This is December weather, NOT weather for the end of April! I'm so so sick of this snow! The giant snowflakes that would be amazing and beautiful during the 'supposed to be winter months' are no longer welcome! Why can't spring quit being such a pushover and tell winter to leave?! I'm really looking forwards to spring, that is if it ever will come. it's melting and snowing at the same time right now. It's so disgusting!

But anyways, enough complaining, there are still good things in life! :) Like coffee and the fact that I get to see one of my best friends (Vanessa Rempel) on Sunday, it's been almost a year (a year in July so like 9 months) since I saw her last and so I'm really psyched about that!

Life has been so busy lately! Like I said in an earlier post, I spent most of last week with Dan and Traci, then the Thursday I got home, Aaron and I went out to visit Pete and Kelsey and didn't get home until like 2:00 or 2:30 am. We also were doing chores for a friend Thursday morning through Saturday evening.
Sunday was church and in the evening my good friend, Lena Hendrickson came for the evening and stayed over night and left pretty early on Monday morning. I had a blast with her, Aaron and Sarah, Lena and I went into town for awhile and just hung out.
Tuesday, mom, Rachael, Sarah and I went to the second hand store near us, Value Smart and I got a few shirts, all my old ones are pretty much stained, ripped or too small, so it's nice to have a few more.
Tomorrow is KEY.
Friday there's a possibility I'm going to Pete and Kelsey's until Saturday night or Sunday morning and then Sunday is Easter with them and the grandparents and it's also the day that as I mentioned before Aaron and I are most likely going to pick up Vanessa.

I really need to find a job of some sort, I'm pretty much broke, but anyways, so that's sorta a long update on my life right now. It's pretty crazy!

In memory of Daisy

Okay, so yeah, this is the second post about a silly dog, but this second one is for you who don't want to read the gory details of the accident.

Daisy  -  December 2008 - April 17, 2011

I think this was taken the first night we got her.

Aaron with Daisy Dec. '08

Sarah dressed Daisy up

Daisy and our cat Tiffany winter '09 I think

November 2010

November 2010

She was smart and annoying! And you didn't realize you were attatched to her in any way at all until she was gone... just like that!

Crime Scene Do Not Cross

CAUTION: Not for the easily disturbed!

Just witnessed a 'hit and run'.

We watch horrified as she steps off the shoulder. We shout across to her to stay where she is, the car speeds past and there's a loud crash. I half gasp, half scream as we see her body roll out from under the vehicle, she flops limp in the middle of the road. My feet break into a run, swallowing the distance, I call her name as I run, horrified by the scene I just witnessed. I get within a few feet and see the blood. She doesn't move, just lies completely still, eyes closed, body twisted. I turn and put my hands over my mouth, trying to breath.
 "She's dead!"
I tell Aaron as he comes up. He looks at her and then looks like he's going to leave her.
"We've got to get her off the road!" I say.
He looks at me, I can see in his eyes that he doesn't want to, for a moment he hesitates, then he takes her by a back leg and drags her into the ditch.
All that's left as evidence of the 'hit and run' is a red stain on the highway and a white corpse blending with the snow in the ditch.

Painted eggs and an update on life...

Well, it's been long enough since I last posted. :-) Friday (the 8th) Mom and I went to Dan and Traci's and helped out with cooking, cleaning, a bit of laundry and Davie. Then mom left and I stayed until Wednesday night (the 13th) when Dan and Traci brought me back. It was so cute, when they were ready to leave, Davie was waving good bye to everyone and then he started saying bye. He got a lot of attention for that because it's the first time he's said it, so he thought that was pretty cool and kept repeating it. :-)
Yesterday we decorated eggs in art class for spring. Here are some pictures.

Lizzy boiled 18 eggs for mom's art class

Mixing dye for the eggs

John watching the dye mixing process

Trying to decide how to decorate my egg

A few finished eggs drying

Lizzy's finished product, 'He is Risen Indeed'

Lizzy dying her egg.

Trying to get the eggs onto the stand to dry without smudging it is quite the challenge!

Some of the finished eggs.

And we thought spring was finally here with 60-75* weather... but the winter isn't ready to leave... I really think winter needs to learn to let go! =P

Forgiven

Forgiven
Skillet
Forgive me now cause I
Have been unfaithful
Don't ask me why cause I don't know
So many times I've tried
But was unable
But this heart belongs to You alone.

Now I'm in our secret place
Alone in Your embrace
Where all my wrongs have been erased
You have forgiven
All the promises and lies
All the times I compromise
All the times You were denied
You have forgiven.

Forgive me I'm ashamed
I've loved another
I can't explain cause I don't know
No one can take Your place
And there is no other
Forever Yours and Yours alone.

Now I'm in our secret place
Alone in your embrace
Where all my wrongs have been erased
You have forgiven
All the promises and lies
All the times I compromise
All the times you were denied
You have forgiven.

Take me to our secret place
We'll leave the world away
I get down on my knees
Feel your love wash over me
There will never be another
You're the only one forever
And you know I'm Yours alone.
Now I'm in our secret place
Alone in Your embrace
Where all my wrongs have been erased
You have forgiven
All the promises and lies
All the times I compromise
All the times you were denied
You have forgiven.

The Story Behind the Song...
The idea for this song came from a sermon I [John from Skillet] heard about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo, and in the story there's this giant idol they are told to bow down to but they won't do it. The speaker was making a correlation between that and us running to other idols in our lives, running to other things before we go to God.... What do we run to or do we run to God when life gets stressful.... We don't always view a lot of things as idols but the truth is, anything we put in our life that we run to before we run to God is an idol to us....

The other night I heard this song on the radio after hearing the testimony behind it, and the first verse brought tears to my eyes,

'Forgive me now 'cause I
Have been unfaithful,
Don't ask me why 'cause I don't know,
So many times I've tried,
But was unable,
But this heart belongs to You alone....'

There are so many things in my life, it seems, that I tend to run to instead of God, I hold onto earthly security and comfort when God's longing for me to come to him.
For me, it has always seemed like idolatry was actually worshiping idols like in foreign countries, but idolatry is just as much here in America where we hold things like money, our jobs, music, career, fame, even people before God, and we hardly even realize or notice it.