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Monday, January 29, 2007

A whole week

It's already been a week since I updated my blog!! Time flies by some days. Hubby was in Germany all week-he just returned on Saturday evening so I did a lot of "organizing" around the house. Sometimes I think all I end up doing is moving the piles and stacks from one place to another all in the name of organization. Now that my daughter has moved back to the states I have an extra bedroom and it seems that it becomes the "organizational room". That's a good title actually. I think that's what I will call her room from now on LOL!!

I did manage to bruise myself up a bit while Jim was gone. I was bringing some things up the stairs and some how I fell up the stairs-yes, that is up the stairs. Now, many a time I have fallen down the stairs-I am a picture of gracelessness!! I bump into everything, bang myself, I am a walking bruise!! So, I fell up the stairs and banged my pinky finger so bad. When Jim got home, he immediately wrapped it up for me since it was purple! Not a good sign!! I loathe the doctors and hospitals here so I have to be unconscious before I will step into one and didn't want to go to the ER to have my f inger examined. We opted for an emory board and some surgical tape we had around the house and taped my two fingers together and that worked perfectly. Good ole fashioned first aid :)


I should get going-I have some exciting news-we are going on a trip in February. I will put up the info next time. Please try not to lose any sleep guessing where we are going! I know you will be in suspense!

May the Lord fill your day with His presence and great love today!!!

Monday, January 22, 2007

Happy Monday

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was very relaxing. Cleaned quite a bit on Sat. and then went to a couple of the chats at SBB. Had a fun time. I haven't been to a chat in ages so this weekend I think I made up for it. It was fun because there were some other ladies from Europe so it made it a bit funner for me. Also I won a prize!!! Yep,,,can you believe it!! I guessed the actual day of SBB's birthday (Jan 25th) and won a 15.00 gift certificate to Fungh Lie's store!!! I am so thrilled! I have had my eye on some of her products and now I am able to get them. I truely have been blessed!!
I purchased my very first "not on sale" item ever!! It was Misty Cato's Northwest Casual kit. I bought some of her elements that were marked down to $1.00 but I couldn't resist her kit. Of course my wish list has more of her stuff in it but I am happy I could get what I did. We just had our anniversary and since we didn't get each other gifts for it or really for Christmas I was able to treat myself to some goodies. It was fun! Jim is thrilled that I have a great hobby and that it also blesses our family and friends when the LO's are finished. Good to have a supportive husband. Guess he can't say too much since my hobby is much less costly than his music! Ah, that's a whole different topic.

We had such an encouraging message at church yesterday! We are studying Luke's gospel right now and DH was reminding us Jesus is coming back soon!! We lose sight of this so easily. Life takes over and the day in day out stuff takes priority so often that we are not occupied with the things of the Kingdom. How many people we know and love -even people in our cities are going to hell because the don't know Jesus! And how many times we don't share the message of the Gospel because we are afraid to offend someone! I am not talking about being beligerent and in someone's face-I mean giving the message of the Gospel-giving them the opportunity to except or reject the message. We take for granted we will see them a different day-maybe we won't. Whatever God has called us to do, we must do it. Don't think we have days, or months or years to do what we know He is saying to do! Also, DH talked about repentance and how we must remember what we have been forgiven. Being broken before the Lord-keeping that awe and reverance before Him. I think that it's good for us to read Revelation 20 every now and then and get the realization of eternity without Christ. Remembering that so many will die separated eternally from Christ. This should make our hearts break-it should make us on fire to bring the message of the hope that we have to others. Don't be afraid-yes, some will think we are off our rockers-we are extreme, we are judgemental, we think we know it all, we think we are the only true ones-whatever people think, they will think. We are not responsible for others and their choices. We need only to obey what God tells us and get beyond the response of others. Think of Jeremiah's ministry-not one repented, not one turned from their sin...was Jeremiah doing something wrong? Maybe if he had the latest Christian band, or the latest Christian this or that people would have responded better-NO!! Jeremiah had the Words from the Lord and he obeyed his call-he wasn't called to change the hearts of the people-only to deliver the message. I encourage those of you on the mission field, those who diligently share the Gospel-don't give up-don't judge your effectiveness based on how many respond. You stay true and faithful to what God is calling you to do. He has given every person a free will and allows them to reject or accept.
Sorry, didn't mean for this to be so long-just got very passionate about this subject. Look around at the things happening in our world. Birth pains!!!

I put up a couple more blog links and notice my new blinkie! Check them out when you have time.

I did a couple LO's for the SBB chat. I'll post one and you can check out the others over at my gallery there if you want.


Have a blessed day!!!!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Guess what

I have discovered that I like PSE 5!!! Yep it's official. I will have to purchase this product. I challenged myself yesterday to try making a LO with it and using a template. I followed Gina's instructions and it worked like a charm. And yes, I used Cntl G and V and I was amazed once I got the hang of it. I didn't exactly do a LO though-just fooled around with seeing how the papers work with the template. I love being able to use the text on a path! It's so fun to change the text and be able to journal and write titles in different shapes.
Speaking of shapes-Misty Cato has (or had) a beautiful text in a heart shape with 1 Cor 13. It's awesome. Actually, Misty is awesome. I haven't been able to purchase from her yet, but her designs are amazing. Plus, her blog is just chock full of helpful hints. Be sure to check her out!!! You'll be sorry if you don't! :)
Hopefully I will be able to go shopping this weekend. There are a few things on my wish list. If I do, I will show you what I got :)

Thanks for the comments the other day-I had a great chat with my husband about things the other day and then the Lord just spoke to my heart about so many things I have been questioning lately. Not questions about my faith or trust in Him, but who I am in Him. It's really freeing when we know who we are in Him. Not having to be bound up in unnecessary thoughts and imaginations. It's easy for me to get caught up in things that aren't important and focus my attention on them instead of keeping my focus on the Lord and what He is calling me to do. It's a big relief too when we can say..ok, I can't, but through You, I can. Yielding my will to His and submitting to Him and allowing Him to do what He wants in my life. It's really exciting!!!!

We are almost finished our Experiencing God book with the women's group. We went over some amazing and challenging scriptures the other night. So many we are familiar with but don't always apply them. I will try to remember to add one each day I update my blog.
Here's today's:

Let noone seek His own, but each one the other's well-being. 1 Corinthians 10:14

Have a wonderful day today!!!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Ok, this is the second time this has happened-long post and then want to upload a picture and blank screen!! I am not a happy camper!
Shall we try again............................

Well, I started to scrap a little more reguarly again. It seems ever since I got back from the states in Sept I have not really had a great desire to do much in this are. I was creating a LO in PSP the other night and just about smacked my computer-just picture it!! LOL!!! It was creeping along ever so slowly to the point of incredible frustration. I don't know if it is because I was using a template or what. Still, they shouldn't create a product that operates so slowly!! I have plenty of memory, etc on my computer so I know it's not that-I hear PSP is a memory hog so that is probably the reason for the slowness.
I talked to hubby about it and he thinks I should get Photoshop. Does he know anything about this stuff? No, not at all. But, he is the type that thinks one should not spare expense when it comes to buying things. Yes, this is where he and I are complete opposites. I don't adhere to the reasoning that just because something costs more it means it's better. Now, it's not easy for him to live up to this type of standard in the past 5 years because he is a Pastor and we are living overseas. Life is much different than when he owned his business and we could buy what we wanted. Even then, I used coupons, saved, shopped sales, etc. Ok-so how did I go from creating a LO to hubby's mindset in one short paragraph??? Ah, I am quite the blabber!!
Anyway, I downloaded the trial version of PSE 5.0 yesterday. I have 30 days to see if I like this program. I don't need the expensive version because I am not a designer, nor will I ever be, nor do I even have the desire to be one. Not my gifting!!! But, I looked at tutorials and I can only see stuff like 'control G, alt this and that'. Ok-that's not me. I am a ' go to edit and hit copy then hit paste and there you go' type of girl. So, we will see how I progress. I want to get PSE because I love templates. I think they are the best thing in the world. Makes my life so much easier and I love how designers are also including text on a path now-unfortunately, they don't work in PSP. Also, I like the photo actions I see around too. Most are only for Photoshop. So, I have to really see if this will be a worthwhile purchase.


I have been contemplating a LO now for a couple weeks-you know how I love to scrap musical lyrics. Well, there is a song I absolutely love by Natalie Grant. It's called The Real Me. Over the summer, when I was in CA, my good friend and I had a lot of discussions about this topic. Being real -especially in ministry. Obviously we are not to be fake or put on pretenses but it went beyond the basics. We were talking about people's expectations of us-she's involved in women's ministry and I am a Pastor's wife. I do believe we are called to a higher standard and need to be above reproach. Ok-that's a term right there that we talked about-what do you think it means to be above reproach? Also, living in a way that you don't make others stumble? And, how do you balance all that and still be the person you are? Does it make sense? I am not trying to be selfish here at all. I guess I wonder about these things because as far back as I can remember, I have lived my life to be a people pleaser. It goes back to being adopted and never wanting to upset my parents for fear of being sent back to the orphanage. Of course, you realize as you get older that this is an impossible task. You can't please everyone. This behavior led to a horrible eating disorder that almost took my life and consumed many years of my early adulthood.
So, do you think that many women struggle in this area? I think so. It's natural for us to want to feel like we are liked and accepted. That we fit in-we have a sense of belonging. Somewhere in the midst of all this, many lose sight of who they are-who God created them to be. He made us each individuals, with our own set of strengths and weaknesses, our own gifts and talents. Too often we can be so busy looking at everyone else and what they have or even what we think they have and we never find out who we are in Christ-who He made us to be. Does it come down to being content? Hmm, I am really all over the place with my thoughts right now. I have just been thinking about it a lot-asking God about these things.
Let me know what you think if you want. I'd love to hear from you about this.


Here's my LO from the other day. It's from our trip to Salzburg in Nov. We had such a good time together. Celebrated hubby's 50th and my 46th-gosh I am getting up there :) You can see the credits here

Enjoy your day!
Shine on :)

Thursday, January 11, 2007

A little better

Ok-I blogged, uploaded my picture, clicked "done" and good-bye screen!! ARGGGG,,,this makes me so flustered!!


So, anyway, we are feeling a bit better. This virus we caught is bad! Jim is coughing and wheezing, finally understanding what I go throught with my asthma. He has it pretty bad so I am hoping it will end soon! He is going to teach tonight so I pray his coughing will subside long enough.


I made a LO with the lyrics from the song I wrote about a couple posts ago. I couldn't find them online and my cassette is buried somewhere in Jim's music modgepodge. I did the best I could remembering them-I think they should be right for the most part. I was thinking of making a scrapbook with all my favorite songs in it. There is something about it I love doing-just scrapping lyrics.


Did you ever check out those magnet calendars and photo magnets by Danielle at Something Blue Studios? They were a huge hit at Christmas. I loved making them and especially living out of the country it was good because I could have them mailed to my daughter in CA and she had fun passing them out to everyone. Everyone loved them! I was thinking next year I am going to make a bunch of them with scriptures on them and hand them out at church. I found out the cost is only about $4.00 to ship them over here so that will be nice. I will even do them in Hungarian which will be better for the people here. Trust me-they make wonderful gifts!!

Here's my LO-hope the words minister to your heart. I heard them when I first got saved. I couldn't get over how God could love me and forgive me and that I would actually live with Him forever!!! Do you ever feel like you lose that sense of awe at times? Being a Christian for many years, it's easy to forget. Thankfully, the Lord always brings us back to our first love and reminds us of what our faith is really all about.


I used some template pieces from Ronna Penner and the kit I used is Simple Pleasures from Scrap Artist

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Bedridden

I think thatis how you spell it anyway :) You would not have wanted to enter our household the past week. It's horrible. DH came down with the flu-and while I did my best to serve Him and avoid direct contact with him, it didn't matter...Wed late afternoon I started to get the chills and by that night I was in bed with 102.4 fevcr. Today is the first day I have been out of my bed. It won't be for long though because I am still not feeling all that great. This has got to be the worst flu virus we have encountered!! 7 years ago I had viral meningitis and it almost feels like that is what it was again. I don't think so only because as much as I was in pain this time, it was not as bad as before. We aren't even allowing anyone in our house that's how bad it is! DH even missed teaching Thursday and today too. That's a first in over 5 years due to illness. The only other time he couldn't teach was when he broke his leg and was hospitalized. So, you know he is down and out to have to stay home! He still has a really bad cough. It is pretty deep too. Hopefully in the next day or two we will be back to normal-or as normal as we can get :)

I found some nice new blogs to add to my reading. I will have to post them here so you can enjoy them too. Melissa had a post at DST for Pastor/Missionary wives and I "met" some new people from that. How exciting!! It's always neat to see others in similar walks of life.

I am a fan of Isobel Kuhn. Have you read any of her books? I would highly recommend her books-they are very inspiring and very easy to read too. She speaks very openly and honestly about her experiences. Right now I am reading By Searching. It chronicles her earlier years when she had turned away from the Lord and is searching for Him again. So far, so good. I found this quote in the book by F B Meyer (another great writer) 'Nothing strengthens us so much as isolation and transplantation...under the wholesome demand his soul will put forth all her native vigor...it may not be necessary for us to withdraw from home and friends, but we shall have to withdraw our heart's deepest dependence from all earthly props and supports if ever we are to learn what it is to trust simply and absolutely on the eternal God. It's an amazing quote!! One that I have to read and digest over and over again until my heart and my mind settle on it completely.

I pray today will find you in our Lord's perfect will. Stay healthy and enjoy the message the Lord will bring to your hearts today :)

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Happy New Year

As you can see I put up a new blog header, which reminds me I have to redo the credits...ugh, not ugh to doing the credits again but ugh to the fact that once again for the millionth time today I must edit Html in blogger!!! I don't know what I did, but somehow I messed up my blog and had to redo it today. I just wanted the header picture to be sans the lines....all these hours later you can see that absolutely no progress was made in that regard. If anyone knows how to get rid of these lines in the beta blogger, please, oh pretty please let me know :)

DH is sick today. He started coming down with a cold last night and woke up with a slight fever and chest pain. Oh my, these are the times I just chuckle. Men can be so brave and strong, but honestly, it's not a stereotype to say that most are so different when they have some illness. You would think death would be arriving at our doorstep at any moment! I told him to take some Nyquil and lay in bed all day. He doesn't take the Nyqil though-just laying in bed watching Wyatt Earp. I got him that for Christmas this year. I told him he should be so proud of my unselfishness. I cannot stand Kevin Costner's voice-drives me insane and DH thinks he is such a great actor. Ok, maybe he is a good actor, but I can't get beyond the voice. Atleast he is occupied for the day and he is still eating so life is good!

I want to scrap more this year. I think I will try to get the church scrapbook in order and then start with one for my girls. I like Gina's template for her Year In Review-have you seen it? You can get it here. It's a great template and I hope to get it soon! I want to look through some galleries and check out the LO's to get some inspiration. I am not a great scrapper, but I love to do it...just haven't had a lot of time the past months. I want to learn how to use the elements better-all those cute buttons, clasps, journal tags...I just don't have the knack so I want to try to learn from pages I see.

Well, I best be going for now... want to check out a few things and must go check on DH. I would think Costner's voice has put him to sleep by now but you never know :) I am wanting to make a LO to some lyrics of a song I just love. Have you ever heard of Janny Grein? She sings More Than Conquerors and a favorite of mine is Praise Him. I find myself just lost in those lyrics. I will share it on the blog as soon as I get it finished.

Have a wonderful day and praise God for a fresh new year!