Sand in my toes, sun on my face

.....We leave for FLORIDA tomorrow! I can't wait!

After I get off work today we are heading down to my parents house to stay the night, then getting up at the break of dawn to drive to Bowling Green to pick up my sis and her husband. And from there we are Ft. Meyers bound! I'm going to try to take a bunch of pictures. Hopefully some will turn out good.

HAPPY THURSDAY!

Many good gifts!

Patrick and I randomly will come across something that we both acknowledge would be great to teach our children. One of the more recent things we have discussed is teaching them and showing them that every thing is given to us from God, our heavenly Father. We hope that as they learn everything has been given to them from God, they would share these things with others. Freely and without hesitation. Whether this be a toy, a book, a crayon, a seat on the bus, or their faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm still reading JI Packers Knowing God and the last paragraph I read echoed everything we were thinking. Here it is:

"God's generosity in bestowing natural blesings is acclaimed in Psalm 145. 'The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made...the eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every livng thing' (vv. 9, 15-16; compare Acts 14:17). The psalmist's point is that, since God controls all that happens in his world, every meal, every pleasure, every possession, every bit of sun, every night's sleep, every moment of health and safety, everthing else that sustains and enriches life, is a divine gift. And how abundant these gifts are!"

I praise the Lord for His many good gifts to me!

Late Happy Mother's Day

I meant to post these pictures about a week ago. Oh well, better late than never. Patrick and I have both been blessed with great parents. Our mom's are the best!




While at my parent's house we had the opportunity to hear a drum performance from the new band, Lil MYLAUD.

APRONS

Here they are...pictures of my first aprons. The green and purple one was for my mom and blue and gray one was for Patrick's mom. I forgot to upload the picture of the little security blanket I made for Claire... so these will do for now.



The lighting in these pics is not very good, but I was having a hard time editing them...need more practice.

I can SEW!!!!

Knowing how to use a sewing machine has always been a desire of mine. I would go to Hobby Lobby and see all kinds pretty fabric and dream of the pretty skirts, or blankets it would make. Only one problem, I didn't have a sewing machine and wouldn't know how to use one even if I did.


One of those problems is now solved! Patick's mom taught me how to use a sewing machine. She has an old singer and has been letting me use it this last week. I've made 3 things and am happy with all of them.


1. I made my niece Claire a security blanket.

2/3. I made my mom and Patrick's mom aprons for Mother's day.


I am anxious to try new things and actually learn how to use a pattern.

I'll post pictures when I actually have 5 min to sit down and upload them.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Knowing God

I picked up J.I. Packer's Knowing God a few months ago and couldn't get up the brain power to read it. This might be because google is making me stupid, but to my defense I think at the time I just needed a lighter read. Well my brain is ready now and I'm reading it. Knowing God is a great book!

I'm about half way through right now and am just finishing up the chapter on "the love of God." Here are a few quotes that I liked.

~ "Every single thing that happens to us expresses God's love to us, and comes to us for the furthering of God's purpose for us."

~ "We know that the true story of our life, when known, will prove to be, as the hymn says, 'mercy from first to last'--and we are content."

~ "Love among persons is awakened by something in the beloved, but the love of God is free, spontaneous, unevoked, uncaused. God loves people because he has chosen to love them--as Charles Wesley put it, 'he hath loved us, he hath loved us, because he would love' (an echo of Deut 7:7-8)--and no reason for his love can be given except his own sovereign good pleasure."

Packer ends the chapter with good food for thought:

Is it true that God is love to me as a Christian? ANd does the love of God mean all that has been said? IF so, certain questions arise.

Why do I ever grumbe and show discontent and resentment at the circumstances in which God has placed me?
Why am I ever distrustful, fearful or depressed?
Why do I ever allow myself to grow cool, formal and halfhearted in the service of the God who loves me so?
Why do I ever allow my loyalties to be divided, so that God has not all my heart?

John wrote that "God is love" in order to make an ethical point, "Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 Jn 4:11). Could an observer learn from the quality and degree of love that I show to others-- my wife? my husband? my family? my neighbors? people at church? people at work? --anything at all about the greatness of God's love to me?

Meditate upon these things. Examine yourself.

Weekend with Audrey

This past weekend went well. It was fun to spend time with Audrey and hear, "Aunt Hannah, you're the best" from a sweet 3 year old mouth. Friday my sister, Sarah Beth, and her husband, Brad, came up with Audrey and Myles. We went to Ramsey's Cafe on the World and then came back and hung out at our place for a little while. Sarah Beth dropped the big news, telling us that she is PREGO and will be adding a third kiddo to the mix. I can't believe it... babies are coming out of everywhere. In the last week I've had four friends tell me they are expecting.

Saturday Audrey and I spent some time painting these cute Russian dolls. I did the daddy doll and all the faces on the rest. I didn't mean for daddy to look so much like Jesus.. haha. Here are a few pictures.

We then went to the pet store and played with some kittens and picked out a new fish for Uncle Patrick and I (because our last two have died). We left the store proud of our choice in picking our our new beta named SPRINKLES.

Not too long after we came home from pet shopping, Patrick joined us from work and we headed off to the Louisvile ZOO. Out of everything there, Audrey liked the petting zoo the best.
As soon as we got in the car, Audrey was out!

We came home to find a dead sprinkles:( Oh well, he was fun while he lasted...which was approximately 4 hours.

If all these rain drops

were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain this would be. I'd be standing outside with my mouth open wide singing "ahahahahahahah".

Thankful for rain... but for a week straight??:(

WeekEND treat!

I'm excited for this weekend. My oldest sister and her family are coming up tonight for dinner and leaving their daughter with Patrick and I. Audrey is 3 1/2. She's my oldest neice and I can't wait to have 2 nights of sleepover with her. We've never done this before. I've gone and stayed with them to babysit during the day, but never at my house. So to make this the best weekend ever, we have big plans!

the ZOO!

I love the zoo myself and have been wanting to go with Patrick. Add Audrey and we have a great time ahead of us.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Finals for Patrick

Patrick has finals this week. Even though this means he is studying pretty much non-stop, I'm happpy because after Friday...no more finals for approx 8 months!

He has his firtst final this afternoon, two on Thursday and one more that is online but has to be finished by Friday. Please pray with me for him that the Lord would help to do well on these tests. That all this studying would pay off. Also that he/we would be refreshed from this summer and ready for classes to start back up in the fall.

Almost every day when I come home, this is where I find Patrick: in his chair studying his brain away.

GO PATRICK!!

OH yeah and Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Tweet the Gospel

Patrick has this posted on his blog:

The guys at 9 Marks are having a contest to see who can Tweet the gospel the best. Go HERE to submit your tweet and to get the guidelines. Here is my entry.

God is the maker, Sin be the plightThe creature is nothing, The Cross be sightFly to Christ, Believe and be contrite.

I went on and entered this as my tweet.

God absolutely good creator of all
Man ultimately evil & rebellors against God
Death required b/c of sin
Christ satisfied on cross
Rebent and believe
Have eternal life

The rules were you had to present the gospel in 140 characters or less. I was kind of confused whether spaces count as characters or not... so I have (I think) exactly 140 letters. Anyway the guys at 9marks are going to pick the top 3 and give them a free book of their choice autographed by the author.

I think its great for us to practice sharing our faith in concise simple ways. How would you share the gospel in 140 characters or less?

"Patrick, there is a mushroom growing in our bathtub"

Wednesday morning I woke up to find a mushroom, yes, a mushroom, growing in our bathtub. I was disgusted! Our apartment building is older and the caulk in our shower shows it. I have scrubbed and scrubbed that thing to no avail. There was one little section where the caulk had been completely destroyed and water was streaming in every time we used our shower. I guess that explains the mushroom? This thing grew fast though because it was not there the night before. I was afraid to step foot into the tub where this fungus was making itself a home, so no shower for me. I woke Patrick up to show him the picture I had just taken of our new friend.



I called our land lord first thing once I got to work. He came the next day tore out the old caulk and sprayed. We now have nice, clean, mushroom free caulk and tub. Thank the Lord!
Oh yeah, we also have ants!

It's a BIG day!

Not only is today the Derby, it is also my friend Amanda's wedding! I'm excited for her and wish I could attend. But I'm a poor married woman who can't afford a trip down to FL for a wedding. So I'm wishing her the best day from here in good ol' KY! She is getting married on the beach and I know it's just going to be gorgeous. Here are a few pictures from our friendship.I've known Amanda since the 3rd or 4th grade but we didn't become friends until end of 5th beginning of 6th. I actually had a grudge towards her in those first couple years. You see, she performed in the talent show with this boy Leviticus, who I had the biggest crush on. I was sure that they had a thing for each other and therefore I didn't like her. Then we both tried out for the middle school cheerleading squad. Our elementary school and middle school were only seperated by out football field. For a week, every day, we'd walk across the football field together to cheerleading tryouts. I was finally over Leviticus and decided to give her a chance and we became best of friends. She was great at gymnastics and helped me with my backflip. We cheered all thoughout middle school together. Our friendship continued on into high school and it still continues on today! I'm thankful for Amanda and am excited her and Mike (her soon to be husband). So next time I see Manda, she'll be Mrs. Mike Kuzma. Congrats Manda!!

Spring Celebration 2009

Yesterday was the annual Spring Celebration for Seminary Wives Institute. I have been taking classes the last six weeks on hospitality and to put what we've learned into practice, we hosted this celebration. We broke up into committees and pulled this thing together. I was on the food committee and somehow got voted as chair. So for the last few weeks I have been trying to get the recipes together, buy groceries and distribute the food to the appropriate girls to make all this food for 160 people. Needless to say, I was a little stressed. But it was fun and everything turned out GREAT!

Here's what my week looked like

Monday and Tuesday: Shopping with Jenny (my great friend who was in the Thunder and Pie crust posts) at Costco and Walmart. I'm sure we looked hilarious digging through all the strawberries, asparagus, cucumbers and cantaloupes trying to find the absolute best.

Wednesday: Distributing the food. Grating a huge block of cheese and also cutting cucumbers into these cute little flowers.

Thursday: The Big Day! I had the day off, woke up early and headed over to my in laws to fix some veggie bars. My mil, Diane, is the best! I wouldn't have been able to get all the bars done had she not helped! (side note: she is a great example of a godly woman and never fails to encourage me every time we talk) Then I packed those up and headed over to the Seminary to make these yummy strawberries. I met up with Jenny and we had a good afternoon of hulling stuffing and dipping strawberries. The final touches we done on everything and the celebration began. Here are some of the pictures.
This last picture is of the food committee, these ladies were great! I really enjoyed getting to know them in class and working together to host the celebration.