LARGE AND IN CHARGE.

This made my day

Fun times

Allie is going to Cali soon so we decided to hang out today. I picked her up, my first time driving a friend around, and we went down to the Harbor. It was encouraging, fun, and hilarious.

We got to talk about what God has been teaching us.

And we went into all of the little tourist shops. We went into the Gift Mall and I saw a tea pot, I said, "If this was a tea cup I would buy it! It's so cute!" And Allie laughed and said, "What? 'If this were a man I would marry it?" We almost died laughing. So the whole rest of the day we would see inanimate objects and say, "If this were a man... I WOULD MARRY IT!!!" Then Allie saw a hideous necklace and she said, "This looks like part of the digestive track." And I said, "If this were a man..." Allie interjects, "He would have to have some good qualities....."

XD

So we had some really good times. We went in my old small group leader's baby clothes shop and saw an amazing thing, which we plan on using when we are invited to a baby shower. It was in a box and I thought it was a bouquet... Then I saw the "Bunch of baby clothes" And I went, "!!!!" There were fake flowers and leaves but some of the flowers were rolled up baby things, like socks, bibs, or onesies. We were amazed.

We also went into a fancy clothes shop. I thought they only sold "mom" clothes there but I found stuff there that I would see at the gap. Then we came to it, a Juicy Couture sweater. I looked at the price tag and nudged Allie. We both quietly laughed. $268 bucks for a sweater that I didn't find cute. Allie said, "Yes... The sheep was very special. It had to be wrangled." We cracked up as we walked out of the store. It was great.

Allie was wearing a shirt that said nonconformist. A lady in Red (jewelry store) asked about it and Allie quoted Romans 12:1, "Do not conform any longer to the ways of this world, but be transformed..." It was very cool. She's an awesome sister. :)

I told Allie what God showed me last night. He always pulls me back in when I need it, even when I don't know why I feel the way I do, He tells me why. He is good! I found this online last night and this was exactly what I needed to hear. I needed to hear God tell me the truth on why things have been kind of hard for me the last couple of months. I am glad He did.

"God fights for us with the full might of his redemptive hand.

He is willing to make us uncomfortable and sad.

He is willing to bring us through suffering and grief.

He is willing to shake and unsettle us.

He is willing to squash our dreams and let the air out of our hopes.

He is willing to let what we have craved slip like sand through our fingers.

And he does all of these things, because we are precious to him.

We are the apple of his eye.

He will not share us with another.

He will not allow us to live in the delusion

that we have found elsewhere

what can only be found in Him."

~Paul Tripp~

Lost in the Middle

It was a good day.

Creature Feature

I weeded sooo much today!! I'll be really sore tomorrow, it'll be awesome! :)

During my adventure I was lots of cool things! Some people are jaded and don't care but I thought they were awesome.

So there.

I got the wheel barrow and underneath it was a pile of seed and lots of ants. And a big red moth. It was very exciting. I named the moth Sally.

Then!! I saw a three legged frog!!!! I was in awe. I named him Jim.

Then I was putting dirt in the wheel barrow and I uncovered two Salamanders! I named them Dorcas and Fabio. They were like 8 inches long! It was pretty exciting.

Then I battled earwigs. And let me tell you I was preeeeetty freaked out. I had to go into the tent (which has been up for a month because I'm still trying to co-ordinate some things) to get a blanket which had been left in there. I had to unzip the tent and grab the blanket. You all know that when you unzip something you have to zip it back up. So I was about to and then an earwig fell out of its hiding place (between the zipper for the door and the zipper for the window covering). So then I was trying to figure out how to close it without touching the zipper and I finally got some huge leather gloves. Then I had to check my blanket for earwigs. And ugggh.. I found 2 and a spider (which ended up being smooshed on the quilt) aaaand so I washed it. And I hope they (all the ones who were hiding in the quilt) all died.

Whew. I survived.

hahha

Meet Wabbit

Amazing

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA.... This looks AWESOME. Does anyone want to come and see a princess movie with me?

A thought

"To love him is to know him is to love him. Those who knew him... Loved him. And those who did not know him... Loved him from afar."

From quite possibly Data's funniest episode EVER.

Camping Pictures

Kristy and Rob

Paris Hilton?

Gangster

"Cup O' Noo, Dah?" and the eye

I can see Harry on an expedition

Harry stole Chats chewies repeatedly but she didn't mind.

BRAIN DUMP!

This is a combination of pictures and a journal entry from camping. The words and the pictures cannot due justice to the amazing piece of handiwork that God did when He made that sunset. This is a brain dump. It is to help me remember what God has done in my life. "Sin isn't our biggest problem, forgetting is." Yesterday was gray and cold. Camping was alright but it was very cold. At the end of the day was sat around the fire, gradually we noticed the sun was out (instead of being hidden by clouds). The trees had orange shadows on them from the sunset. We were awed by the beauty and we rushed down to the waterfront.

The sun shone out between two pink sun rays that bounced over any clouds they came across. We could finally see blue sky, it was crowned by the golden circle of the sun. The sky was blue, pink, orange, gray, and golden. Just before the sun set 3 golden streaks that looked like lighting bolts came out from the sun. Words simply cannot do it justice (or pictures).
Today there were no clouds, it was pretty warm and it was lovely. But the sunset was just ok.
We realized that the clouds make it better. I can appreciate a beautiful sunset (especially if it's refracting off of clouds) on a day where I haven't seen any sun better than I can appreciate a sunset of a day where I have seen sun all day.

The trials I experience now makes the joys I have now all the more wonderful.

A few examples:

Jesus. He endured the cross and scorned its shame for the joy set before Him. (Hebrews 12:2)

Job. "How shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" (Job 2:10)

God has the right to do what he wants. This last year has been filled with trails and joys. Just in the last month and a half Diesel ran away and Boomer died.

I say in all truth that God has the right.

He has the right to bless and to take, but he does all of this for our good. "And we know that in all things God works for the good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. What, then, shall we say in respond to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all- how will He not also, along with Him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:28, 31-32)

I trust Him. Never once has He put me in a place where I truly lacked anything I needed. Truly He blessed me with things that I didn't need, but it showed me His huge and intimate love.

When I saw that amazing sunset I had complete peace about going back to school. I realized that anyone who could make something that beautiful can peaceful can makes things that peaceful and beautiful happen in the fall, winder, and spring.

Oh and a couple of days after I wrote this I read this in My Utmost for His Highest. Very cool. :)

Yeah

She's a cutie. She and Harry are coming to visit (oh yeah, and Rob, Kristy, Max and Bella) on Friday morning.

At last!

They have finally arrived, sorry it took so long. I'm calling my new look "80s prom turned goth."

What do you think? You like? Yooooou liiiiiike! ;)

DIS-TURB-ING

Am I the only one that finds the fact that a Bratz movie is coming out REALLY DISTURBING?

I hope not.

"They start their journey separated by high school cliques, only to realize that by becoming Bratz, their lives will be more fulfilling"

Soooo.... By looking like a hooker my life will be more fulfilling?

I know that I'm not the only one that has a problem with this. Just the name is horrible... The list of bad things goes on.

Allliiiiiive

I'm alive! And I smell like fire and dirt! Yay! I'm going to take a shower in approximately 5 minutes!

Camping was really fun. I took 341 pictures. One of them will be my new profile picture, it's my Paris picture. <3<3<3<3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">lol.

I'll probably post a journal entry I made about sunsets and what God showed me through the sunsets. It was kind of like I was at church camp because God really spoke to my heart and reminded me in an awesome way that He is able to make things beautiful, even if they seem really difficult and lame. And I'll post pictures of the sunsets. Be excited!

I also took about 8 pictures of Rob being gangsta, I'm posting those too. Prepare yourself.

I'll post pictures of Harry.

So as you all know Boomer died on Sunday. But now I'm home and I'm like, "OK, in the last month and a half all of my pets have either run away or died." I can't even begin to compute the fact that Boomer is gone, he's been my buddy since I was one and a half.

But like I said, God is able to make beautiful things out of these trials. Oh, and be excited for my sunset post. What God showed me was awesome.

SHOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRR!!!!

Chato body slammed my head and then Chato and Harry had a fight on my hair. Harry was trying to burrow into my hair. It was pretty great.

Boomer died sometime last night. Please pray for us.

Interesting....

lol.

This guy was very whimsical. He was playing a harp...
Yes, I laughed at this.
JACK BLACK.
MUSTACHE!
She was so cute!
This guy was pretty amazing.

hahaha

So we were driving home and some pedestrians walked in front of us on the sidewalk. This one guy was AMAZING. He looked like a model. No, I'm not saying I thought was he was cute he was just AMAZING. It was funny.

I looked at Kristy and I started singing this song. lol. Kristy was like, "Yeah.... He was strutting." AND HE WAS. I'm not kidding. He was wearing a buttoned up shirt and jeans and his hair was like "POOF!" He thought he was H- double O-double T (HOOTT)!!! He gave me this model look like, "I'm gonna look at you but oooohhh.....

'I'm a mooooooodel you know what I mean...'"

Oh my....

Um. Right now we're watching a Ferret program on PBS. I'm. So. Disturbed. It was so funny though, a ferret came on and I said, "That ferret is SO FAT!" Then Kristy said, "It's just like you Elyse!" Came to find out later that she really meant how I was just like the owner, who was singing a song about her ferret pulling plastic bags through her couch. lol.

Like seriously. And the fact that the Buckeyes host this thing is REALLY DISTURBING. Um. Besides the fact that ferrets really creep me out. yeah.

And apparently ferrets are h00ge in Japan (this brings to mind an instance today when my Mom said, "h00ge" lol)

BTW I'm holding a Chihuahua named Harry. He's 8 weeks old and I think he's a little cold. I'm going to spend a week with him.

Hey hey!

Happy Birthday Mommy! I love you!

Pictures!!

Normal(-ish) picture

I'm still about to die whenever I see this picture. It needs to be the desktop, I'll do that now. But just to clarify, we were posing so that it looked like her bear umbrella was attacking my frog umbrella (just in case you were wondering).

Bella and Dad! Bella being her model self, as always.

.....

You know that you have a drama queen around when you hear the words, "There is no fun. All the fun went away." To which I promptly responded, "All the fun diiiiiiied. It all died. There is no more fun."

lol. We actually did have fun today and I will post pictures soon. There are a couple that are on the same level of awesomeness as this one. Like every time I look at these pictures I laugh my head off and yes I am laughing at myself. Most of you will die from laughter. Expect retarded things.

Burns on top of burns on top of burns on top of burns on top of burns...

My nose is peeling.

me: Chaos is breaking out upstairs. Sir: You should name your next pet Chaos and then when you say that it'll mean he broke out of his cage or something me: lol! I think Mimi just got out! I mean. That's horrible. snicker Good thing no animals are upstairs. Sir: IIIIIIIIIIII don't even know who Mimi is. ^_^ me: Bella's hamsters. hamster. Just one. Sir: oh yeah! heh me: That was funny. Hopefully they find it. Sir: lol Maybe it's in the doll house or something since they've trained it to use that stuff me: I'm so insensitive! I'm like laughing at this and Bella is almost crying. lol I'll have to tell Kristy that. lol Sir: hahaha aww me: Hold on. I'm going to go see how it's progressing. Sir: oki doki me: lol!!! I had to walk away I was laughing so hard. snort Sir: Hahahaha me: Bella is smirking Sir: oh dear me: My Dad is getting frustrated. John and him are trying to get Mimi out from behind the buffet thing. One of them has a broom, I'm not sure how that's going to help. This is really funny. I wish this was on video. I think they found it! Sir: Buffet thing? Is it like a bar counter? Or do you have one of those kitchen windows? 'Cause both of those are cool, heh me: Good times, good times. No, umm... What is that called. hm. But that was funny. Good times. Sir: Maybe it's called good times. me: No. I asked my Mom And she said it was a "heavy piece of furniture." Sir: Hahahahaha!! me: It has cabinets and it's long. Sir: Hey, I think we have quite a few of those at the store, lol

Sir is offline. Messages you send will be delivered when Sir comes online. ps. Kristy, Mimi is fine and safe in her cage.

Sunday

Yesterday I walked the new bridge.... Twice. So I have two BIG H00GE NASTY blisters on my foot.

These are the times of Job

Everything hit me hard again yesterday. Boomer is dying, Diesel is gone.... I learned this song at camp and it really helped me. I wasn't thinking about how much my life is horrible because of all the people dying but I was thinking about school. I get really nervous about school before it starts, and I'll be at main campus in the fall so that is really intimidating. This song reminded me that life passes quickly and God is always with me! Always.

Matt Redman - You Never Let Go
From the album Passion 06: Everything Glorious

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth

Chorus:

Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

Camp

I'm so tired right now, I stayed up until 4 last night pranking people. It was amazing.

This week was amazing. I met amazing people, Katy and Melissa were in my cabin and they rocked my socks off. They actually care about the Lord and want to serve Him! It's refreshing to find other people my age like me. God reminded me that I am precious to Him. I make Him smile when He thinks about me. Wow. I forget so quickly and easily! Satan doesn't want me to remember how God loves me and what He's done for me. The speaker said that sin isn't our biggest problem, forgetting is.

This week has been so full! Full of worship. Full of games (I jumped hurdles. No, I'm not kidding. I ACTUALLY did that.). Full of friends. And sunburns, smelly cabins, and getting soaked by the worship leader. I went on a gigantic slip and slide, I did not fall. I played wiffle ball with shaving cream in it and I hit the ball on my first swing. I would have also had a home run but the girl who was running got out.

It was a very good week. It's odd to come back to real life, but I'm here now and I'm going to try and not say anything rash while I'm SO TIRED. That wouldn't end well. lol.

lol

You know you live in the ghetto when the kids in your neighborhood take the wheels off an office chair and leave it on the side of the road.

lol

So long, farewell....

I'm leaving for camp in the morning!!!

It hasn't really sunk in, so I'm not nervous. There aren't any girls from my church that are coming so it'll be pretty much like last year except that I'll know people that I met last year! It should be fun.

But seriously, I haven't psyched myself up about it at all. I was so busy this week that I did my laundry yesterday and I packed my stuff today. I still have stuff like my toothbrush to pack. Hopefully I won't forget that! lol.

Also, please pray for me to get better. I've been a little sick, or a lot sick to the people that have actually been around me (aka Kristy lol....). I'm getting better, I think. 0.o But I want to get fully back to normal.

But I'm sure it will be a good week. It was last year. Although this time I won't have any excuse to not participate in games. I haven't broken any bones so it looks like I might have to run around.... >.<

AND I met a guy today that looks like James Stewart (MY ALL TIME FAVORITE ACTOR AND ONE OF THE CUTEST!!!) and acts like him (acts like a gentleman). AND WHY IN ALL BLASTED BLASTY BLASTS(!) DOES HE LIVE SO FAR AWAY!? Lame. lol. Amelia and I were discussing him tonight, she actually saw him too! So we can both remember what he looks like.... Since I'll probably never see him again.

Cutie!

h00ge cheeks!

This was funny, Kadyn was trying to grab John's hand but he was pushing John's arm away with his foot. He was getting really frustrated, it was funny.

Kadyn looked very cool in the hat.

........

What a man....
















;)

Grand

I saw Transformers today.

UH-MA-ZING.

You should all watch it.

It pwn'd Pirates 3 infinitely, but I didn't like Pirates 3. Very awesome though.

Happy Fourth of July!

I likey

It says, "I'm dressy, but I'm here to party."

andiownone. YES.

Big days

Today was super busy. This was the first day that we switched over to two services. Our new sanctuary opened on Easter and we've had one service since then, until today. There weren't a lot of people in the first service, maybe a hundred. The sermon was excellent. I love my church because the Word is preached. The Gospel is preached. And yes, we do say Jesus in the service. It's a biblical church and I love it. The preaching is excellent. The sermon was about how all Christians are bound together, no matter what denomination we are. My church is non denominational by the way. God didn't intend for His church to be splintered.

Anyway I waited around for my Dad. After he finished singing and playing songs in children's church we went home. Then we left again. lol. Anyway, the second service was packed. Mostly everyone came to that one because they wouldn't have to wait around or go home, they could just go directly to the barbecue. The barbecue was good an older couple sat at our table, turns out the man worked in the shipyard. So John, Dad and him talked about all things Navy.

The church softball team was playing my old church, so Dad and I went to the game. It was really good. I don't like baseball that much. ;) But I got to visit, I held Gwendolyn (around 3 weeks old), and I got hit with a baseball! I was just sitting there day dreaming about nothing and I saw this yellow streak and I felt pressure on my arm. lol. It was like I was sedated. Anyway, it didn't hurt. I moved though. My team won.

Then dad dropped me off at church for the Jubilee and Dedication of the new building service. My church has been assisted by Village Missions for 50 years, therefore the Jubilee thing (it's from the old testament). Pastor Paul told us the story of the town where my church is. It was founded in 1898 by a group that hated the government. They made rules and declared that no church could be established in this town. Here's what wikipedia had to say about the town, "[the town's name] was established in the 1890s by a group called the Co-operative Brotherhood as a cooperative socialist colony. It was originally named Circle City, with buildings laid out on the periphery of a circle. When the colony failed in 1908, the present name was adopted for the creek that runs past town, which is the namesake of an early settler who was not a member of the colony."

Well, you know the old "W" not as reliable as Old Faithful Pastor Paul said the colony failed in 1920. Anyway, the Co-operative brotherhood built buildings, a school, library etc.

Guess where my church is built? That's right, smack dab on top of where these crazy people taught their children to hate God, the schoolhouse.

That makes me laugh.

My church was small. In 1957 Village Missions sent a pastor to the town, he was paid about 40 dollars a week by Village Missions (that's what they do, the support pastors that cannot be supported by rural churches). There have been 7 pastors from Village Missions since 1957. The church has had up and down times but by the grace of God it is a strong place today.

See, the nice thing about the new sanctuary is that it is ALL PAID FOR. That's about 750,00 dollars for the sanctuary. It took 7 years to build, but oh boy does it feel nice to be debt free. One of the Village Missions guys said during the service, when has your church not been building? lol. We've always added on. The schoolhouse was tiny, so they knocked out some walls once they had enough money. Then they built an education building to the side. And now the brand spankin' new sanctuary.

I'm not bragging about my church, I'm not saying that I think it's better than all of your churches. All I'm saying is that I'm amazed at how God works. My church's purpose statement is, "reaching people for Jesus Christ, building them up in their faith, and mobilizing them to reach others." That's what I love about my church, the Gospel is preached! We want to reach our neighbors and everyone around the world! In fact the Franklin Grahm evangelism class this fall for the Sound will be held at our church. Their mission is to reach 5,000 people in our area, and to teach them how to share the Gospel. I'm thinking that my church's attendance will sky rocket after the classes are held.

How good God is to use the little that we have for something great! He takes the small offerings and turns that offering into well, wonderful, useful things.

I'm looking forward to what God has in store for my church, and me.

!!!!!!!!!

John is COMING HOME RIGHT NOW. LIKE HE'S GETTING ON THE PLANE RIGHT NOW. LIKE HE WILL BE HOME TOMORROW MORNING.


yay!

That IS the question

Should I go swimming? That would be the perfect way to cool down after today. But I have so many reasons to not go. I want the lake to be perfectly deserted when I go there, it's more fun when there aren't aren't people playing "King of the Dock" or doing anything equally as low.. haha... I'm such a lake snob. It's perfect to go swimming when it's quiet and I can take in all of the beauty. The beauty that I can see anyway. I just take in the general colors since I don't swim with my glasses on. :) The lake isn't as low as it was last year so the scary wooden shark thingy won't attack me again. But I still will get swimmers itch. Oh so many decisions.

I think I'll wimp out for today. Maybe sometime this week though.

Continued prayer request

I know this is the first time that most of you have heard about it but I want to ask you guys to keep praying for John, my brother.

He had a spinal tap a couple of days ago. The doctors concluded that he had meningitis, later they concluded that he had a mild form of viral meningitis. Today my parents talked to him and he said that he doesn't have meningitis, the doctors don't know what he has. He will most likely be released from the hospital in a couple of hours.

Please keep him in your prayers. Pray for healing for him, and peace about this situation for all of us.

Par-taaaaaay!

I love how our facial expressions are completely different in this first picture. I took five, Mary was only satisfied with two. lol.

Kaity looked very lovely. :)












Caroline and Madeline!!! Some of my favorite people ever.

My favorite!

Isn't it amazing! It's my favorite bug! It's a Orchid Mantis. :)

Family

Yesterday I went to Kaity's senior recital. It was lovely. Kaity did a wonderful job playing and she was wearing an evening gown. She looked lovely. After that mostly everyone packed up and went to Kaity's house. Then we partied. I think about 40 people were at their house. So it was packed. It was so much fun. By 7 o'clock mostly everyone had left. I stayed until 9 and then I left.

I love them SO MUCH. Mary and Caroline are some of my closest friends and I love hanging out with all of them. It's wonderful to find a family that thinks so like mine. Our views on dating and alcohol are pretty much the same. Other than just viewing the world in the same way they put Christ first in their lives. Their family means to much to me. I'm so grateful to know them. I think I'll write them a note.

Anyway, I took lots of pictures so I'll probably post them later.

Whaaaa????

Where is my sister? She now not only has a dog and a hermit crab but also a hamster....

Two weeks

Well my peeps it seems that John may be coming home sooner than expected, like in a little more than a week. It'll be good to have him home. I think he's had fun over there. At least when he gets home the house will feel a little more normal, with Boomer dying, Diesel and John gone the house is very quiet. Well, other than the punk rock playing right now. =P

ewwwwww

Spiders creep me out.

Today I was moving wood around in the backyard. I had to pick up nasty pieces of wood with all sorts of creatures crawling or ooozing all over them. It wasn't that bad. In the end the score was Elyse-6, Spiders-0.

I had to move three wood piles, two of them went into the wood shed and the third was moved against the fence. I saw some nasty big spiders and I'm getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about them. Anyway, tomorrow I still have more wood piles to deal with. It's all good though, I'm not bored. :)

Things that I've discovered this week

1. A letter to Japan costs ninety cents
2. Getting a package from Japan makes me happy
3. I love the musical My Fair Lady
4, I can possibly (most likely) go to camp this summer!
5. I still have homework anxiety (I had a dream that I had to write a paper and do math homework in two days. I was very anxious about it. Then I woke up and said to myself, "It's alright, you don't have to go to school until September." But I was still worried about it. After I woke up, I laughed at myself.))

Smallish?

I made biscuits a while back for dinner and I think I miscalculated the size........ My Dad made fun of me, but I think he should have just been grateful to get biscuits. =D

Gone

There hasn't been time to digest the thought that Diesel is gone. It was completely unexpected.

He's been gone for three days now. I think. I'm not sure. At times I'll walk around and think of how he used to stalk me, or attack me when I wasn't looking. Or when I see one of his toys, when I walk past one of his favorite spots to sleep I'm instantly reminded that he's gone. Eleven months went by so quickly.

Still hasn't sunk in. I don't feel like I'm really awake when I wake up in the mornings.... Diesel isn't there to wake me up. He used to attack my feet if I moved them at all.

He may come back, only God knows. For now I'm practicing living without him. I read this last night, "Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows too can trust in me." Jeremiah 49:11 And today I realized I can't do anything to bring him home. I cried. But I looked at that verse again and read about the widow at Zarephath. My heart was quieted, and I knew God has Diesel in His hands.

I didn't cry before today. We didn't really talk about him being gone. But when I told Kristy about how unexpected all of this is I almost started crying. It's not good to hold things in all of the time.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day. I'm always glad for the freshness of tomorrow.

Ouch

Did you know there's a town in between Texas and Arkansas? It's called Texarkana. This pretty much makes my day.
So I've started doing yoga again. Oh my word!!!! I love it so much. I'm really sore today but it's a good feeling. I love yoga because it is so good for the body. It's made me more flexible, made me stronger, and has helped with releasing tension. No, I'm not talking about meditation or some weird demonic type of thing. Yoga is great because it's relaxing and also difficult.

Other than that nothing too uplifting has been going on. I have quite a few projects that I'm working on. One is a baby blanket (or blankant for those of us that are in the cool club... lol.) and the other is a dress. I've been working on the blanket off and on. I think I'll work on the dress today.

M.I.A.

I miss my baby.....

Unsure

You know that feeling when nothing feels right? Well it feels like that now.

I know God is in control. I know that. Other than that I don't know anything.

"13Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." James 4

I'm reminded again that this world is not my home. I can't imagine a place where I will never face a trial again. I will always be with the Lord. Why do I act like this world is my home? It's not, it doesn't even come close to where I will live for eternity.

"For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:14

"13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5

Pray with me, pray for me. Prayer is important, and like James 5 says, it is powerful and effective. I need to be reminded of that, I need to know that my prayers are heard. I really know that they are. Sometimes I just wish God would do things the way that I imagine they should go. Thankfully He has a better plan. Still, I feel sad today and something is amiss. Three things that I can think of. Some of them won't be back to normal for a couple of months, some of them might be back to normal at any time, and one of them will be gone soon. Then I'll have to get used to that normal. For now I just wait, it's hard to wait and watch something die.

And it is taking so long, and that is harder than a quick death.

I still have so much to learn from God. This time He is reminding me, again, that my plans are not supreme. Things don't work out the way I think they should. Problems and trials pile up, life never stops happening. People die, pets die or disappear, people leave, people get mad and have arguments. Even so, life is so good right now. God is so good. I won't say I wouldn't change a thing because at this point I want one thing to change very badly. But I know God has a purpose for this.

I also know that no matter what happens in life we should never stop loving. C.S. Lewis said "Other than heaven, the only place where one's heart is completely safe from the dangers of love is hell."

No matter what happens I must continue to love and trust that God knows what is best. I'm still learning, that will never stop.

Happy Birthday!

"WOOT!"