Oops

I kinda forgot about this blog. I've been making scarves for lots of people via Etsy, the Christmas Boutique and returning customers from last year. Yes and amen. Buy something, I'll love you forever...well, I actually already will, depending on who you are. ;) JK.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RachylKnits4You

My best friend Luke Spradley came home on Friday, we hung out Saturday. It was glorious. More to come. Go see Sherlock Holmes!!! we did. :)

Sweet

Alyssa won't let me get a dog, but maybe if she saw this...convincing much?

Happy Leftovers

I am thankful for Thanksgiving...and for finally having food in our fridge again...that bottle of sangria, box of coconut milk and a few odds and ends were pretty much the only contents before tonight (we're not home that often). And there's a chocolate caramel pie in the freezer. Our Dutch/Egyptian dinner was splendid. Friends, when you come over, come hungry. yes and amen.

turkey, biscuits, stuffing, eggnog, pumpkin pie, baklava, chocolate covered pretzels, cabbage rolls, green bean casserole and baked mac and cheese. Glory.

Early Christmas

About two months ago I was asking Alyssa if Smith Wigglesworth had any books, because he's crazy and I would love to read more some of his stuff. I had never been lucky enough in finding anything in the used book stores that I frequent, so I asked her, as she knows a lot more about authors and theological books than I do. She said she had no idea. Great. Fast forward to last Sunday when Alyssa and I went on an emergency thrift store therapy session. I was looking through the small selection that they had to offer at St. Vincents, it is small because books go like hot cakes, they're 5 for 99 cents. I had found 3, Alyssa found 1 so I decided to do a quick once over just in case I missed anything. Well there is this one shelf that is wedged in the corner with another overlapping it, which hides books from view. There was a thick book on the bottom shelf all the way in the back, hidden behind everything else, that caught my eye and curiosity got the best of me and I moved all the offending books out of the way to see what this beauty was. All I could say was, "SHUT UP!!!"

Glory

So of course I get it...it's only like 17.5 cents. Yesterday the twin and I were reading and I picked it up and said, "It even has a bookmark" when I open it up...well, let's just say that this proves that the Lord has a sense of humor:

Very funny.

 Well, Happy Christmas to me from Jesus. Sank you. I love it...not the freebie though. :) 

Other treasures from our shopping trip:

so creepy

why?

What does one have to the other?

A Lesson From...Well, Somebody

I frequent Don Miller's blog and this was the post from a few days ago. So good. None of the following words are mine.

Eisenhower "believed the world needed him — that if he didn’t exist, things would fall apart. He believed he was called to be a great man. I wondered, as I read, where he got this confidence.
I found the reason for Eisenhower’s confidence early on in the book, in a chapter in which he discussed his childhood. Dwight Eisenhower said that from the beginning, his mother and father operated on an assumption that set the course for his life: that the world could be fixed of its problems if every child understood the necessity of their existence. Eisenhower’s parents assumed, and taught their children, that if their children weren’t alive, their family couldn’t function.
If you think about it, it isn’t just kids without fathers who don’t usually feel important; it’s most of us. I mean, can you imagine growing up believing that if you didn’t exist, your family would fall apart? Can you imagine how different the world would be if all children were taught this idea?"


Right? :)

The Weekend Is So Near

Today I will be going to a Pre Thanksgiving Dinner party. I am super excited, but also nervous as there will be 26 people there and I only know the person that invited me. You might be surprised when I say this (or maybe you won't depending on how well you know me) since I am very loud and mostly out there, but I don’t do well with new people. Making friends is kind of a painful experience for me. Most of my friends have been relationships that are at least 6 years old. I think I lost that communication skill when I was a slave at Arby’s for two years and I had no outside communication except for the people coming to my drive thru window. I don’t consider asking people what kind of sauce they need aiding in my communication skills. I just never know what to say. Also, I really don’t like small talk. That’s torture for me.  I’m still really excited for tonight. Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite dinner of the whole year, and I get it twice this year. J

A VERY pregnant woman just came into the office and dropped off a very glittery purple basket full of pens, sticky pads (which are very cute and I will be taking home), hand sanitizer and most importantly CHOCOLATE. This is what I like most about working here. Yes, I have a great time laughing with my boss and I get free chiropractic care, but the best perk is all the free chocolate that I get because lawyers offices and x-ray centers drop off goodie baskets ALL THE TIME, seriously at least once a week, and Doc doesn’t have any use for the contents of all these baskets and won’t eat chocolate (we have dubbed him the food Nazi) so I gain from his loss.

My weekend’s going to be crazy, but I love being busy. Tomorrow I have to meet my sister at day care at 8am to get the car seats. I have to be at work by 9am and work until 1:45. Then I get to skype my best amigo Luke. There’s been so many great things happening at Bethel and with him, it’s always good to talk with him. Can’t wait for Christmas break when he’s home for a month. YAY! So then I have to pick the kids up from day care, because I’m a soccer mom with a mini van fully equipped with automatic sliding doors at the push of a button. Then I have to make the kiddos dinner and when my sister gets home from work I have to speed to the church office because they’re having a guest speaker who I really am excited to hear. Saturday and Sunday are even crazier I just know tomorrows schedule because I had to review it this morning.

My twin is taking me to see Bon Iver for my Christmas present. I am so stoked! I’ve been listening to Christmas music for the last 1.5 weeks now. That’s not that bad though, my coworker’s son has had his room set up like Santa’s Village for well over a month now. She says, “I gave birth to an elf.” I think it’s fantastic. This morning before work I stopped at Starbucks for my poison and saw a cop walking around the parking lot and inspecting tags on cars and he ended up writing a ticket for some lazy soul. I couldn’t help but chuckle; some people have all the luck? My boss’s wife has been driving on expired tags for well over a year now and has never been caught and this persons tag just expired last month. Hopefully I never get pulled over.  I’m too broke to afford car insurance this month: “Rachyl Auto, driving illegal for free.” It’s my new slogan. I think I’m going to make up a business card and hand it to the police officer. Alyssa said I would probably get away with it because the cop would think I’m cute and funny. Let’s just hope it’s not a woman, they’re mean. J

Money has been tight this whole year since I’ve only been working one part time job, now I’m working two part time jobs, but I have the added expense of a car so there goes all the money from Charming Charlie. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with ways to make more money and even trying to convince The Lord that he wanted me to have a full time job and more money. Yesterday during my quiet time  He reminded me of a prayer that I prayed a few years back basically saying that I never wanted more then I needed and that I wanted to always have to rely on Him, not myself. Isn’t it nice how He answers our prayers? Yes. I realized that my mentality of always having to provide for myself equates to nothing more then I do not trust the only one who could truly provide for me. This was a tough pill to swallow. Even though I have made less then 10K this year, I have always had food to eat, a roof over my head and transportation to work. For this I am thankful. All I can do is trust; it’s the simplest, yet hardest thing to do.

Conversations With My Twin

Proverbs 31:6 Give strong drink [as medicine] to him who is ready to pass away, and wine to him in bitter distress of heart.

and have very odd conversations with your friends...

While thrift shopping for skirts:
Me: "Lisa, what do you think?"
Alyss: "I think you need to get a boyfriend!"

Alyss: "you had drunkeed, dranked, drunkend? something?"
Me: "alyssa, you can't drunkend something!"

Tonight:
Me: "Alyssa, you're a prophet, prophecy over me."
Alyss: "That's not how it works."
Me: "Yes, it does."
Alyss: "Okay. I saw..."
Me: "cool."
Alyss: "And I saw a little kitten with a ball of yarn..."
Me: "ARHHHHHHHHH. THAT IS NOT FROM THE LORD!"
Alyss: "haha."
Me: "The devil is a liar"

O man. haha.

Prophecy

Earlier this year my best friend and I embarked on a journey that took us to the west coast to visit Redding, CA where we met so many great people and made tons of new friends (and my newest penpal!) The night before our departure a group of about 14? people all got together at our friends house and decided to prophecy over us. I was reading all of them to a friend the other day because I wanted additional insight and his interpretation, as he is very gifted in the prophetic and in interpretation. There were four reoccuring themes or points: grace, rest, prophetic giftings, trees. These are the words that I received about me being like a tree, or root system or anything to do with trees. I love trees.

"I saw the earth and there was this tree on the top of it and as you grew you were reaching your branches out to uphold those around you and intertwining your branches with theirs.  I saw this time in your life when you were in need of rest and the Lord told you to just take a deep breathe and just release and because of that intertwining you’d done you were able to just rest. Those around you are going to now be able to uphold you and help you in YOUR time of rest and need.  The lord was saying that at no point when you were reaching out to those around you was he not reaching out to you. At no point when you were helping those around you understand the depths of God were your roots not also going deeper.  At no point when you were helping those around you reach up to grasp their dreams were your branches not also becoming closer to the things you’ve dreamt and the things on your heart.  This is a time for you to just release and be held up.  It’s YOUR time."

"The picture that she described and I know you didn’t go to the redwoods and they are these really long trees and they don’t have the best root systems but their branches reach out.  Their root systems knot up with those around them and the reason they last so long is because they have intertwined.  You will be able to hold on and withstand the strongest storms because of who you’ve connected with those."

"I see family over you and you have a grace and a love that creates family around you personally.  You have a grace and a knack for it. People that you know here as the middle-man you create this intertwining family.  I don’t know how your family was growing up but you will create peace and love that isn’t found in normal families and a comfort for everything to love one another and be themselves and you create connection.  With the tree thing you create the connections that bind each other together and strengthen each other and in the end you all last because of it."

"There have been a few words about staying rooted in people and I feel like the strength of the family and the rootedness and its not all there yet and at times you stand alone because you know you can stand under anything but I really feel like god is going to surround you with the right people and the right groups and networks of people and that you’ll be able to grown even taller and stronger with the stronger surroundings.  It doesn’t mean you have to leave behind the weaker things around you because they’ll be strengthened as you become strengthened.  You getting strong with strong people and will strengthen those around you who now have your strength."



mmm...amen. 

Thanks CJ

My friend CJ was kind enough to share this video with me today...this poor kid.

nice moves.

Story Of My Current Life

I just finished reading "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee and it took me until the end to find anything that I would want to revisit in the future, but when I read the following quotes I was like, "O JESUS!"

“Am I afraid of the will of God? The dear saint whom I have already mentioned as having had such an influence upon the course of my life, many times asked me the question: “Do you like the will of God?” It is a tremendous question. She did not ask, “Do you do the will of God?” She always asked, “Do you like the will of God?” That question goes deeper than anything else. I remember once she was having a controversy with the Lord over a certain matter. She knew what the Lord wanted, and in her heart she wanted it too. But it was difficult, and I heard her pray like this: “Lord I confess I don’t like it, but please do not give in to me. Just wait, Lord—and I will give in to thee.” She did not want the Lord to yield to her and to reduce his demands upon her. She wanted nothing but to please Him.”

“Let me again make this quite clear if we want to be spiritual people, there is no need for us to amputate our hands or feet: we can still have our body. In the same way we can have our soul, with the full use of its faculties; and yet the soul is not now our life-spring. We are no longer living in it, we are no longer drawing from it and living by it; we use it. What the body becomes our life we live like beasts. When the soul becomes our life we live as rebels and fugitives from God—gifted, cultured, educated, no doubt, but alienated from the life of God. But when we come to live our life in the Spirit and by the Spirit, though we still use our soul faculties just as we do our physical faculties, they are now the servants of the Spirit; and when we have reached the point God can really use us. But the difficulty with many of us is that dark night. The Lord graciously laid me side once in my life for a number of months and put me, spiritually, into utter darkness. It was almost as though he had forsaken me, almost as though nothing was going on and I had really come to the end of everything. And then by degrees he brought things back again. The temptation is always to try to help God by taking things back ourselves; but remember, there must be a full night in the sanctuary—a full night in darkness. It cannot be hurried; he knows what he is doing. We would like to have death and resurrection put together within one hour of each other. We cannot face the thought that God will keep us aside for so long a time; we cannot bear to wait. And of course I cannot tell you how long he will take, but in principle I think it is quite safe to say this, that there will be a definite period when he will keep you there. It will seem as though nothing is happening; as though everything you valued is slipping from your grasp. There confronts you a blank wall with no door in it. Seemingly everyone else is being blessed and used, while you yourself have been passed by and are losing out. Lie quiet. All is in darkness, but it is only for a night. It must indeed be a full night, but that is all. Afterwords you will find that everything is given back to you in glorious resurrection; and nothing can measure the difference between what was before and what now is!”

"Dressing up, but not to celebrate Halloween or anything, just because..."

So these are a few snap shots from the lifegroup's dress up, but not Halloween party this last Sunday. Also, a couple of random things thrown in from my last two days. P.S. It is November 2nd and it was 67 degrees outside today, I feel like this is the biggest practical yoke ever. I'm enjoying it though, thanks God...or global warming?

finished product

making his photosynthesis man costume.

one of my patients made me this...cute.

we're the powerpuff girls...duh

saints, superheroes and a bumble bee

waiting to skype with Karin this morning.

from my walk with a friend yesterday.

Flat

Sank You Huzz and MoMo

My sister and her boyfriend have been very kind and decided that after almost 2 years of giving up my weekends to watch their children they would gift me with a flat screen television. Alyssa and I decided to celebrate by watching Planet Earth, and it's still playing. I'm writing this and yet am still engrossed with what is happening before me, but I'm sad. Why? Because animals are dying. I know, the circle of life, animals have to eat, shoot even I eat them, but watching a wolf chase a deer down for three minutes and watch the deer just surrender and the wolf chomp down just makes my stomach turn. My aunt always says, "my meat comes from trees," she's ridiculous, but whatever helps her sleep at night. I think the biggest thing that bothers me is that deers and other animals of the sort are fast and wild...cows are fat and slow, so I don't feel bad about that or maybe I just really like deer and it has nothing to do with a the most horrible death of being eaten alive. Well...sorry about my post about nothing, but whatever. Great, now they're showing volcanoes, not much harm can happen there. toodles. 

Side Note:

This is how I dressed the Queen today :)

For Your Comic Relief

well...mine at least.

"You're gonna make a great parent some day."

McDreamy

So while blogging at work this morning I was searching for pictures for "Natural Diabetes Doctors" and I stumbled upon this strapping young man who very similarly looks like our hero on Grey's Anatomy Dr. Derek Shepard, aka "McDreamy". Just thought it was funny. I promise I do get work done during the day.

Search engine doctor

McDreamy

 

Small Blessings

So all day yesterday at work I was thinking, "I really want steak for dinner," but didn't know how this was going to happen since the only meat I have is canned tuna and frozen talipia. Add them together and you still get fish. So I get home from work and make myself soup and walk over to the local cafe to eat my soup and get a mocha. When I sit down I get a phone call from my sister, "Call Mohab, he wants to know how you would like your steak for dinner, I'll come pick you up in an hour." Nothing against my chicken noodle soup, but Filet Minot is a lot higher both in nutrition and the desire of my heart.  So instead of a sodium filled dinner, I got to eat well, enjoy the company of my sister and her man, and got some red wine to boot. Thank you Jesus.

I really enjoy my dreams, and am glad the Lord speaks to me through some of them. I say some, because sometimes I wake up and know that there is no way that the Lord wanted to show me that and that my insane subconscious took over for the night. A small group of us just watched Inception the other night, and besides it being the most visually stimulating movie I have come across, it also makes me wish I could dream more, like the people that go under for 20 hours and just dream. I think that would be very dangerous for me though, seeing as some of my dreams are so real that sometimes I wake up looking for something I just dreamt of, or like the other night when somebody was holding my hand and I woke up and still felt like my hand was being enveloped by these hands. I had to shake my hand vigorously for the feeling to go away. Weird, yes, but none the less, my reality. I could very easily turn into Mal.

Another small blessing: today I get my hair done, which means that somebody else will be washing my hair today. This is probably one of my favorite things in the whole world, and if I were rich, this would be the first thing I would blow my money on. Good thing for my bank account that this only happens about twice a year.

Emmanuel Levinas

Today my friend Clay taught me about Emmanuel Levinas. I'm almost positive that this is the first time I've understood anything philosophy wise, he said I now know more than most Philosophy majors at Wheaton. I feel pretty accomplished for the day.

For those I don't see or talk to on a regular basis, I am excited to announce that I have been blessed with a second job, WHICH IS AMAZING!! Now I don't have to be broke all the time and I will be able to save up for whatever the Lord may have for me; I still don't have the faintest idea of what this looks like. It has so lovingly come to my attention that I will no longer have a social life with the amount of hours I will be taking on every week. Mark me: I will make sure this does not happen. My second job will be at an accessory store chain called Charming Charlie, it is dangerous, it is addicting and I get a fabulous discount, BUT good thing is I already own a lot of the stuff in the store that I'd already want, so there's not a huge risk of me blowing unnecessary money on things. Also, I have to wear all black, which means I don't have to think about what I'm wearing to work. Black V neck, Leggings and 6 accessories and ta-da, I'm ready for work. Amen. Another exciting thing is my knitting orders have taken off, I still need to make 4 scarves and 2 hats, but that's a great problem to have since I'll have a lot more money in my bank account after all is said and done.

Something else that I learned about today was Julian Smith. If you don't already know about him, google him. Trust me, it will change your life, and maybe you'll be closer to a six pack stomach from laughing so hard, well I mean if that's a goal of yours. But for real, hilarious. I'm pretty sure "Malk" is my fave, just wait until the end.

It just started thunder storming outside, let it rain. Love it.

Scarf Making

It's 3am.
I haven't seen this hour in 10 months and 3 days, if I want to get technical.
I have 2 huge scarfs to make by this Sunday.

I think I've bit off more than I can chew, or that my little fingers can handle.
Judd you'd better like your scarf.

Judd

Great 4 hour talk with a great friend today, good to "stop living in my head" once in awhile. This is going to take practice.

The Mustache

Day: Sunday
Lunch: I made really stinking good vegetarian lasagna and asparagus with Tarragon sauce
Current Jam: "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire
Partner in Crime: Alyssa of course
Activity: presently Alyss is knitting and I am eating chocolate covered Acai berries.

Joe left his mustache on a stick here after lunch and we had fun taking pics. Good thing there is no pressure for me to grow one of these things, I look terrible! : )

blurry, but fantastic

Bugger

So I just walked into my dark apartment. I take my shoes off and turn on the light and the first thing to greet me upon my arrival home is my new roommate, a giant centipede. This isn't a little one that I can just wish I didn't see, it's advanced in years, I'm pretty sure he knows how to tie his billion shoes and he hissed at me.

I need to think fast, so I quickly grab the most convenient shoe (Alyssa's) and turn around just as quickly to end this roommates life, this was probably less than two seconds, but much to my dismay, it was nowhere to be found.

Now I know I didn't imagine this thing, there has to be more of them around because we just had a friend kill one of these suckers last night, only it was one of the smaller, less intimidating ones. If I find this thing, mark me, I will charge this thing rent and vengeance will be mine for scaring the life out of me.

Waiting Game

I'm looking for a part time job, Doc has decided that he doesn't want to work on Wednesday mornings anymore, and in doing so, freeing up my already very free schedule even more. Normally I would take the time and enjoy reading or sleeping in. The latter is no longer possible for me, there is a permanent alarm clock in my head that won't let me sleep past 7:15, which is good for when I hit my snooze button enough times (3x) and my alarm function turns itself off. I still can't figure this one out. But the little timer in my head tells me to wake up and always allows me to get to work in time. However, it annoys me to no end when I want to sleep in. Going to sleep early is the only option, take for instance Monday night, I was in bed by 8:30. I'm only 24, I can't be going to bed that early, it seems a bit unorthodox. The former does not pay the bills, though that would be nice.
 
Tomorrow I will finally be picking up my vehicle! Yes and amen! This is the second vehicle that the Lord has provided for me for free! Yes, for free. Sank You Jesus! Faith is something that comes easily for me, recently I found out it's my top spiritual gift, which I think is fantastic! I know the Lord will do what He has promised and that He is capable of everything and anything. I don't doubt He is who He says He is: faithful , true and my provider. I LOVE this verse: "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1. I have had so many things spoken over my life and one of those things is constantly in the forefront of my mind. Right now it is just a waiting game, a testing of my patience I suppose. Of my faithfulness. Of my willingness to actually wait and not just take what's good, but wait for the best. The Lord isn't going to tell me something is going to happen, not once, not 8 times, but over and over and over again and not do it. The Lord is not a liar, He's not mean, He doesn't play tricks on our hearts. So I wait and believe that what the Lord has said is true and will happen. Maybe in a few months, maybe in 8 years, I don't know. Lord help me.

Karin this one's for you!

Iron Pool

I went hiking at Starved Rock with a group of friends on Sunday, it was fun. Except: I stubbed my toe, twice, tripped up the stairs, broke my flip flop and had to walk on rocks barefoot! LOL, literally, that's all I could do. Why was I wearing flip flops you may ask? Because Starved Rock isn't real hiking, it's a bunch of stairs with random trails, so my shoe apparel was semi appropriate for the occasion. I brought my hiking stick, not because I thought it was necessary, only to look cool. I think I succeeded. :-) There were a few times when we went off the trail, such as in the picture to your right, and GG was very useful. I definitely didn't want to slip into that festering, stagnant iron pool. That would not have been cute.

My Twinzie

P.S. Dear dictionary.com, Thank you for telling me a 5 syllable word for beautiful is pulchritudinous. I'll be sure to use it every day.

Update On The Litle Queen

sleeping in my lap while I read

The scar from her surgery

she's so tiny

Okie dokes...so here's the deal on the little queen. Thank You all SOOOooooo much for your prayers, it is very much appreciated by my entire family and I'm so glad I have a group of friends that will stand in intercession on my families behalf, thank you, thank you, thank you!
O yes, the update. Okay, so when you all got the text message from me, after talking to a friend, I realized that it may have been a little vague. Savanah had gone into the hospital last Thursday because she had fluid surrounding her brain, my sister originally thought she was having seizures, but it was a ventricle that closed off in her brain that transports the spinal fluid to her spinal cord. Her surgery was a success, she now has a shunt in her head and it drains into her stomach. They kept her in the hospital to do some more testing and to do an MRI to make sure there was no further complications, this is when they found a tumor in the center of her spinal cord that is the size of a quarter. They said that it is not cancerous, but that it is inoperable. 6 doctors came to my sister and her man and told them to enjoy the rest of the time with their daughter, not giving them a time frame, just leaving them in the dark as to a time frame, because it would all depend on the amount of time that it takes to grow and finally end her little life...well to hell with them.
This is when I text all of you, shortly after I was praying, okay, in hysterics on the floor in my living room, listening to some worship music and praying, when I hear this: "Why are you mourning? She's not dying." I was like, "WHAT!" and I heard this same statement again and was comforted beyond belief. I was like...well, okay, I'm done crying then. I spoke with another friend last night and she said, "I keep getting the impression that God isn't going to remove the spot, but it isn't going to be fatal; that she will live a full and happy life which baffles doctors." Well Yes and Amen!

My sister and her boyfriend don't have a relationship with the Lord and this has been such a hard time for them both, I can't even imagine going through all of this. Last Thursday when she was going to the hospital I was praying that morning and the Lord gave me this verse to pray over them:

Isaiah 42:16 "I will lead the blind by ways hey have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."

Well that's a good word! Last night they got to finally bring their daughter home after living in the hospital for a week. I spoke with both my sister and her boyfriend on separate occasions last night and got to tell them about all the people that were praying and just got to encourage them. I kept reminding them that the Lord is always good, which I'm sure is almost impossible for them to believe right now, but I also told them what The Lord told me and my friend and read to them I was praying over them the whole week. They both thanked me so much, and I'm thanking all of you! I really do think that the Lord is using this to draw them to Him, no matter how strange or off it may seem, I am not one to question Him. He is always good, no matter our circumstances, He Is The Lord. The doctors say "No", but the Lord says "yes", I wonder who I'm going to believe.

I got to watch both of the Queens today: Savanah and Makaila, and it was fantastic. I love them with all of my heart and I know that The Lord has great things for them both. I thank you again so much for your prayers and support, we are believing in Jesus' name that she is healed and she will outlive all of us, and this blog is now long enough.

Organs

Random thought upon getting ready for work just now. I'm sure there's a reason, but I'm just curious as to why your eye lids continue to stay swollen even hours after crying. It's not like they were being harassed or anything, well maybe they were, but not really. Just my thought process.

Work and then reading The Idiot, I'll probably finish it tonight, gotta love Dostoevsky!

This babies not going out with a fight.

On the flip side, Alyss and I FINALLY have food in our place. I went shopping last night and with our combined monies I was able to return with loads of goodies.

Can't wait for Sunday! I love hiking and love my friends! Forecast is Sunny, 80 degrees and 0% chance of rain. Yes and Amen!

Short Term

I have a problem with making long term goals, I've never been a fan of those...I'll stick with the short term.

• Get a haircut
• Acquire a passport
• Europe vacation...ahem! Karin I miss you already.
• successfully temper chocolate
• get over this cold
• make dinner with empty cabinets

That sounds good for now, let's see what actually gets done.

Indian Summer

More pictures than anything. Today was a wonderful day, just me and the boys...and the queen, but that was at the tail end of my day. Good church, lunch, morton arboretum & absolutely fantastic movie...now I just need to figure out why these two like burnt chocolate, and I really want to go yarn bombing.

Welcome Home!

don't know why it's not letting me rotate this picture. 8-/

feet=failed self timer, but I still kinda like the picture.

Timbolina

Clayton

My faithful travel companions for the day.

p.s. Clay, I would like your pictures from today. Please and sank you!
:-)

Children

This little nugget's a trooper. One month old and had brain surgery...wow. So what had happened is the ventricle that makes the spinal fluid flow from the brain to the spine closed off, and this was causing fluid to surround this little queens brain. The doctors put a shunt in said ventricle and drained the excess fluid into her stomach. She may or may not need to have another surgery when she gets older to put in a bigger shunt, I'm praying that it just opens up by itself and no other surgeries will be necessary. They're running tests to see if the excess fluid did any damage to her brain, but there's really no way to tell until she starts growing up and hitting milestones. I think she'll be fine, this baby has been bathed in so much prayer it's amazing. She's staying at the hospital until Monday or Tuesday, but already showing so much improvement. Thank you everybody for your prayers, words cannot express how much my family appreciates them.

On the flip side, I got to hang out with the Queen for the last three days and we've been having a blast! Love this little muffin so much! We went for a walk and then we danced...well, bounced, but it was still fun.

As much as I wish I had a more money to do with as I wished i.e. traveling and buying food, I love that my schedule is free and that I am able to be here for my sister at pretty much any time she needs me.

I hung out with my estranged sister yesterday for the first time since April, we haven't said more than 8 words to each other since moving out. I'm glad that things are back to semi-normal again. We had D.Q. and went to the O.G. We laughed a lot and had a great time. Thank you Jesus for healing wounds.

Faith

Last night my sister calls me and asks me to pray. She's taking my niece to the doctor this afternoon to get tests done on my one month old niece Savanah, they think she's having seizures. I will not pray, I will go to battle. My sister doesn't know the Lord, I believe that she will, I hope she will, I have to. In the midst of my morning routine I really felt like the Lord was telling me to pray scripture over my sister and her small family. I had no idea what to pray, so I just opened my bible and this is the first thing I see:

Isaiah 42:16
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
   along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
   and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
   I will not forsake them.

Mohab, Stephanie, Makaila and Savanah will know the Lord...

Showers

I love watching the rain. Let it rain.

In conclusion: i'm now realizing that reading a 668 page book in 1.5 days was a pretty unreasonable goal.

O Happy Day

• Got the nest out of my hair
• Got to spend time with the twin
• Church with an awesome message on prayer (Heaven isn't just heaven because it's where the angels hang out and there are streets of gold. Heaven is heaven because it's where God's at.) Thanks for bringing it Michael.
• Had "shared tea" and made a delicious "Surprise Chicken" lunch for friends, in our new Sunday tradition...you know it's good when they are all scraping the plates to finish the juice, and by doing this increasing the size of my head.
• Improv with said friends, so great
• Violent movie that was just suspenseful, but never the less good
• Lifegroup that rocked my heart and confirmed so much.

Song of the day stuck in my head: Ben Folds "You don't know me"

Still need to finish The Arabian Nights (only half way through :-/), and I think I may have a car by the end of this week, which would be sooooooo wonderful and make life a lot easier. When it is 11pm and I am exhausted I know that I had a wonderful day, or that I should have gotten more sleep the night before...for right now I'll stick with the former. Goodnight.

Autumn

It’s too quite in this apartment, even with the sliding door open and the traffic speeding past, I can still hear the clock ticking louder. I don’t have much to do this weekend, no plans, just relaxing. Hmmm…Karin’s gone, in France by now; I’ll miss her company and friendship. I need to expand my friendship circle, it’s actually not a number issue as much as I need to become more intentional in my relationships, actually picking up the phone instead of glancing at it occasionally to see if there are any offers, and invest in conversations, even if it begins in the thing I most dread, small talk. I suppose over the years I have just become lackadaisical in my efforts or as my mother accused me this morning, I’m simply stubborn, which I blamed on the Dutch blood. Whichever way, I need people, we all need people. Genesis 2:18 says, “It’s not good for man to be alone.” Lord, make me more kind.

Autumn is fantastic and it’s my favorite season for many reasons. The first, but certainly not the most important, being the air is cooling down. It’s crisp, but not cold enough to assault my lungs, causing me to use that dreaded puffer that I haven’t needed since May, caused by an allergy/asthma attack to a most hated cat. I thoroughly enjoy wearing layers and optional jackets. Even more than the previously stated, the resplendent trees have to be my favorite. I know the Lord loves me always, but I tend to believe that this is the season where He tends to lavish me with his love and overwhelm my heart with the beauty that He formed in His creation as it gives its last hurrah! Winter will come too soon.

Until then, I will ride my bike through the fields, be romanced by the lover of my soul, and try like hell not to add an addition to the bicycle graveyard that is in my garage. 

Can't get it out of my head...

"He speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing."
Charles Austin Miles

Weekend Agenda

After a slew of text messages from Tim, said brother shows up at door with flowers for both twinzie and myself...I can get used to this.

1. Look for a respectable part time job
2. Finish The Arabian Nights
3. Drink tea
4. Write letter to pen pal
5. Wash the nest attached to my head
6. Attempt to see my roommate