I have three things to say (Ok, it became four, sorry)

1. It's a good thing that this blog is not a "quilting" blog or any other type of crafting blog. I wouldn't get any comments except from my sister.
   
2. It's the end of September! =O I finished my first week of school, it went pretty well school-wise. There were lots of surprises and some really hard stuff that I have to deal with, I could use prayer for wisdom in these things. And tomorrow I go and start another week of school! One down 10 more to go! Onward and upward and all of that...
3. I was walking up the steps this morning after John and I got back from church and I thought about how sad it is to come home and to not have anyone welcoming you. Then right after I thought that John said, "It's weird to not have any animals here when you get home...." And I was like, "I just thought the same thing!!!" It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who is still dealing with losing Boomer and Diesel. I'm trusting that God has a plan that is waaaaaaaaay better than having pets right now. AND! I get to go and visit the Chats and Harry every once in a while. So that's nice. They get really excited to see me (and mom, dad, and John).
   
4. Bella is turning 8 next Saturday and she will be half my age. And! When I turn 17 (in 19 days...) I will have half someone else's age (for 41 days?). So yes. It is the year of half ages.
   

Yay!

We went and visited Jen on Wednesday. She had Thomas on Sunday morning. He has jaundice so that's why he looks so orange. He was 3 or 4 weeks early but other than the jaundice he's doing really well! When we saw him he was 6.5 lbs. He's so tiny!
Paul came home with his grandma from the zoo. We brought him some goldfish so he wouldn't feel left out. He has a really high squeaky voice. When he saw what I brought him his face literally lit up and he came over and squeaked out, "Thank you!" And he gave me a hug. And that made my day. Like seriously, I was all smiles.

I made Thomas this sweater. It turned out really well.

Please!?!??!

"Mom, can you pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease buy me this for my birthday?!??!?!"

(100 points to anyone who knows the actual name for those things. All we could come up with is stick pony or horsey stick, or um.. Yeah, but I was so sure they actually had a specified name....)

More funny stuffs

I don't know who typed this in, but I thank you. It made me laugh.

"did johnny depp read the bible i sent him?"

How in the world? Do I talk about Johnny Depp? Weird.

Pandas are now my favorite creatures....

Good Monday

Well tonight was the second Christian Life and Witness class. I picked Allie up and brought her. I'm really glad she could come, we got to talk about some really good stuff.

Since this class started I've been convicted of not spending enough time memorizing. The first night the speaker asked us, "If your Bible were taken away from you, how big would your Bible be?"

How convicting. I've thought about that question a quite a bit. I talked with Allie about how I struggle in this area and she's going to keep me accountable.

So I am going to memorize 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. I've always loved this passage.

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."

-1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Those verses also go along with the ones I read in Jeremiah a couple of weeks ago.

"This is what the LORD says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,

but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD."

-Jeremiah 9:23-24

My Heroes

I have some new heroes from this weekend.

Jake Locker. Yes, yes, I know he's the huskie's quarterback, but he's still my hero. He's a really good quarterback and he is a brother in the Lord.

Number 26 from the Cougs. One of the Vandal players accidentally ran over one of our players and knocked him out. So that went on for about 10 minutes. #26 knelt down on the field and prayed, the rest of the players on the field also knelt down.

So anyway, the Coug fans (being the wonderful people that they are) started swearing at the Vandal player who hit the Coug. So then this girl who was on the Vandal sideline said something like, "Well you don't even care when our players get hurt!" And their (the girl and one of the guy Coug fans sitting in front of us) continued on in their discussion. She ended up flipping him off. Aaaaaaand anyway there was a lot of ugliness going on. I was pretty mad about how st00pid people were being and then this guy walked past, I had seen him earlier and he made me happy. He was selling hot chocolate and he had dark brown hair, a beard and blue eyes. He smiled and seemed very happy. So when he walked past again I looked at him and he reminded me of Jesus, I can't really explain why. I think it was the way he acted and then I calmed down. That guy reminded me of my Saviour and how I need to be living to show others His love. So that guy is my hero.

There you have it. Aaaaaaaaaand it's pretty gray and rainy today, but I'm glad to be home.

!!!

Football today people!!!!

Go COUGS!

lol

We're in the hotel now and there was this commercial for "Endless Pools." I laughed really hard.

Also! I drove for like 3 hours aaaaaaaaaand..... I was behind this truck and Dad was like, "Pass him!" (He was going 5 under) So it was like I was playing chicken. I'm not kidding I must have tried to pass him 5 times.

(John just gave me two minutes on the lappy. I've got to make this quick)

Anyway! Our fuel mileage was 30.7 mpg. A proud moment for me....

Anyway! I'm off.

Reminders

It doesn't look too different from last year.

I had an appointment with my surgeon today, he doesn't recommend surgery. I haven't really been able to sort out my feelings about that statement. Deep down in my heart I wanted to get them out, I want to get back to normal. This hardware is like a handcuff, always reminding me of things God showed me during that trial. I'm reminded of my frailty and my pride.

God showed me that I actually do need help and that I have a lot of pride that gets in my way. I have to "humble" myself and accept help from people.

Whenever I see the scars, feel the plate and screws, or feel it burn I'm reminded of uncomfortable things. I just wanted to be "normal" again. God doesn't want me to be "normal" again, He wants to keep these things fresh in my mind. And I do need reminders about these things.

So that is what I was feeling after I left the office, I was feeling sad because I didn't get my way on a small level I suppose. Life changes so quickly. Trials come fast, and if I got rid of the screws I might not be reminded of that trial and the things I learned.

So anyway! My brain is pretty much gone. I'm tired and I think I'll go get some water.

Soooo.... Monday.

Last night my family and I went to the Christian Life and Witness Course. It is put on by the Billy Graham evangelistic association. There are 18 of these courses happening this week and one of them was at our church.

It was very, very good. If you live in my area I encourage you to come, even if you live on the other side of the bridge there are churches that are doing this over there (like I said there are 18 of these courses happening each week). These courses are preparation for the Franklin Graham festival happening November 2,3,4. I think I'm going to be a counselor and maaaaaaaaaaaybe be in the choir. For those of you who don't know (like I didn't, until last night) when Franklin Graham gives the call for people to come forward they do, and they meet with counselors. These people will pray with them to receive Christ, or if they want to rededicate their lives, etc. So being a counselor is a very cool thing.

And being in the choir is like a dream come true for me! I love to sing but the biggest choir that I've been in was about 30-40 people. If I joined the choir for the festival there would be about 1000 people. It would be very cool.

So if you live in my area contact me and I'll let you know the details about the classes. I really encourage you guys to look into this.

Football!

This stretch reminds me of Kindergarten for some reason.....

Before the game started Navy Seals parachuted into the stadium from really, really high. It was REALLY cool.

This guy had the American flag but two others had Coug flags.

Joy!

"They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
John 4:42

I'm overcome when I think of my unsaved friends coming to the Lord. Instead of it just being, "Oh yeah, Elyse just seems to be really into God. She's a 'God girl.'" they would say, "I know the Lord!!!! How good He is!"

I can't even describe how happy I would be to hear them say those words. I want them to know Him! To know Him personally. To see His beauty, His grace, His love, kindness, compassion, mercy, humor, awesomeness.....

It makes me tear up. I know I may not ever hear them say those words. But I know that God is using me. Maybe I'm planting seeds, maybe I'm watering them.... Maybe I'll never get to see them grow. But God is using me and I am very thankful that He is.

Molly visit!!!

Betsy and I *coughmostlyallBetsycough* went on a fly killing spree. Aaaaand umm.. The kill count was Betsy 19 Elyse 2. loooooooooool.

I absolutely love the dahlia on the right! It's soooo pretty.

And this one is pretty amazing too.

Bunnies!!! They had them at Bea's flowers (where I got the dahlias) they were very cute.

He was funny.

Ahem.

Molly had surgery today, please pray for quick healing for her.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp.

These were recently installed at our Target. This one is in electronics and I'm not kidding you turn around and there is the electronics booth, where a Target worker is always stationed.

I was tempted to push the button in electronics and turn around and look at the Target worker. lol. Someone should do it, I'm a wimp and I probably won't. So my faithful readers, if you see a "help" button in Target... Push it. Do it fooooooooooooooooooooooor me. lol. =P

Play-doh

We decided to make kool aid play doh yesterday morning.

Nice greenish color...

The dogs wanted to know what smelled so good.

My creation

Bella's creation. I believe it was a forest of some sort.

The recipe

1 package of unsweetened kool aid
1 cup of flour
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup salt
1 cup boiling water

Mix together and once it's cool enough knead till it's a soft dough.

Ok.... So ASU (first video.. And I guess that's seriously their college's video.... lol) beat the 5th ranked team in the nation.... HA HA HA HA...

Oh it's ON now....

John bought Brain Age 2 about two weeks ago so Mom, John, and I have been playing it.

I don't know what it is about my brother but it always turns into a competition.... lol

I just started playing a game on Brain Age called Virus buster yesterday. So I got like 64 points on hard and like 168 on normal. Last night John was like, "*content sigh* this is hard." And I was like, "Oh? How many points do you have?" He answered and I was like, "Oh." So half an hour ago John was like, "Oh yeah... I beat your score by like 100."

And I was like, "!!! Why is it a competition?!!?! Virus Buster is supposed to be RELAXING."

"You had a smirk last night...."

"I DID NOT!!!!"

"Yes you did..."

"What did I say?!?! Huh? I said NOTHING about that. R-tard! (We're very loving all the time, as you can see) WHY IS EVERYTHING A COMPETITION?!?!?!"

"What's the point of the game if it isn't comparison? And do you know where r-tard originated from?"

"Ch..... Loser. AND YES. And do YOU know where it came from oh smart one?"

"*smirks* It came from the Greek....."

And then we both laughed. So then he continued playing with a SMIRK. And I sighed.

I just want to beat him on the piano game, he got 96 and I've only gotten 95... But I held the top 3 spots for a week!!! But Kristy will be here in like an hour so both John and I will be thrown from the top three spots. The sibling who actually plays will destroy us.

I must say I really enjoy Brain Age though, a little healthy competition never hurt anyone, right? =P

And Amelia will be here soooooooon!!!! We are going to draw a picture that she promised a friend of ours like 2 months ago. It should be good times.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

You know football season has started when you get a call from your sister and she says, "WOOOOOOOO!!!! TOUCHDOWN BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! WE'RE TWO MINUTES INTO THE GAME AND WE SCORED A TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!"

Woot!!!!!!!!!!!!

I might have to go over and watch the game after all. I was like, "Umm.... Wisconsin is No. 7 in the nation..... I really don't want to watch the Cougs take that bad a beating."

But I do so love my team....

Go Cougs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!