Thanksgiving Thursday

I'm starting something different, hopefully, every Thursday I will post a list of things I am thankful for that week. Mainly to keep me looking on the positive side of things no matter what!! So here goes!

• Kali helping me change the font of the title of my blog (also the font of some other things, check it out!!) Sweet!
• Playing with Olivia tonight and laughing together
• A great Bible Study in Colossians my Dad gave tonight
• Playing with a Application on my Mom's iPod, cracking up with Kali about it, trying to win! Its testing your ability to act quickly....
• Friends able to come over and spend a couple days with us (see previous post)
• The power of prayer
• God revealing His will, even if the outcome wasn't what I was hoping it to be
• Sweet time of fellowship on Sunday
• Ability to enjoy the last days of sunshine this year
• My brother (miss him lots!)

Visitors!

We were able to have the Alyssa and some of her family over with us for a couple days early this week! It was so much fun and I'm so happy that they were able to come over. Also, the fact that I was able to spend all the time with them because I don't have a job, which was nice! They came over on Monday afternoon and we went to some downtown shops around town!

                                           Dressing up in Cowgirl attire!

Giddy up horsey!

"Cowboys are my Weakness"

At SuperWalmart, "Big Buck Hunting" hehe

On Tuesday, we went to float down the River, when we got out on the water the wind was blowing the OPPOSITE way we needed to go. So, after trying to fight it for a while and realizing how long the River was, we decided to go to the Lake. Here are a few pics from the River, short lived.... :o)

Lake anyone?!

Rowing on the lake! It was a beautiful day for water activities! (Actually BOTH days they were here were beautiful! What a blessing! The week before had not been very nice, so it was a treat!)

Alyssa and I at the front of the boat, trying to get somewhere :o)

'Becca and Lilly had a fun time by the shore too!

Monday and Tuesday night Chris, Selena, and the girls came and ate dinner with us, then we went to play Sequence at their house. It was so much fun!! We played teams and some were more competitive than others ;o), but we all had a GREAT time! Last night after coming home from that, us girls finished up our game of Phase 10, much to my dismay, Alyssa won. Oh well.... At 10:30 we were drinking some coffee and we watched Brian Regan! He is soo hilarious! Much gut wrenching laughter was going on last night! LOL  We had a great time with Mrs. H, Alyssa, Christopher, and 'Becca!! Thanks for coming and we are SOOO glad you all were able to make it, lots of love!

Redeemed

A different version of "Redeemed" that Bro. Majors, Kali and I sang this morning. Mixing it up a little bit is always fun!

Afternoon in the Wilderness

We went out to cut some wood for winter and had a wonderful time with each other! Although, some things us women couldn't do because #1 some of the wood was incredibly heavy and #2 we would rather not operate a chainsaw :o). So, the girls took a short walk and were able to help a little later taking wood to the truck. Everyone had a great time and were really enjoying one of the few days left of beautiful sunshine!

Look what I found?!

Going on a walk...

She was pretending to be a little chicken

Pulling logs out of brush and out from underneath piles

We were instructed to be a "Choo Choo Train"

 "We are exercising so we can lift the heavy logs!"

Dad working away

Mom tried her hand at the axe, can you say, "Stay far away?!" hehe

Yup, we did some work too :o)

Kali and Lilly doing their part.....

Selena was with us too, I guess she didn't make it in any of the pictures :o( 

Welcome Fall!

Today I decided to celebrate the season we are now in, FALL!! I love fall, something about the warm colors and bringing out those cozy sweaters. Plus all the delicious flavors of fall!! Mmmm We decorated the house today for fall, you forget about all the cute decorations until you pull them out again! Walmart is great on filling in some gaps here and there too! Here are some of my favorites....

 Today I was able to wear a sweater AND my boots due to the overcast day....sweet!!!

For dinner I made Cheesy Enchilada Chicken Soup, also fitting for fall :o) Which was delicious by the way and super simple!

Then for dessert I made carmel apples....mmmmm!

All in all, it was a great fall(ish) sort of day! What are some of your favorite things about fall?!

New Things

Kali has been doing some crocheting recently and she wanted to teach me how to do it. I've never really been one to take to crocheting, but I decided to let her teach me. Hey, I could find out that I enjoy it! She taught me the basic chain and I went cRaZy! I have done so much of that chain that I didn't really want to learn anything else, it was easy and almost therapeutic. She did teach me how to go off of the chain and build on it, which I tried. I ended up taking out the work on that and continuing with my chain. :o) lol So, since the chain has gotten really long, I decided to do something fun with it......

I spelled this with my chain....cool huh?! (or not, maybe just weird....) Yup, VERY LONG! haha

Kali and I were talking while I was working on it the first day and we had an idea. A chain crochet business that I could start! They could be used as decorations hanging from the ceiling and even those chains that go on Christmas trees!! LOL We were in a state of just plain craziness, we were cracking up just at the thought of that! My chain and I.....

Wells Fargo

I just got a call from Wells Fargo and they said that they hired someone else for the job. She said it was really close but the other person had experience, where I don't. So, its back to the drawing board for me! Even though it didn't work out, I can praise God because #1 This obviously wasn't the one for me, #2 More interview experience, #3 Its an answer to prayer, and #4 I can be fully able to spend time with Alyssa when she comes next week! Even in hard times we can think of things to praise God for!

~"Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things." Psalm 72:18~

Interview!

I applied for a part-time teller at Wells Fargo a couple weeks ago. Since I didn't hear anything from them since then I just figured they hired someone else. Well, yesterday in the late afternoon I get a phone call from Wells Fargo asking for an interview for this morning! Of course I was able to do it and went this morning. The interview went really well!! I know many people were praying and I SOO appreciate those who were! The Power of Prayer! I am happy with my answers and they were very pleased to hear that I was learning Spanish, considering there is a high population of Hispanics here. They have 3 more people to interview and are making a decision tomorrow!! So now is just the waiting game...the HARDEST part!! I know whatever happens will be the Lord's will, so I will just see how God works things out, with this job or not! I will let you all know what happens and what the outcome is tomorrow!! Thanks for the prayers!!

Super Sunday :o)

Today was a great day in the Lord's House! It was great to see everyone again after being gone last Sunday, you don't realize how much you care for people until you don't see them. It was a great time of preaching and fellowship, along with a great lunch! We went home and I took a nap....ahhh....I am not a nap taking kind of person normally, but today it was great! Added with the gloomy weather and my being sick, all I wanted to do was cuddle up in my warm bed.....

This evening my family along with the Majors started Spanish lessons! Yippee! It went really well and I'm sure it would have been really funny for a bystander to be watching us all sounding out the Spanish alphabet! Our homework/goal for next week is to be able to say the Spanish alphabet and recite from 1 to 30! Pray for us! We are trying to set goals after we do lessons so its not just a Sunday thing, more of an all day every day thing. Thats how it sticks for good! Soon I will be writing my blog posts in Spanish, ok, that will be a very long ways off!! Lord willing I get that good at it! After Spanish lessons we watched lilly and olivia do silly things like exercises and chasing each other...they are SO funny to watch! I wish I had done a video or something, it was so funny! All of us were just cracking up, those girls are so silly!

After that we went down to the Majors house for a game of Phase 10 that we challenged them to. After 2 1/2 hours...yes....we are all pretty competitive! lol I was on the last Phase and no one else was so they were all ganging up on me and skipping my turn!! grr! In the end, I didn't even win, (after being stuck on the last Phase FOREVER!!) my dad won! Without going into too many details, many of us came out of there with sore arms from being playfully punched! I guess Chris needs to preach a message on anger management next Sunday! :o)

So all in all it was a fun and exciting day! Thanks for lettiin' me share it with you! (Like you had a choice....buhahahahaha!)

Sickness.....

The past couple days I've been suffering from a head cold.....which gives you time to really consider your sickness......here are some things I found to be funny about colds.....

• Its important to get the "cute" box of tissues.....
• Ricola cough drops are your candy.....
• You take your "cute" tissues with you everywhere you go because they feel like butter to your tender nose....
• Sometimes you just want to "pop" your head off because of all the pressure.....
• No make-up/crazy hair......(need I say more?!)
• Your excited to try the new cough drops you just got....
• NyQuil is your most loyal sleeping companion....
• You are perfectly contented to lounge around for hours on end.....
• Your family will be able to find you wherever you are in the house, just follow the coughing.....

Surprises and Birthdays!

Last weekend we had the oppourtunity to go visit O.H. to celebrate a couple birthdays! Mrs. Hower had a birthday party on Friday night for her 40th birthday the next day! It was a lot of fun and her seafood gumbo was delicious! We were able to leave on Friday afternoon and got there in time to surprise her before the party, she was definitely surprised! Success!! Then, my good friend Linnea's birthday was on Friday, her 18th!! So, we showed up as a surprise to her and she was surprised as well!! Success #2!!!

~Linnea~ 

Linnea and I have been friends for several years now and as we got older we seemed to grow closer together. We have seen each other through some trials and difficult times in our lives where we needed a shoulder to cry on, but we also have had SO many laughs together on the verge of crying but for a happy reason! When I think of the many years we have been blessed with each others friendship, I have to smile....so many good memories! To name a few....having competitions to see who could eat the most sour skittles at a time, sitting in the back of your bro. car while we are driving through the woods (yup, through the woods, no pathway, use your imagination!!), sleeping under the stars all the while hoping that you don't burn the island down with your HUGE fire!, Pig Dance, there are so many I could name but I think you get the picture! We have been able to encourage and admonish each other in the Lord and I am blessed to have such a friend.....

On Sunday we were able to spend the day at Bible Baptist Church and it was great to see everybody again and catch up! I was encouraged how the teens, especially one in particular, used to be a shy and timid girl, is turning into a young lady who truly wants to serve the Lord and I was able to hold a great conversation with her! God is really working in the teens over there and its awesome to be able to stand back and watch!! Sunday night we had a girls night at the Hower's and had a great time! At one point 5 girls were frantically searching for the fruit snacks in Alyssa's room, after searching high and low, only to find out that her little brother hid them! Stinker! LOL I'm sure it was funny to watch us look for them! Monday we had a surprise party for Linnea, despite all the clues that maybe something was going on, she was clueless and everything went great! So to sum it up, we had a great weekend and were so blessed to have the opportunity to see family and friends again!!

We found the fruit snacks!!

The culprit of the stolen fruit snacks (Christopher), mug shot..hehe

Wow! Alyssa and Kali arn't being proper! LOL

Linnea in her new Carhartt coat!

Victory!!

Linnea helping me do a pull-up (hey, what are friends for?!)

Deborah, Kali and I have the same phone, so deborah decided to switch the backs on them....

Brother and Sister

All three of us!

The three Amigo's! (Wow, can it be that now all of us are 18 or older?! How time flies...)

Until next time our island.....

Ephesians

Bro. Majors just finished up a study on the Book of Ephesians for our Thursday night Bible Studies. Let me tell you, these Bible Studies have been SO GOOD! Taking piece by piece and diving in the Word of God, its been good! Here are a few of the highlights (for me) that I have really learned alot from:

• Praising God in EVERYTHING! No matter what circumstance comes your way, good or bad, praising God for it because He has a plan in everything. Which brings me to praising God that I haven't got a job yet, I know He has a plan and He will bring the right one for me in His timing. Praise the Lord, if I did have a job I wouldn't have been able to do some things that I have done!!
• Submission is so key in every relationship, parents to children, pastors to members, GOD TO MAN, husband to wife. Even in the simple things in life, submitting to the authorities in your life, no matter if you don't understand, just submit and God will bless you for it! Oh, for you single ladies out there like myself, if we can't be submissive to our parents then how do we expect to be submissive to our future husband?! It won't happen, so we need to learn to be submissive now!
• Lastly, tonight was about the armour of God and how we can use it to protect us from Satan's attacks. Without going into the whole study, if we are missing even one aspect of the amour we are allowing Satan to get in and use that against us. So gird yourself with the amour of God and use it so Satan can't get to you to discourage you in the things of the Lord. Satan has a counterfeit for everything and we have to make sure he doesn't catch us off guard!!

These Bible Studies were so good and I learned alot from them! Praise the Lord for men of God who are willing to teach the truth of the Bible! I just wanted to share these things with you all, I hope you are challenged and encouraged with this as I am!!

Labor Day Weekend

Carolyn was able to come over for the long weekend and we all enjoyed each others company. Many laughs and stories were shared making it a memorable time! We went to Winthrop on Sunday afternoon with Selena, Mom, Kali, Carolyn and myself, we had a great time of just girls! Of course, when we came upon the hat shop we couldn't resist, we had to try some on!

 Yes, I am ready to meet the Queen of England for a tea party :o)

Mom's going on a Safari and Selena is bracing herself for the cold winter ahead!

Carolyn can't have gluten, so on Saturday I made a Flourless Chocolate Cake with a Mocha Glaze...YUM!

~Friends~

We had lots of fun and look forward to next time! Oh, Carolyn, we did a rematch of Phase 10 last night and I won! Whoop Whoop!!