What a day...what a week~

It has been a long week. That is the quickest way to sum it up. I have been getting quite a few headaches lately and I don't know if it's because I need an adjustment or if it's because I'm getting stressed out over school and stuff. I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed for a good part of the week because I've been so grumpy. I don't like feeling this way. I'm ready for a break. I'm glad it's the weekend!

We went to Winchester today so Adam could stop by a guitar store and so I could go to the library. I got a membership to the Winchester public library last week and I was glad I could go check out some books. I actually took out quite a few. I doubt I'll be able to read them all, but it's nice to know they're there when I do have some time to read. We stopped at Old Navy, Borders, Michael's and Circuit City on the way home. They're all in the same shopping complex so we everyone just went into the store they wanted to go to. I went to Michael's and got some ink and a calligraphy pen and some watercolors and a watercolor pad. I have an idea for a drawing that I want to try. I can't draw worth anything, but my art appreciation class is inspiring me to try new things so you may be seeing pictures of my attempts at sketching and painting up here sometime soon. I also stopped at Borders to see if Anna Maria Horner's new book: Seams to Me is out yet, but I couldn't find it. I really want to look in there. I really want to start making stuff to put into my Etsy shop. I miss crafting. Becca and I might try to get together to do some more sewing. We're thinking of trying to re-fashion some clothes. It should be fun!

Our Campus Crusade for Christ meeting had a rather large turnout this past week! Instead of the usual 3 of us, we had 7 people come to the meeting. At the end another guy came in for a few minutes. It was pretty cool. I think God is moving on our campus and it is really exciting. I wish I was more involved in talking to other students. I feel like Adam and Richard are having more conversations about religion and Jesus with students than I am, but I am building relationships with students and I have had some opportunities to talk about Jesus and Christianity with the people I've talked to. I seem to have so little time lately. I've been working a lot and with no internet connection at home I have been having to do all my homework at school so when I'm on campus I am really busy. I guess I'll just have to trust God to bring people my way and let me know when to strike up a conversation with them. I have been praying for the campus and for the students I'm meeting. I really want to be loving towards them.

All in all, this has been a challenging week. I worked 4 days this week, I feel like I haven't been seeing my family at all and I've been stressing out over one of my internet classes which I am afraid I am failing. I'm not so worried about failing it anymore, I think (hope...pray) that I will be okay in it. It's just been really rough so far! I've been feeling kind of low and am trying not to give into feelings of uselessness and despair and bitterness. I think that after trying to do all I can to put my best foot forward and be cheerful at work and school I'm not really doing the same for my family which really isn't fair to them. I'm trying to have a better attitude and I want to be thankful. It really comes down to the fact that I'm not very grateful for all the blessings I've been given. If I could fully comprehend the amazing blessings that I've been given then I don't think I could help but be overjoyed. I am trying to focus on those blessings and give praise to God. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. I'm not sure where that verse came from (if it is a verse...I'm pretty sure it's a verse...someone correct me if I'm wrong), but it certainly sums up my attitude this week. It's so wonderful to have a God who is loving and forgiving. I haven't done my "counting my blessings" posts in awhile, so I'm going to do one today.

I am thankful for:

• gorgeous fall weather
• changing leaves
• safety while on the road
• the work that is being done on our campus
• the relationships I've made at school
• Dr. Hartman, Pam, Aimee and Maria...I am truly blessed by my boss and co-workers.
• friends like Janice and Becca...friends are such a gift from God. They are such a blessing.
• My family
• Campus Crusade for Christ. Honestly, I would have probably dropped out of school again by now if it weren't for Cru.

We haven't had internet for the past few days so posting has been rather scarce. Hopefully we will have another connection soon and I will be able to be on here some more.

Until then, be blessed!

stuff in the works.

I once saw a blog...um...thing I guess and it was called "Self Portrait Tuesday" and since its Tuesday I went ahead and took a self portrait. That is just to explain this random photo of me.

Simplicity 3835. My project at Sewing Extravaganza III. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of our time together while I was there. :( But it was a great time, as always! Becca helped me figure out the pattern. Pattern-figuring-out seems to require a group effort! A good excuse (if one is needed) to get together. I need to do some alterations in order to make this shirt actually look good on me. It was "simple" though as the brand implies and fun to make. I plan to try to make a few more of these in different types of fabrics that aren't so stiff. I have a jersey material and a more drapey fabric. I don't know what exactly it is though.
Operation skirts: my wrap skirt prototype. Not quite finished yet. I have some ideas to make these skirts easier to wear and I want to come up with a better pattern. The first one I made didn't sit really well. I want to try to make a few of these along with some other stuff and put them in my Etsy shop that still doesn't exist yet. :)

I did finish the commissioned skirt and I think it came out pretty well. Its owner seemed pleased so that was good. Thank you for the commission new skirt owner (I didn't want to name any names)!!!

What else happened today? Well, I had a wonderful chat with my dear friend Courteney. She was the first friend I met when I moved here. We've been friends since 7th grade. We are meeting this Friday so I can show her how to set up a blog. Yay!!! I've been nagging and begging and pleading with my college friends to start blogs so we can keep in touch better during the school year and she is the only one who is humoring me and starting one. Talking with her made my day better because she really encourages me in my walk with Christ. I think that is one way to measure a true friend when they encourage you to trust Jesus and live for Him. That's the kind of friend I want to be. She is also one of the only people who I can talk to on the phone for an hour and not realize a whole hour has gone by. And it's funny cause we both have a fear of talking on the phone.

I haven't been doing my "counting my blessings" posts lately so I'm going to pick it up here.

I am thankful for:

• Having fun sewing yesterday with Jacqueline and Becca.
• Spending time with my siblings.
• Finishing some projects
• Staying safe on the road when I'm out (not just me but all my friends and family).
• the phone call from Court this morning
• All the rain we've had and all the sunshine too.
• the Bible study I'm going to tonight!

I hope everyone else is having a nice day and week.

Mostly a picture post...

I met my friend Becca today for tea. It was very pretty outside and everything is starting to bloom around here. It was a good chance to take a few photos.













We went to a tea house called Shaharazade's. It's supposed to be pretty authentic. It was very cool.











The tea was really good, as were scones I stuffed my face with. :P Becca was laughing cause I had to photograph everything. I didn't photograph the scones though. I restrained myself.


Things I'm thankful for today:
1. good weather
2. good friends
3. good tea (and scones)
4. getting my haircut
5. staying safe on the road
6. laid back day
7. seeing the chiropractor. It's really helped my back.
8. my job...I really do like it and my bosses.




Speaking of my job, one of our dentists is leaving the practice. It was quite a shock. We are excited for her since she is opening her own practice, but we will miss her being at the office. Change is so weird. I used to hate it. Now I feel that I go with it alright. I have learned to expect it really. As soon as things get quiet, expect change. It just seems to be the way of my life. Change and waiting for change...it's a vicious cycle. Life really is a crazy journey. We've been a little stressed at my house lately. This anticipation of the move is starting to get to certain members of our family and it's making them anxious. I know I'm one of those members of the family. But I'm enjoying the time I have here still. Hopefully I'll be here when everyone gets out of school so I can see them a little this summer before we pack up and go. It was a nice laid back day. I think I needed it. Now hopefully I'll do something productive tomorrow. Like homework! LoL~

I hope everyone has a happy weekend. :)

Four Day Weekend Part 2

I got my Global College of Natural Medicine course in today! I'm so happy. Here are some of the materials that came in my box today. I think I'm really going to enjoy this. And if I do, I might order their Master Herbal program sometime down the road. I just hope I like it and do well! I can't wait to get started. I have to send in some papers to them first though. Hopefully I will get that done soon.
Today was also part 2 in our sewing get-together from last time. Becca came over and my sister and the little girl she babysits came too and we did a lot of sewing. My sister made Easter dresses for her 2 nieces and Hope (using that fabric that is pre-shirred at the top which came out adorable!) Hope said she wanted to keep hers for life. :) Here is a photo of our machines just waiting to go. We all have different kinds. I like my sister's. It's a Kenmore and the entire thing is metal. It's very sturdy. I have a brother which is falling apart but I love it, and Becca uses a Singer. I have no idea what kind of machines are really good and which aren't. One of these days I'd like to get a better machine because even though I like mine, it's falling apart. I've been using it since I was about 9 or 10 and I'm 19 now. I was kind of rough on it.

And this is the bag that I made. The outside is linen while the inside is a cotten paisley print. I realized after making it and going back to the tutorial I followed that when I drafted the pattern I think I was supposed to make the sides of the bag kind of narrow in a little bit, which I did not do. I like the basic shape of the bag, but I have some adjustments I would like to make to it. It was fun and easy to do though so I would recommend it. I think I would still like to add an applique to this one and/or maybe some embroidery. And I have ideas for the next one I make too! I really like the linen. I can see why people enjoy using it so much. It just wrinkles a lot.
And last, but not least, a picture of all of us. I enjoyed our time together. It was fun. :)

I am thankful for:

1. 4 day weekend!
2. Friends and family to hang out with and sew with.
3. sunshine and warmer weather.
4. my course came in!
5. Spring break (although I don't really get one, but my college friends will be coming home and I get a chance to see them!).

I still have a pretty busy week ahead of me. Tomorrow I go back to work and when I get off there is Bible study. And on Thursday we are having a baby shower for one of our girls at work. It is a surprise. We are doing it over lunch. I will hopefully get pictures of those events to post!

Long Time...

No blog post...

So I've been kinda MIA lately. Really busy with work, I caught a cold, worried over my parent's job and stuff like that. I thought my camera was broken, or that the battery was fried because I left it in the charger for 2 days (I forgot to take it out after I charged it up). So after a trip to the mall and looking in several different stores I found a replacement battery for $50. I was debating whether to get it or not and decided not to just in case it wasn't the battery that was dead. I'm glad I didn't because when I got home I plugged the charger into a different outlet and it started charging again and I tested it in the camera and both worked!
So I finally was able to take a picture of the skirt I made with Becca and my sister. I think the ruffle is a little too...ruffly. Hopefully after it is washed it will relax a little. It is fully lined since it was kind of see-through. I drafted the pattern using Sew What! Skirts. They have another book out now called Sew What! Fleece. It's also pretty good only I haven't tried any of the projects since I don't have any fleece because it's spring (almost).









And I stopped by Payless and got these. I like earthy looking stuff and I thought these looked earthy. Sort of. :) I went shopping with my sister because a friend of ours who works at Payless gave us each a friends and family discount coupon. It was very sweet of her to give them to us. I also got a pair of shoes for Holly that she liked.





And here are some patterns I found in my sewing stuff. Since helping Becca use a pattern I think I might give one of these a try. I've been very intimidated by patterns because I've never used one before, but I think maybe it would be fun to try one now. Plus these are all easy patterns so it shouldn't be too hard. I'm excited. I've got my fabric spread out all over the kitchen table right now because I'm "organizing" it. But I took a break to blog. I'll have to get back to it soon though because my hungry family members are starting to complain about it. Ha ha!


This stuff is dangerously addictive. I'm not talking about the pretzels, I'm talking about the Nutella. I'd never heard of it before until I started working at the dentist office and one of our hygienists brought some in for us all to share. That was Thursday. Friday I went out and bought some and Holly and I have practically eaten the whole thing. Pretty bad I know, but the darn stuff is SO good!

Speaking about food I enrolled with the Global College of Natural Medicine today. I'm in their Nutritional Consultant program. I am well aware that they are not accredited by regular school boards and that my certificate probably won't be very useful in looking for a job, but I plan to major in Nutrition anyway and this will hopefully give me a head-start and something to do during this next year that I'm waiting to move and become an Ohio resident. I'm excited! I hope I like it.

I got my Poirot DVDs in. It was so rainy and yucky this weekend that I wish I didn't get them cause my family just wanted to watch scary murder movies. But they were interesting. One warning is that these are not rated and there were a couple of inappropriate scenes in 2 so far. One (The Hollow?) has a very inappropriate scene in it. I wish there was a way to edit that out. Maybe there is. But I would take that into consideration before buying them. The first 4 I have seen only had some bad language, but the other 2 have a lot of implications and then the one scene. Too bad. They are very interesting.

So to finish this off I want to say I'm thankful for:
Sunshine! It was sunny all day!
being safe driving.
feeling a little better from my cold.
Daylight savings, stays light longer!
Enrolling in the NC program!
My camera is alive!

It's good to be back!

my week...

this week...
was good! I had a good week at work! I had energy (for a change), I was so on top of things...it was good. And on Tuesday I went to a Bible study (which is partly why I think the week went so well) at my sister's house. I so enjoyed it. Just being around other Christians is so encourgaging and uplifting. I can't wait for next week's study.

Today was a good day! I went grocery shopping with my sister and we stopped for coffee while out, and I got lunch with a friend this afternoon at a chinese buffet. The food was good, but the MSG or something made my tummy hurt. :( So sad being me, lol. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because a friend of mine is getting together with my sister and me to work on a skirt. At least, that's what she's working on. I don't know what I'm working on. :) I'll have to bring my camera since I've had a great lack of photos on here lately.

Movie of the week: we're into Poirot here. My neighbors lent us 3 Poirot dvds and while they were a leetle bit scary to watch right before bed (which is of course when I watched them), they were really interesting. If you're wondering, Poirot is a detective from Belgium (?) and is a character made up by Agatha Christie. I never read anything by her and didn't know she created the Poirot character, but they're really interesting "whodunnits's" and are fun to watch. So since we had to give the dvds back to our neighbors I went ahead and ordered 2 sets off Amazon (2 sets off Amazon cost me less than one new set would at Borders)! They will hopefully be in next week.

Amazon: is sort of dangerous. If you know me, you might know that I claim to be a good bargain shopper. I hardly ever buy anything at full price. Well, Amazon sells all kinds of things used and new, and even some of the new stuff is more than half off the original price. I got 2 sewing books for the price of one off Amazon a week ago and they were both new. Someone was clearing out their stock and was selling them for really cheap! And with gas at $3+ a gallon you're basically coming in even with shipping and handling. I need to stop looking on Amazon I think.

Last, but not least, I am so thankful that the weather was so nice this week! It is so nice to not worry about getting stuck in the snow or ice, worrying about family members and friends getting into accidents, etc. So much less stress! It's wonderful!

Another Weekend Over

It's Sunday night...it's amazing how quickly 3 days go by. 3 days where you don't have to dash out the door early and come home late, worry so much about the weather, deal with people all day...not that weekends are perfect, and they wouldn't mean anything if you didn't have to work because then they would just be like any other day...but I do enjoy them.

Today was a nice day. We had church with our neighbors (and my sister and her husband...who are also our neighbors...) and we all had lunch together. This happens pretty much every Sunday. It's really nice. The men take turns teaching each week so you get a variety. I like it when we listen to John MacArthur. I think he is a wonderful teacher. But it's also nice to hear what the other people here are studying in the Bible too. I enjoy it very much. Later this afternoon, Dad and I went out to Walmart (he let me drive :) ) and I was able to grocery shop for the week. I'm still gluten-free although I really wanted to cheat today. So I went to the store and managed to find a lot of gluten-free foods. So I guess I'll be doing a bit of cooking this week. Should be fun. :) And it's much cheaper than buying lunch out every day.

In other words I am thankful for:
family
friends
studying the Bible (with family and friends)
getting my grocery shopping done
spending quality time with my siblings this weekend (playing dutch blitz...I beat Matt. This has only ever happened once before. He's the best at dutch blitz. *says all this with a Nacho Libre accent*)
We didn't get all the snow and ice we were supposed to get.
One more week till it is March! February is almost over!

So that is what's on my mind tonight.
Have a happy week!

Thank you for today, I am grateful for today is all I have...'Phil Keaggy'

So I am beginning a series in which I count my blessings instead of my troubles. Join in if you feel so inclined. It is good to give thanks for the good things God gives us. :)

Psalm 107:1 'Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.


I am thankful for:

• Getting of work early tonight!
• My dad driving me home so I didn't have to drive in the snow.
• A good day at work.
• One more day till the weekend! :)
• My wonderful family who are my dearest friends in addition to being my family. I love them so much.
• My school bill working out.
• One more month till it is officially spring! Woo hoo!
• Friends to meet up with for lunch and/or a conversation.
• emails from friends away in college.
• that I haven't gotten sick (although a lot of people around here have. Keeping my fingers crossed here. )
• and I can't forget my dogs who are always doing something silly and make me laugh and love me even when I'm not very lovable. They're so sweet.
• my braces, even though they are uncomfortable and make my teeth hurt sometimes.
  

So these are some of the things I am grateful for. If I look at the big picture I can see how spoiled I am. I have so much while others have so little. And this goes beyond material things. I'm healthy (for the most part...being allergic to a lot of stuff is hard but I don't have a terminal disease or anything), I'm loved, I'm cared for, I'm employed...I should be rejoicing all the time. And that is my goal.

What is everyone else thankful for?

I plan to occasionally journal the things I am grateful for here on this blog so when I look back at what was going on at this time in my life I will remember how blessed I was and how God provided for me in so many ways.

Love to all,
:)