SewMor

I got this baby at an estate sale this morning. We saw it yesterday and I briefly looked at it because I didn't think that my husband would let me buy another sewing machine since I already have two. On our way out I asked how much they wanted for it and they told me $45. I thought it was really cool, but didn't really want to spend that much for another sewing machine. On the way home I was commenting on how cool it was and that it was sad that this lady's kids didn't want it. My husband told me he was surprised that I didn't buy it. (He has a thing for vintage things, houses, vehicles, chainsaws, etc...) After we got home I decided that I did want it so I went to the ATM and headed back over, but they had closed for the day. I spent the rest of the evening searching on the internet to find information about this brand.

Post WW II they were manufactured by the Consolidated Sewing Machine Corporation in Japan. I couldn't find much more than that on this specific brand, but I did learn that many sewing machines were manufactured in that era and "branded" with many different names. They were well built. This particular model has 21 different stitches, and sews in reverse. It also does buttons and button holes. I am super excited to try this baby.

We went and got it on our way to church this morning and they had marked it down to $25, which is what I wanted to pay for it. I was giddy with excitement all the way to church and through church, waiting to get it home and look at it. I even used words that are not normally in my vocabulary to describe my excitement. I told my husband that it is "the bomb". He thinks that I am crazy!

So I got home and had him bring it inside for me, cause it weighs about 40 pounds or so. I set it up and tipped it open to look in the bottom of the case to see if there were any extra bobbins or feet. All that was inside was a roll of $20's!!!

I am one blessed Child of God. Thank you Lord!!!

This is a baby blanket that I finished about a month ago. It is for a friend of my husband's new baby girl. Her name is Claire Elizabeth and has the most gorgeous head of hair ever. It was an absolute joy to create this for them.

Beer Can Turkey

My husband and I had some friends over for Thanksgiving this year. My husband really wanted to have it in our new house and since our friends don't have family in the area it worked out perfect. He didn't want to do a traditional turkey, so we ended up with beer can turkey. It turned out really good. It was the moistest white meat ever!!! I don't like turkey, but this stuff was actually good. I highly recommend that you try it if you like moist white meat.

I have decided that I want to learn to knit. I know how to chrochet, and enjoy making baby blankets and such. I would really like to knit sweaters. I love sweaters, and always have a hard time finding ones that I like.

I don't have much to say, which is probably why it has been a month since I have posted. I figure it doesn't really matter, cause only two people read this anyways and I can talk to them on the phone...

Cat

Well, we settled on Stormie for the kitties name, but as it turns out Bites and Scratches is a much more fitting name.

Gray Kitty

This is the newest addition to out family:) He is five months old and super cute. We picked him up from the Humane Society tonight after he got fixed. He purrs like crazy and is super cuddly. He likes to play in his water before he drinks it. Hopefully he and Blue get along well:)

We don't have a name for him yet...any suggestions?

Blue

From Blue

This is Blue. He is a year and a half old, purebread chocolate lab. He likes to go for rides. Everytime I let him outside he runs straight to the back of my car, ready to load up. The other day he did that and I figured that I should take him for a ride. When we got home I tried to get him to get out, but he wouldn't. So I left the car door open for him. After about an hour I figured that it was time to lure him out of my car with lunch.
The bummer part about Blue is he barks when we leave him. I wasn't wanting to get a bark collar for him, but I think that we might have to do that. Oddly enough my new neighbors don't really appreciate barking dogs...

the problem

have you ever been upset with the world around you? all the people you know just don't seem to be quite what you had hoped that they would be? or maybe life just isn't going in the direction that you thought it should be and you are not happy?

i have felt that way for most of my life.

it dawned on me this morning (although i think it was building to this for a long time). maybe i am the problem in my life. maybe i need to work on getting the log out of my eye so that i can see the world clearly. maybe i need to work on changing my perspective and becoming a better woman, wife, friend, employee and housewife.

i am going to finish my Bible study and then go workout.

Floor and Roof and Vacation...

We have 5 coats of floor finish varnish on our floor. Now we are just waiting for it to harden, so we can freely walk around on it.

Yesterday the roofers showed up at 9:30 and very slowly worked on our roof. They got about half of it done and were gone before 5 when my husband had gone back over to check on them. Hopefully they will finish it tomorrow. I have never known a roofing crew that started later than seven am. Generally they like to get an early start so that they can avoid some heat. We are getting 30 year architectural shingles, dark grey/black. They look really nice on our roof.

Tomorrow we are leaving for South Lake Tahoe, CA for a week. My uncle has reserved a timeshare for us there. I am looking forward to relaxing by the lake, hiking and taking tons of pictures:) When we first decided to go there I was checking on the local activities and apparently there is a car show during the time we will be there. Everytime we go on vacation there is a car show. Maybe on our next vacation there will be a quilt show...

Dust

We got the keys to our house on Friday. Thirty minutes after we arrived the carpet and pad were all rolled up and in the driveway. Our home has old growth red fir floors. We were quite surprised to find the condition that they were in. In the living room they had only finished the edges about two feet out from the wall. It didn't look like the center had ever been finished, but it is 60 years old, so that may not be the case. In some spots they had spray-painted black on the floor. It was really weird. The bedrooms were both all finished. At some point someone had painted inside and didn't bother to put down a drop cloth so near the walls it was all white with over spray. We pulled all the staples (from the carpet pad) out of the floor and made sure it was ready to sand the next morning.

Saturday morning we got to work with the floor sanders. We had a total of 6 people working on it and eight different types of sanders to use. We sanded all day Saturday, my husband stayed there until 3am working on it. Sunday morning we were up and at 'em again. The people who had attempted to refinish them before did not know how to use a sander and there were deep groves all over. After two straight days we were able to get it all flat.

Monday, I had to work, but my husband and my parents went and wiped the ceiling and walls down and vaccummed up all the dust so that it would be ready to put the finish on. We decided that we like the color of the natural wood without stain. Today my husband has been putting coats of varnish on the floor. He has been sending me pictures via camera phone and it looks beautiful. He said it looks like my hair in the summer sunshine. I am excited to go "home" after work and see it tonight.

I have taken pictures of each step and will post them soon.

Our First House

This is our first house. We sign papers today and get keys tomorrow! The important statistics are:
772 square feet
2 bedrooms
1 bathroom
.17 acres
irrigation water
garden space
oversized single car detached garage
large concrete driveway
storage shead
big mature trees
mature landscaping
on a circle drive (no thru traffic).

A friend of ours gave us a wood burning stove for the living room, with the pad that it sits on. So we can finally have wood heat. That is so exciting!!!

Right now it has carpet in it, but under the carpet hides hardwood flooring. Right after we get the keys on Friday we are going to tear out the carpet and see what shape the hardwood flooring is in. It looks like it has been painted from the corners that we were able to peak at. I am not sure if they painted the whole floor or if they just got a little carried away with the trim paint. I have secured a floor sander for Saturday so that we can get right to work.

After we finish the floor we will move onto painting the interior. (I thought it makes more sense to do the paint first, but since sanding the floor will create so much dust it is best to do that first and then wash the walls to prep for paint then to get dust all over fresh paint, cause you can't wash it for a few weeks.) I am so not a color person and we are really struggling with color choice. Right now we are leaning toward a light tan for the living room and bedrooms. Maybe a blue shade for the kitchen and green for the bathroom. Any thoughts?

Tomatos

Some of my tomatos have blossom end rot. I have been reading up on it and apparently it is caused by lack of calcium in the fruit. Often because the plant grows so fast it can't get the calcium to the fruit. Generally it only affects the initial fruit. I am really sad because it really got my roma tomatos, which I was going to use to make a ton of salsa. Hopefully they pull out of it. Everything else in my garden is happy. I got a start from my grandpas rhubarb and is is growing like crazy, after it died. My basil is so beautiful. I really need to cut it and dry a bunch. Pretty soon here I am going to have more yellow pear tomatos than any two people really need. It is so much fun to start stuff by putting a seed in the ground and see how much fruit it will produce.

My Weekend

A friend from work loaned me series 1-4 of the Gilmore Girls about two weeks ago. I have been watching them every spare minute that I have. My husband will sit down with me and watch a bit and then move on to more exciting things. He has been giving me a hard time about watching them so much and how they are kind of silly. It all changed, however, when he walked in as one episode was concluding and he started to whistle along with the theme song...

Happy Friday!

my husband and i are going camping this weekend...to my favorite mountains. i want to go hiking and take lots of pictures. we haven't been camping all summer which is really sad. we used to go all the time. i don't know why we have been so busy, but this is the only weekend left in the summer that we can go. i am looking forward to campfire and marshmallows. i remember one time when my friend (of the same name:)) and i decided that we wanted to have a campfire and roast marshmallows. so we grabed some marshmallows from the store and headed out of town to find a suitable place to have our fire. i remember there were swings there, so we swang and then roasted. the funny thing is that neither one of us really liked marshmallows. i have gotten more fond of them as i get older. much like coffee, but that is another story:)

Fuzzy Kitty 2004-2006

My little Fuzzy kitty got hit by a car on Friday night and did not make it. I miss him lots. He was a very special kitty to us. We got him on the day that I had a miscarriage. Actually it started right as we were taking him home from the humaine society. It was almost like God had given him to us to fill the hole that was left when we lost our first child. That night was horrible. I was on the floor screaming in pain and he and my husband were right there making sure that every thing was okay.

As the Fuzzy got older he became more loving. This past week Scott has been gone for work in Wyoming (he comes back 7/21). The Fuzzy has been snuggling me at night so that I would not be lonely. He would normally get up about 4:30 and want out, but since Scott has been gone he has slept in. We would both wake up and he way lay there and let me pet him and talk to him about my day.

His favorite toy was a stick. He would chase it for hours and hours. About a month ago we had some friends over that had very energetic little boys. They played stick with Fuzzy to the point where he was totaly exhausted. He would just colapse on the ground and pant like a dog with his tongue out and mouth open. It was so cute.

I have so many more stories about the Fuzz, but I think that I will save them for later. I will miss him tons. Thank you Fuzzy Kitty for loving us...

New Siding 

Kaitlynn

I got to babysit my niece on Thursday. It was my sister's birthday, so she and her husband went out to dinner. They had a nice time and so did I. We crawled around the living room for most of the evening. Kaitlynn has a ladybug that plays songs when you push it's feet. She really liked him. So did I because it captured her attention and she wasn't trying to run into the fireplace hearth or down the stairs. Watching an 8 month old is a lot of work!

Too Tall

Ever since I could remember I wanted to marry a tall guy. The taller the better, I thought. I have a lot of girlfriends who are tall, around 6'. They did not like the idea that I was looking in their "pool" of guys that were taller than them.

I did end up marrying a tall guy. My husband is 6'5". Thirteen inches taller than me. I am 5'4". When I buy pants I have to either hem them up or roll them up. There is no such thing as "too short" in my pants world.

There is in my husbands'. For some odd reason he can find jeans that are long enough, but not pants. He does not like to wear pants, so he only has one pair. He is starting his new job tomorrow and they are "business casual". His new boss told him that jeans are acceptable, but most people wear slacks in the office.

We went to the local D&B to find him some pants, because that is where he finds his long jeans. They don't have pants. So, off to the mall we go, much to my husbands dismay. While walking in he told me that this is ending a very long retreat from the mall. We went to just about all the department stores. Nothing. They point us to the big and tall section. My husband is tall, not big. The big and tall section is mostly just big, so no luck. We FINALLY found a pair his size, on clearance. That was happy! So now we own two pairs of pants that don't look like highwaters.

I guess there are some benefits to being short. I can buy just about any pair of pants I want.

Pretty Flowers

One more week and I will be done with this semester! Yaye! I have lots of things that I want to do this summer:
Organize my house -when we got married we both had way too much junk and now we really have way too much junk. It is hard to keep clean because there really isn't a place for everything.
Lift weights -I used work out faithfully, but I fell out of the habit.
Mountain Bike -there are lots of fun places around here to go and I want to make use of them while we live here.
Sew -I have tons of sewing projects. I want to make a duvet cover and curtains for our bed room.
Spend lots of quality time with Jesus -this one is probably self-explanitory.
Go on fun vacations/camping trips.
Take lots of good pictures.
I better get back to studying!

You want a piece of me?

I was looking through my pictures and came across this one of my cat, Fuzzy. I think he has a great expression on his face and I wanted to share it with you.

It has been so nice the last two weeks. I just want to go play in the sun, but I have to stay inside and study. Two more weeks and I will be done with this semester and I can do whatever I want. Now that is a happy thought!

Garden Time

I put most of my tomatoes in the garden today with their water walls. There are peas in the front, hopefully growing up the chicken wire. They are suppose to get to be 6 feet tall. When I was a little girl I loved the pea patch and was always there, just eating the fresh peas.

One of the water walls crashed and broke off the top of my tomotillo. I am hoping that it will survive. I put the wire tomato cages inside the water walls to give them more support. I plan to use better tomato supports when they get bigger though. I really don't like these ones, they are all bent and weird after being passed around the family for who knows how long.

Spring!

It is spring! Look at the awesome flowers on my neighbors fruit tree! I love this time of year, when it is warm outside, but not so hot that you want to find the nearest air conditioner. Every day I go outside and check out my plants and flowers. It totally amazes me that all of them know when to grow and how to do it. That must be part of the way that they praise God.

He Has Risen!

Yesterday was a wonderful day! Every year Easter is more meaningful to me. It completely amazes me what Jesus did for me. I have a hard time comprehending the enormity of it. Easter to me is filled with awe and wonderment. I spent all day kind of floating around in a cloud just pondering what we celebrate.

My pastor spoke on Ressurection Life. He talked about how we are so wretched, no matter how good we are. It was a lesson that I needed to hear. I have been a Christian since I was 4. My first memory is asking Jesus into my heart, so I don't know what life is like without Him. It is sometimes hard to see myself as that wretched creature that I was, since I was so little. It is good to be reminded that I am only the way that I am today because of what He has done in my life. Thank You, Jesus for dying on the cross so that I might have life in You!

Spring is Here!

It is such a beautiful day today!! I think it is suppose to get up to around 70. This morning I planted two blueberry bushes and four strawberry plants. My neighbor told me that we can grow blueberries here and I was so excited. They are really pretty bushes. In my garden I also have two rhubarb plants, sugar snap peas, lettuce and horseraddish. I also have tomato plants, basil and tomotillo plants inside. It is so much fun to watch things grow, and even more fun to harvest them when the time is right!

I finished reading the Psalms today. I had never read through them all. I didn't really take them all that serious before, just thought of them as nice things to read when I needed a pick-me-up. They are packed with awesome things about God! Over and over the theme is that God is our rock and stronghold. I really needed to have that pounded into my mind (150 chapters will do that for you:)). I am so glad that I serve a God that I can rely on for my strength. I can run to Him when I am tired. He is the One that I can count on to always be there for me. He is always ready and willing to listen to me. He WANTS to know my thoughts. He WANTS me to draw near to Him. Can you believe it? The God of the universe, the One who created all things, even me, wants to know me on an intimate level. Now, that is happy!

Red Letter Cafe

I've been training for my new job this past week. There are about twenty employees that I will work with. The first day of training we all shared a little about us and why we wanted to work there. It was so neat to hear how God had drawn each and every person personally to this place. Everyone is so excited to serve Him!! It is going to be an awesome work enviroment.

We are not only doing coffee, but we are going to have this awesome tea. I like tea, but this stuff is amazing! We are also going to do sandwiches, salads, soups, pastries, muffins, pizza's and gelato. All of the food, except the gelato, will be made from scratch daily. I am working evenings so I won't be part of the baking:(

It is so awesome to be working as a part of a ministry. All of our profit will go to missions. It will be so nice to feel free to share the love of Christ with customers and not be worried that my boss won't like it.

woo-hoo!!

I got a job yesterday. Not just any job, but a way awesome job! I am going to be a barista for a Christian coffee shop/bookstore. I had an interview yesterday and she hired me on the spot. I am excited to work in a Christian enviroment that has a ministry focus. They have a great location, so hopefully it will draw people who need Jesus. I pray that the Lord would use me to minister to those who need my gifts.

Wildflower Seeds

This morning my husband said to me, "I have a surprise for you, but you will have to find it." So I instantly start searching my house looking for a surprise. He stopped me and told me that I wouldn't find it until later.

I was doing some homework before class started today and needed to crunch some numbers so I pulled my trusty calculator out. It sounded like there was sand in it. But when I pulled it out of the case a package of wildflower seeds fell out. I was so excited that he had thought of me. I felt so loved! I can't wait to have a whole bed with those wildflowers all summer to remind me how much he loves me:)

happy birthday gampa

Today would have been my grandpa's 91st birthday. Last year I sent him a brithday card. In the card I told him how Jesus loved him more than anyone else ever has or ever will and that Jesus loved him so much that he willingly died on the cross to pay the payment for his sins. I knew that even if it didn't all make sense to him my mom was over visiting and she could answer his questions. He did have some questions, but on March 5, 2005 at 90 years old he confessed that Jesus was God and asked Him to forgive him from all of his sins. Praise the Lord that He revealed Himself to my grandpa when He did!! My grandpa died two weeks later, March 18, 2005 (on my birthday). He was heading a committe meeting in his community. He was still very active, living with my gammie on their own. He walked every day.

On a happier note, I took a heat transfer test last Friday that was super hard. I walked away from the test wondering if I should drop the class. When I got my test back yesterday I thought that I had gotten the wrong one! I earned an 80%!!!! I know it is barely a B, but I was thrilled!!! I never would have guessed that I had done that well. I know that there were lots of people praying for me. God is good! All the time God is good!

Are there any rules about blogging? Do you just ramble on about whatever you feel like, or do you sit down and write a rough draft before you post? Anyone have any suggestions for me? I would love to hear them!

emotional intelligence

My husband and I are at the library because he has to research emotional intelligence.
I would rather be at a coffee shop sipping coffee and pretending to study. Actually, I usually get a lot done at coffee shops. It is a little too quiet at the library and I get distracted here. Or, maybe I am distracted because I brought my laptop:) I googled emotional intelligence and this is what I found:

Emotional intelligence is the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, learn from, manage and understand emotions.

Sounds like an interesting topic for an engineering class:)

I am growing tomato plants. I started the seeds around two weeks ago. It amazes me how fast they grow. This afternoon I am going to have to transplant them into larger containers. I can't wait until I my first tomato is ready for me to pick. I love tomatos!!!

We went to church this morning and the text was Hebrews 11. Pastor Bob talked about faith and what it takes. He told us that he has a love/hate relationship with faith. He loves the outcome, but hates the process. I totally understand!! I think that God made it that way on purpose, though. If we didn't have to go through the hard part of trusting in things unseen then when things happended as a result we would not appreciate them as much. If God had allowed Sarah to become pregnant sooner then she and Abraham might not have recognized it as God's hand, but take for granted that they were a young couple of childbearing age.

Faith. What does God want to teach me about it? When I think about faith I think over the last year and a half. A lot of very life changing things happend over that period of time for me. September 2004 My husband and I found out that we were going to become parents. That was a huge shock to us!! We wanted to have kids down the road, but not until he finished school. We thought that we had the birth control thing under control. So the next month was crazy, trying to adjust to this new responsibility. We had decided that we were not going to tell anyone for a while, partly because we were still adjusting to the idea and partly becasue we did not want to hear the "wow, that was fast" or "I thought you were going to wait", responses. Like we did it on purpose, people! But we knew that God had a purpose for that little life.

The next appointment we had they said that the fetus wasn't as big as they thought it would be, but I wasn't worried because I am very irregular. So we went back two weeks later and it had definetly died. The doctor told us that we had two options: I could wait it out and let my body "abort" the fetus, or I could go in and have a procedure to clean everything out. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do right then, but the doctor assured me that I would have some time to decide. It can take the body up to three months to miscarry. Turned out that my body would make the choice for me. October 10, 2004 I miscarried. That was the most horrible, painful experience of my life. I had been told that it would be just like a bad period. Ha! I basically went into labor. I had contractions and the whole bit. After about four hours of contractions, throwing up, emotional pain and yelling I had no more energy and could not go on. Scott took me to the ER and well, that is a whole other story.

I walked around stunned for a few days, wondering what God was trying to teach me.
I didn't understand how or why we concived in the first place, and I really didn't understand why we lost the baby. I don't think that I ever will, but I do know that God is good. He has plans to prosper and protect me. He is working out all things for my good. He loves me so much that He would send His only son to die for me so that I might have eternal life. What an awesome God I serve!!!

I sometimes wonder if God allows those things to happen in our lives just so that we will trust Him. I could just be angry and turn my back on God, but what good would that do me? I have instead, chosen to run to Him. To cling to His promises. He loves me more that I can comprehend. This experience has strenghtened my relationship with my husband. It has also allowed me to share in the pain with friends that have gone through a miscarriage. It has allowed me to get close to people that I probably would never have gotten close to. Thank you Lord for bringing trials into my life so that I will be able to trust you more.

a year ago

A year ago today was the last day that I spent with my grandma. She passed away the next morning around 2am. My dad, mom, uncle and I were all with her when she took her last breath. It was an experience that I will never forget. My grandma was 95 years old when she went to be with her savior.

As we were preparing for her funeral I was looking through a trunk that had her things in it. I found some poems that she had written. Those poems were such gifts to us. One of then was perfect for the funeral program.

I Thank Thee by Mabel Austin

I thank Thee, Lord, that I may be
A servant unto Thee.
I'll serve with never titing hands
The One who died for me.

And as I rise to greet each day,
I will my Master seek
And pray that He will choose my tasks
And direct my erring feet.

To do His bidding without fail
And from sinful acts refrain
But pledge my life to His desires
To help His kingdom reign.

And oh how great will be my pay
If when beyond these earthly tasks
I'm privileged still to serve my Lord
When Zion dawns at last.

Isn't life crazy? I have often found my self wondering what the meaning of life is during the last year and a half. It seems so crazy that I am here, doing my thing while other people are at the end or just starting their lives. I am excited that God has me here right now, because I know that it is His perfect timing. It is awesome to know that He is using my life for His glory and that He used my grandma's life for His glory as well. I feel blessed to have such an awesome legacy. I only hope that I can live up to the standard that my grandma set. She was such an amazing woman.

I know that this subject doesn't really go with the title of my blog, but it is what is currently on my heart. I promise that I will have happy posts soon:)