around with my pictures. You have to register, but it's free. Below are some examples of pictures I've "Picnik'ed" -- enjoy!

http://www.picnik.com/

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with photos!

Where did the summer go?

Wow, time sure flies! We have had an eventful summer, full of overnight guests and weekend BBQs and getting the new house in order (I haven't forgotten about posting before and after pictures of the house...I will try to get to that soon)!

So anyway, my sister said she was tired of checking my blog and always seeing the same thing week after week, so here you go, sis...a new blog post just for you! :-)

I'll even throw in a picture of Skipper smiling for the camera!

Hope everyone's having a blessed week! :-)

Off-roading in a Minivan

So a few weeks ago, my sister Anna and my nephews, Ben and Aaron, were visiting us while Anna's husband Matt was in Mexico with their youth group. Matt dropped Anna and the boys off near our place on their way down south, and picked them up again on their way back up to Oregon. Well, we actually had to drive Anna and the boys to meet up with the group in Ione, a city about 45 minutes from Sacramento. At least, it was supposed to be only a 45-minute drive...

See, it all started when I printed out directions on how to get to Ione using some computer software I have. Having never been to Ione, I assumed it was giving me good directions. We were in a rented minivan with NO navigation system (something I never want to be without again), and the trip turned into a real comedy of errors.

So here we were: my brother Nate, my sister Anna, the two little boys and me, off to take a leisurely little drive to Ione. Ione is out in the country, by the way -- kind of the middle of nowhere. Keep that in mind as you read.

Our first mistake was missing a road we were supposed to turn on. We just kept going and going and going...and weren't seeing the road. Finally the road we were on spit us out onto the freeway, so we realized we must have missed it and backtracked until we saw it. We turned onto this road and soon discovered that what started as a road quickly turned into little more than a trail. The road got narrower and narrower and was soon just dirt instead of cement. All we saw for miles around was farmland and fences...no houses, no cars...nothing. We would round a bend or crest a hill and see nothing for miles but more of the same...and we had no cell phone reception!


Here's what we saw:








We debated about whether we should keep going, hoping we'd find a main road again, or whether we should just go back the way we came. We decided to press on. We finally did come to a main road, only to come to a place a little bit later where we weren't sure which way to go -- and chose what we later discovered was the wrong way: we ended up on yet ANOTHER out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere road with barely any signs of civilization around us. And this road was in WORSE condition than the first road -- we were bouncing over potholes and swerving to avoid big piles of gravel, backing up to avoid driving into ditches, carefully lining our wheels up with the ruts of previous travelers who'd managed to navigate the craziness...it was so bad it was funny! We were not just in the middle of nowhere -- we were in the MIDDLE of the middle of nowhere!

Anna started singing, "Five passengers set sail that day for a three-hour tour..." and we all laughed. "We should have brought Skipper and Gilligan!" I responded. (Those are my cats, for those of you who don't know!) Every time we got to the top of a hill and saw nothing more than miles of this same road stretching before us, we had to laugh -- it was just too crazy! Meanwhile, we knew that Matt was waiting for us and probably wondering what on earth had happened! We couldn't call him, because we had no cell reception.






FINALLY, we saw some farmhouses in the distance. We stopped at one to ask the way to Ione, because we didn't want to do any more minivan off-roading, thank you very much! When the farmer discovered which way we'd come, he was incredulous. "That seven-mile stretch of bad road? I've lived here for eight years and have only been on that road four times, and only when absolutely necessary!" He graciously gave us directions and we arrived in Ione about 2 1/2 hours after we'd left Sacramento -- I told Matt I'd just been trying to sneak in a little extra time with my sis! ;-)


I learned several things through this experience:


1) Either make sure you have a GPS system in your vehicle when headed to a new location, or get good directions from a local!


2) If you are stuck in a minivan, lost in the California countryside, make sure you have traveling companions by your side who can take it all in stride and laugh at it with you. It helps not having uptight, stressed-out passengers! Even though Anna was anxious to get to her husband after not seeing him for 10 days, she didn't get a bad attitude or blame me for getting lost, which I really appreciate! :-)


Hope you enjoyed the chronicle of our little adventure!

Long time, no blog!

Whew...we have finally moved into our new house -- the big move day was June 19 (Andrew remembered as we were in the middle of moving that the day we moved to Sacramento from Vancouver was June 19, 1999, so I guess June 19 is just our day for moving)! Two days after we moved, some of our closest friends (we all met at Bible college) came to stay with us for a week, and the day they left my sister Anna and two little nephews, Ben and Aaron, came to stay for 10 days! They left last Sunday, and on Tuesday my parents arrived for a visit! They will fly home this Sunday evening. We have really enjoyed sharing our new home with everyone, even though it's been a whirlwind few weeks!

I plan to share some before and after pics of our new home soon...I just want to get a few more things done (like curtains and artwork put up) before I take the "after" shots! Thanks for your patience! :-)

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the last few weeks...enjoy!

Becky and LaSarah, my two best friends from college, at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA, where we took a tour to see how the famous candies are made!

LaSarah with her husband Nate and their kiddos, Josh and AnnaLuisa, posing on some "toadstools" at FairyTale Town in Sacramento.

My brother Nate with our nephews Ben and Aaron at a little community parade we went to see.

My sister Anna and me; pardon my squinting -- it was bright!

And just a little something to tide you over until I can get more before and after pics ready, here's the circular fireplace in our living room as it was when we purchased the house:

And here's what it looks like now, after we commissioned a local artist to paint it (the scenes are from the Northwest, where I'm from -- Multnomah Falls and a scene from the Columbia River Gorge). We're quite pleased with the end result!

Hope...

During a recent worship-based prayer gathering with two friends of mine, the Holy Spirit kept bringing up the theme of hope. We read passages like:

Psalm 71:4-6
"Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
For You are my hope, O Lord GOD;
You are my trust from my youth.
By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You."

Psalm 33:16-18
"No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy."

Romans 5:1-5
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

1 Peter 1:13
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."

Keeping that last verse in mind, an acronym for hope came to me while we were praying:

Having
One
Perspective --
Eternity!

I love this simple reminder.

And I love that biblical hope is not just wishful thinking ("Oh, I hope it will happen..."); it's a confident expectation that what God promised WILL come to pass! This hope is the anchor that keeps us from drifting away in doubt and discouragement when life gets tough. In fact, I think God's Word has something to say about that very thing!

Hebrews 6:17-19a
"Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."


This hope anchors my soul:

...when remodeling projects seem to go on forever and a day!

...when I'm faced with new and challenging responsibilities in ministry.

...when the price of gas and other costs of living keep rising and rising.


And this hope anchors my soul:

...when I watch the news and hear about devastation, despair, and other discouraging things around the world.

...when I see people I love making destructive life choices that don't honor the Lord.

...as Andrew and I approach our 13th wedding anniversary as a childless couple.


The world doesn't understand how we can still have hope in spite of both the minor irritations and the serious concerns of life. To me, it's simple: having one perspective -- eternity. When I make a conscious effort to look at the circumstances of my life in light of eternity, God's Spirit whispers encouragement to my heart: "Yes, this isn't all there is! Look up! Look ahead!" My life is eternal, and my time here is but a breath in comparison to what awaits me! I trust with all my heart that my Heavenly Father, who loves me so much He sent Jesus to die for me so I could be a part of His family, is working everything together for my good and His glory, and that fills me with such peace and joy!

I pray that these thoughts will be an encouragement to you as well. I leave you with a final benediction from God's Word:

Romans 15:13

"I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Sorry for the long absence!

Life has been busy lately! We are finally going to be moving to the new house, hopefully starting at the beginning of this next week -- we'll probably move a little bit each day (the boxes, that is) and then choose one day to move all the big furniture and stuff. We have friends from out of town coming on June 21 to spend a week with us, so I need to have everything set up and the house decorated and all that by then!

I have to say that I'm very thankful for a friend of ours from Vancouver, WA, Michael Makarenko, who drove down with a friend of his on May 20 to help things at the house get done faster...we appointed him as "supervisor" over all the other workers, and it's thanks to his hard work that we will be able to move in this week...so, THANK YOU, MICHAEL!!! He and his friend are driving back to Vancouver this Sunday.

Hard to believe we signed papers for the house on December 26 and we're finally going to be living there! It's seemed like a dream for so long, and now it will finally be reality -- thank You, Lord!

Four Things (I've Been Tagged!)

Suzanne tagged me, so here we go:

Four jobs I've held:

1) Grounds worker at Multnomah Bible College (the summer after high school) in Portland, OR

2) Part-time secretary at my uncle's furnace cleaning company in Portland, OR

3) Part-time church secretary at First Baptist Church of Vancouver, WA

4) Receptionist at the K-LOVE Radio headquarters here in Sacramento, CA

Four movies I could watch over and over:

1) "Anne of Green Gables"

2) "Sense and Sensibility"

3) "The Sound of Music"

4) "The Princess Bride"

Four places I've lived (in order):

1) Portland, OR

2) Santiago, Chile

3) Vancouver, WA

4) Sacramento, CA

Four TV shows I like:

1) "Little House on the Prairie"

2) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

3) ?

4) ?

Sorry, I can't really think of any other favorites...I'm not much of a TV watcher, especially lately!

Four favorite foods:

1) Homemade soup

2) A big, fresh salad

3) Cream top yogurt, all different flavors

4) Homemade pizza

Where would I rather be?

(As long as my husband is with me, too) :-)

1) Visiting my family in Oregon

2) On an extended stay at a Bed & Breakfast on the Scottish moors

3) On an extended stay at a Bed & Breakfast in the Irish hills

4) On an extended stay at a Bed & Breakfast in the English countryside

Four people I'm tagging (for those new to this, it means you copy and paste this onto your blog and put your own answers):

1) Anna

2) Melissa

3) Jenn

4) Cathy

Weekend Fun

Andrew and I spent the weekend in Napa, California, attending an event with Strategic Renewal, one of the ministries I volunteer for. The former pastor of our church, Daniel Henderson, is the President of Strategic Renewal, and it was great for Andrew and I to be able to spend some time with him and his wife, Rosemary, while at the event. They are a great encouragement to us! We were in a beautiful location, surrounded by wonderful people, and able to spend quality time worshiping the Lord and being reminded of why this ministry is so worthy of our support!

After the event ended on Sunday afternoon, Andrew and I drove to the nearby town of Calistoga to see California's Old Faithful Geyser. Every 20-40 minutes it erupts, shooting a stream of hot water high into the sky for a few minutes. It was pretty cool! Here's a video:

There were also some animals at the same location...goats, sheep, and llamas. Here's a video of me interacting with some of them!

We had a relaxing drive home, thankful for the chance to spend a few fun days together exploring some places we'd never been before!

(Don't worry...that's not a working well! The bottom of the well is level with the ground!)

Orlando Recap

I spent last weekend in Orlando, Florida attending a retreat/meeting with four other members of the Board of Directors of Hannah's Prayer Ministries. The flights there and back were long for me (around seven hours of travel time each way), but worth every minute to be able to spend time with these awesome ladies (Jenn from Florida, Arica from Ohio, Becky from Arkansas, and Michele, who is currently living in Puerto Rico)!

We stayed at a cute little vacation house with 80's-era decor that provided endless amusement (just imagine everything teal and coral, with lots of floral and lace motifs -- and butterflies). Our meeting was productive, and the rest of the weekend was very fun! Jenn, who is from the area, has a friend who works at Epcot who was able to get us in for free using her guest pass! The weather was beautiful, and we saw some Christian skywriting, which apparently is not uncommon around there these days (hence the very cool picture above). We didn't see any alligators, thankfully! We did see a turtle crossing the road, though. And on Saturday, we had lunch with some other Hannah's Prayer members who were in the area.

(At this point, some of you may be wondering what in the world Hannah's Prayer is...it's a ministry for married, Christian women who are dealing with all aspects of infertility and pregnancy loss -- the major aspect of the ministry is an online Community Forums message board, where I am very active. And I'm on the Board of Directors, hence my traveling to the meeting!)

So here, for your enjoyment, are some pictures from the weekend (most of them have just four of us because Jenn had her little 8-week-old daughter with her and couldn't come to Epcot with us)!

Arica, Sarah, Becky, Michele

Goofy wanted a kiss on the cheek, but I told him I didn't know if my husband would approve!

Jenn and little Lila

Splash!

Today we drove over to the new house to check on progress (it's coming along slowly but surely - we're hoping to move in the first week of May; even though the whole house won't be done yet, the side with the most important rooms, like the kitchen and our bedroom and bathroom, will be). While we were there, we decided to clean the pool (turning on the filters and vacuum for a while, and skimming off all the leaves and bugs floating on top). Once the pool was clean, Andrew and I decided to dip our feet in the water for a bit -- it was in the mid-80s here today, so quite warm! The water in the pool is still pretty chilly, but after a few minutes our feet got used to it and it felt quite refreshing!

A little later, I was trying to convince Nate that he should dip his feet in the pool too, since it felt so nice. But he didn't seem interested. We were sitting at a table on the patio, and I had my back to him, watching Andrew skim the pool. Next thing I know, Nate comes running past me and jumps into the pool, shorts and t-shirt and all (for a second I thought he was going to push Andrew in)!

So Nate was the first one of us to officially swim in the new pool...he looked like he was having such a fun time going off the diving board, and it looked so refreshing... Andrew was sweaty from being in the sun cleaning the pool, so we convinced him that he should go for a little swim, too. (I was not dressed appropriately, and we were planning to go shopping afterwards, so I didn't join in the fun!)

Here's Nate explaining how it all went down and doing a re-enactment, then a video of Andrew jumping in the first time (pardon my little shriek when the water almost hit the camera), and a few pictures! (If you're reading this post via e-mail and can't view the videos, you'll need to go to the blog itself to see them!)

Thanking the Lord today for beautiful, sunny weather, a refreshing pool, and a relaxing afternoon!

God's Amazing Creation...

Before I get to the content of this week's post, I wanted to point out the link over there on the left of the page...did you know that you can sign up with your e-mail address and receive new blog posts that I write in your inbox? It's great for people who don't remember to check the blog regularly! So, if you haven't already signed up, you should! :-) You won't get any spam or anything, just my blog posts!

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And now, on to the topic of God's glorious creation! Last Friday, my brother and I decided to take a drive to Table Mountain in Oroville, CA. I'd read online about the beautiful wildflowers there this time of year, and we weren't disappointed! Hard to believe that come summer, this place will be mostly brown and dry. I think I will make it a yearly goal to visit Table Mountain around the beginning of April. It was so peaceful there! There weren't very many other people around, either. I could stand in one spot and all I saw was sky and grass and flowers and trees and rocks (and a few birds and butterflies and grazing cows) -- no wires or poles or cars or buildings...nothing man-made (except when we came across a broken-down fence on someone's cattle grazing land).

Being there was very refreshing for the soul, and then on the drive home we saw a glorious sunset...

Enjoy the photos!

The Enduring Things

This poem by my favorite poet, Grace Noll Crowell, really expresses the cry of my heart today...I want to tear the grappling hooks of the world and its trivialities off my heart, thus to go forth, unhindered by worthless pursuits, to seek only the things that matter in eternity...

"The Enduring Things"

I will lay hold upon enduring things.

I am wearied with the din and noise and fret.

About me close, distracting, meager things

Grapple my soul -- Lord, help me to forget
The clamor of it. Grant me peace that stills,
Deep peace of quietness, and hope that cheers.
I lift my eyes to Thy strength-giving hills,
Steeped in the light of far eternal years.

I will lay hold upon enduring things:
Faith that illumines though the eyes be blind,
And joy continuous, a heart that sings,
And love that suffers long -- yet still is kind.
They are such paltry things I've bartered for,
I am soul-sick with the weariness it brings.
Now -- with high-lifted face I turn me, for
I will lay hold upon enduring things.

What God has joined together...

While in Oregon, I was privileged to be part of a vow renewal ceremony held for my parents at the Christian counseling center they've been attending for a while now. My parents would be the first to admit that they have not had an ideal marriage relationship over the years -- both of them were dealing privately with various issues in their lives and neither of them put much effort into keeping their relationship strong. Through God's grace and following the counsel of Scripture and wise believers, my parents have made great strides over these past few months, both personally and as husband and wife, and we (their children) could not be happier about it! It is so refreshing to us to see the changes in how they interact, and especially in how they now hold hands and hug often (something we rarely saw before). All I can say is, thanks be to God! What we sometimes thought could never happen is now unfolding right before our eyes!

Just for fun, here is a picture of my parents on their wedding day, January 3, 1975

L-R: Al, my dad's counselor and head of the ministry; my brother, Nathan; Dad; Mom; me; my sister, Anna; my sister, Elisabeth

Dad and Mom...33 years of marriage and counting! :-)