Nothing much... :)

Well, I wasn't really planing to write anything tonight, but I figured if I was gonna be on here anyways I might as well write a little bit! :) Blogging is addictive (kinda). :) Sugar on Snow was a lot of fun! And I got to see my new nephew, Weston David on the way home as well as my niece Bristol, Weston is adorable. I'm so tired out from Sugar on Snow and in desperate need of a shower! I had decided when we got home at 9:30 that I just wanted to go to bed so I quickly unpacked and was gonna skip the shower, but then I got a phone call from a friend and that lasted a while then I came up here and decided to check my e-mails which took a little longer than planned so I could have taken a shower in that time, but oh well, the shower can wait. People are more important anyways... most of the time. :) But I'll update y'all on Sugar on Snow tomorrow and stop boring you now. :)

The Worth of A Smile

THE WORTH OF A SMILE

The thing that goes the farthest
Towards making life worth while,
Which costs the least and counts the most,
Is just a pleasant smile.
The smile that bubbles from a heart
That loves its fellow men,
Will drive away the clouds of gloom
And coax the sun again,
It is full of worth, and goodness too,
With many kindness blent;
It is worth a million dollars
And it doesn't cost a cent.

There is no room for sadness
When we see a cheery smile,
It always has the same good looks,
It's never out of style.
It nerves us on to try again
When failure makes us blue,
The dimples of encouragement
Are good for me and you.
It pays a higher interest
For it is sincerely lent;
It is worth a million dollars
And doesn't cost a cent.

A smile comes very easy,
You can wrinkle up with cheer
A hundred times before you
Can squeeze out a soggy tear.
It ripples out moreover
To the heart-strings that will tug,
And always leaves an echo
That is very like a hug;
So smile away, folks understand
What by a smile is meant;
It is worth a million dollars
And doesn't cost a cent.

Anon

• A smile costs nothing, but gives much.
• You're never fully dressed without a smile.~Martin Charnin
• It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown.~Author Unknown

Courage to do what He asks of me

A friend recently e-mailed me, we had been talking about what God had been teaching us lately, one thing she shared that she was struggling to know when He was telling her to do something and then when she was sure it's Him, listening and obeying. Of course she wants to obey, but when the opportunity comes it's so easy to chicken out, and then you kick yourself for not doing what you should have when you could have!

So often I face the same thing, and the other day, I started asking myself, why is it so hard to do something so simple, for Someone who gave Their life for me? Why am I afraid of what people will think of me if I believe in the Creator of the Universe? Shouldn't I count it a joy and a privilege to tell others about Him? And when somebody says something that goes against my beliefs, why am I afraid to defend my God? If it was an earthly being I loved that was dissed, wouldn't I stand up for them? Why not someone I owe so much more for?

A few weeks ago I went with my aunt and cousins who were visiting to my grandparents church. Their youth pastor was speaking and his message was on Evangelism. At the end of his sermon he in a way, challenged each of us to go out and in at least one converstaion that week, to tell someone about God's love. Immediately one of my friends popped into my mind and the next day when that friend and I talked, I was kind of wrestling with the fear of turning a conversation to Christian topics. Within minutes, my friend, on her own turned the conversation, mentioning something that someone from her old church had told her about the life she was living that she did not appreciate. I did not fully agree with what that person had told her, but I explained what that person might have meant and what my view was on the subject. My friend was quiet and the subject soon changed, but I silently thanked God for the opportunity.

After knowing the peace of obedience why then do I still hesitate? Why don't I jump at the opportunity to share my Savior's love and to share the peace He has given me with others? After all He's done for my, why did I hestitate to do this small thing for Him?

Yiruma - Kiss the Rain

I think this is my favorite song by Yiruma. It's actually one of my blog background songs too.  (to turn off the blog music, scroll to the bottom of the page and pause the player)

Another boring update on my life.... :)

Well, my cousins just left, Emily was trying to convince her mom to let us come stay for a week (Sarah and me) but of course that didn't work out! :) We had a blast together over the weekend though... Going on walks and freezing ourselves, texting, annoying each other, dressing up and doing photo shoots, talking about doing plays and 'practicing' but never doing them :-P), staying up too late (10:30 or 11:00) then thinking of crazy stuff to say and do and laughing 'til we cried 'cause we needed sleep (that was mostly me), exploding stuff (that was a lot of fun ;), and all the other crazy stuff we do while we're together. Now I need to go down and clean up the atrocious mess from the photo shoot and catch up on the laundry that's been mostly forgotten over the weekend. Oh well, I enjoy cleaning and laundry and maybe Sarah and I will do some rearranging and decorating, we'll see. So this week we'll be getting ready to go to Sugar on Snow (a colonial re-enactment), we're leaving Thursday. I'm looking forwards to seeing everyone there and helping out over the weekend! :-) Well, I'm going to end this so that I can go and get going on those things I mentioned that needed to be done. :-) Hope you all have an excellent week!!

Pictures of the family

Just some pictures of the family :)

Ruthie being silly

John listening to Good Night Moon on tape

Lizzy was serving ice cream on Sarah's birthday... looks like she's teasing Aaron about the amount she's giving him.

Sarah

And Me :)

Pictures of Emily and Katelyn's visit

Yesterday was KEY, that went well (after the usual stressful morning of getting ready was over) and surprisingly I actually enjoyed watercolor painting! Today I'm going to clean for Grandma and tomorrow night I think, Emily and Katelyn are coming for a visit again. I can't wait, it will be a lot of fun!

Here are just a few pictures of Emily and Katelyn's last visit.

Katelyn and me

The little man Emily made out of my kneaded eraser :)

Emily and my bracelets, Best - Friends. Forever! :)

Emily's drawing

Emily and Sarah painted sunsets :)

My crazy cousin and crazy me!!

I love you Emily and Katelyn!!!

Valentines Day

Happy belated Valentines Day to you all! :) Hope your yesterday was special! I shopped all morning, well not quite, just a few hours, then hurried to get ready to go to the church where I helped decorate and get ready for the banquet a little bit. Then about 5:45 All the babysitters and 'non-youth' headed over to Byler's who live only two miles from the church. The children were good, considering there were that many all together at once. By the time the parents started arriving to pick there kids up I was ready to just go to sleep! But it was fun and by what some of the couples said, they had a good time and it all went well, so I'm glad for that.
It's been crazy warm lately and I'm so looking forwards to spring! I love this time of year when everything's melting and you can just smell spring! :)
Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Music

The following music videos are three of my favorite Christian Contemporary songs. 1. By Your Side - Tenth Avenue North 2. The Motions by Matthew West and 3. You Can Have Me - Sidewalk Prophets. The last is probably my favorite, I love the opening lines,

'If I saw you walking on the streets, And you said come and follow me, But I had to give up everything All I once held dear and all of my dreams, Would I love you enough to let go, Or would my love run dry?' 

 The first day I took time to listen to the words and take them in, they really made me think, do I love Him enough to give up everything? Or are people and things more important to me? 

Nothing new really...

Had an exhausting weekend, spending a few hours at the funeral on Saturday, then coming back to the Hendrickson's (where we stayed over night Friday and Saturday night). They left for church this morning around ten and we headed for home. On our way we stopped at Chris and Debbie's for about an hour and a half for Pie Day (as I mentioned in my last post). By the time we got home around 4:00 we were all long ready to be home. It's 8:30 and we're all very tired.
Tomorrow is the Valentines Banquet at church. If I can go shopping early enough in the morning I might go with Rachael in the afternoon and help set up and decorate but if not, I'll go later on with the others (if the family ends up going, depending on if the baby decides to come tomorrow afternoon/evening or not) and then spend the evening helping to babysit the children, they thought there would be around thirty of them, that should be fun. :)
But as tired as I am, it was good to see the Smith relatives again and the Hendrickson family. And I am looking forwards to the banquet tomorrow and spending the evening with all those cute little kids! :)

Just a quick update...

I sewed a skirt for myself this afternoon which put me in a rather bad mood (as sewing usually does to me) but as Sarah pointed out, at least she was reading to me (Disgusting Digestion a science book :)) which cheered me up faster after I was finished sewing.
We're going to a funeral in the cities tomorrow, so we're going down tonight and staying over with a friend then leaving tomorrow to go the rest of the way to the funeral.
Last weekend we had my cousins which was a lot of fun, I was planing on putting up some pictures but haven't got the chance yet, then this Thursday we had a family stay over that was on their way to Canada. They left this morning and we started packing. Mom had a funeral this afternoon and we were planning to leave about 4 or 5 when she got back, but as usual it's much later than we were planning to leave and we're still home.
After the funeral tomorrow we're probably heading home and Sunday we have church and an old family friend is hosting his annual 'pie day'. I'm not sure if we'll go for that or not. Life never does quite seem to slow down but the funny thing is, when somebody asks me, 'what's new' or what I've been doing, I think for a minute then say 'nothing much' or 'school'. Maybe because it's really nothing new, just the same old, oh well, life's good.
Hope you all have a good weekend and I'll try not to wait so long to update next! :)

Hero - Abandon