Bible Study

For the past two weeks we have been studying the history psalms. There are three psalms that record Israel's history--78, 105, and 106. It has been an interesting study because each psalm takes a slightly different perspective. Psalm 78 is more just a recording of the history. Psalm 105 highlights the many sins of Israel. And Psalm 106 focuses on confession of those sins and God's faithfulness through those sins. I have read through the Old Testament and have studied Israel's pattern of following after God, rebelling, turning away from Him, and then seeking Him again. But it is very different when you read that pattern within 50 verses. One thing that is very encouraging...our God is a faithful God, slow to anger, abounding in love. When we seek Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And He is a covenant-keeping God! Praise the Lord!

A New Perspective

Sunday morning at church I had the privilege of talking to a visitor to the church. She was visiting Peoria for the weekend. I had actually met her earlier in the weekend and so she came to my care group during Sunday school. While we were taking prayer requests, we were also naming praises. My new friend mentioned what a huge praise it was for her to get to worship at Bethany and meet a great group of people devoted to following Christ. She talked about how she doesn't often get to visit other churches and what a neat experience it had been for her while she was away from her own church.

This really got me to thinking. I love Bethany and hate when I have to be away. But when I visit other churches, I don't think that I allow myself to grasp how wide God's love is. I don't often let that visit impact me enough to let me know that God's church is universal and I can worship Him no matter what church I am in. I don't often let the visit speak to me in such a way as to say, "Wow, these people are my brothers and sisters in Christ and therefore are also my church family." Even if I only visit once and never go back again. This new friend allowed me to get a glimpse of this through her eyes as she experienced these exact things and was even willing to verbalize them. What an awesome God we serve!!!

A Day in the Life

I moved my first pieces of furniture to the apartment. And got to use my key for the first time. Although, I called ahead to see if Emily would be there because I didn't want to freak her out : ). But I bought two bookshelves today and moved the boxes in. The assembly time is yet to be determined.

The pool is up and running. The fence is complete. Now we just have to wait for that grass to grow. I actually went outside yesterday and discovered green water in the pool. I decided not to ask questions (the pool and yard have caused a little bit of stress at our house). But today, the water is clear and everyone was swimming. I didn't have time between church this morning, shopping this afternoon, and church tonight. Maybe one evening this week before I move...

Awww...how sweet

I just looked at my birthday countdown. And it's wishing me a happy birthday today : ). I wonder what it will say tomorrow...

The Life of a 29 Year Old

As it turns out, so far 29 hasn't been much different than 28 : ) Granted, I have only experienced 29 for about an hour and a half, but still. So far, it has been an uneventful birthday. I woke up too early but refused to get out of bed until 9:00. Then I paid bills. Yes, on my birthday. They needed to get in the mail. The life of an adult never really stops. Then I decided to check my email. Actually, I got online to transfer some money and got distracted. Then I decided I should post a blog on my birthday. Oh, and I just heated up some apple dump (not dumb) cake for breakfast. Which totally reminds me of a birthday from when I was in high school or college. My mom and I were in Illinois that year. We had celebrated birthdays on the 4th because the family was together (I have two cousins who were also born in July--one on the 4th and one on the 22nd). So, when I woke up on my birthday I decided that I wanted chocolate cake for breakfast. For some reason, I decided that my mom would not allow this, so I approached grandma and told her what I wanted. She said, "It's your birthday. You can have whatever you want for breakfast. If your mom says anything, tell her to come talk to me!" You gotta love grandmas...

Two posts and two sets of pictures. It must be a record. Just don't get used to it. I celebrated the 4th with friends. We went to Kari's for fun and games. While everyone else played volleyball, I stayed in the cool inside and talked to Ginger and played with Taylor. Then we had dinner. We headed downtown for fireworks at about 7:00 (actually, I didn't have a watch on, so I don't know when we went). We staked out a spot and then settled in to play some games and hang out. Here are some pictures.



I love this picture because absolutely no one is looking at the camera. In their defense they didn't know I was taking the picture!

Storm was so excited to be downtown that he took a nap.
And then when he woke up, he decided to tattoo his wife. Nice picture of a monkey!
Katie decided she could do a better job herself!
Kari and I attempted for the umpteenth time to take a good picture of the two of us. Thanks Storm, for making the picture so great!

And the fireworks weren't too shabby either. Kari timed them at about 30 minutes. There were a couple of loud booms that I totally felt the whole ground shake. And some that were so big they filled almost my entire vision of the sky. The fireworks are timed to music played on one of the local radio stations, which makes them even more fun (although sometimes I think the music is just distracting). The funniest part of the fireworks display was when a song was playing (for the life of me I can't remember the name) but the line says "and I thank my lucky stars" and as it said stars a firework in the shape of a star went off. It was just a little cheesy. I didn't think to try to capture any of the fireworks on my camera until halfway through, but then I didn't want to look away to go digging through my bag for my camera. So, no pictures of fireworks. I'm sure my camera would not have done them justice anyway.

Pictures as Promised

I finally got around to taking some pictures and uploading them to the computer. Here's what I came up with:

This is a picture of the sand pit that was the pool. The guys came out last Tuesday evening to put the pool up and ran out of daylight. Of course, it rained the next day and the next day, and then it was too wet the next day....and so on.
This is the half-full tank of water they brought with them to put into the pool after it was put together. The funny thing was, the guys pulled it into the yard when they started, but then after it rained it was too muddy to move until they emptied it. It kind of put us on the top of the list to finish since they needed the tank for any other houses they worked on.
Last night before I left for church, this ladder was just a dream in the making. Lots of miscellaneous parts with no rhyme or reason. I looked outside today and Tada! here it is. Everyone must have worked hard on it.
And here is the pool : ). Just waiting for a warm day so we can actually swim. There is bubble wrap over the water. I asked Dad why and he said that it is a solar something or other. Interesting because I really thought it must be bubble wrap.
The guys were back to work on the yard now that the pool is in. This is the final stage. The weird teal spray that eventually sprouts grass. I forgot to take a picture of the grass out front. It really is coming in well. Dad is hilarious because he will look out the window and say "I just saw another sprout come up!"
This is where the tank sat just under a week ago. In the background you can see the poles for the fence and one lonely piece of fence that is waiting to be attached.


And onto another subject:

It's official! This is the key to my new apartment. I don't move in until next weekend, but Emily gave me my key last night. How fun!
Here it is up close in case you missed it in the first picture!

If I don't blog for a couple of days....HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

We're up and Running

Well, sort of. We have a pool. It even has some water in it. And an insurmountable amount of dirt that surrounds it. So, they're about halfway there. They still need to get the fence up and the grass finished. And some other stuff. It is definitely still a work in progress. And sometimes strange to see the pool sitting there.

I think that's my news for now. Sorry, I keep meaning to take pictures, but then I forget until it's too dark. Eventually you'll be able to see the completed projects : ). Until then, Storm, just use your imagination. And stop complaining about no pictures.

Catching Up

This week was one of those CRAZY weeks! I would have blogged sooner, but by the time I got around to getting on the computer it was too late to think straight. And wireless internet is down at our house, and when you're crazy tired the only decent way to be on the computer is laying in bed with your laptop. So, to sum this paragraph up, I was too tired/lazy to get on the desktop. And I even took pictures that don't really apply anymore : (.



Wednesday we had another great Bible study. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I lead the CI class girl's Bible study. For the summer we are studying different psalms. This last week we studied Psalm 63, which is one of my favorite psalms. It was such an eye opener this week. Let's face it, we all know that I am a complainer by nature. If I stub my toe I have to tell at least three people about it. So, to read about David, who is on the run from his son Absalom, and how he is willing to seek God, glorify God, hunger and thirst for God, call God's love better than life, and earnestly seek Him...Well, needless to say, it was a swift kick in the rear. I don't face nearly what David must have faced in his life, and yet I grumble and complain and whine instead of earnestly seeking God, remembering His past blessings, and looking forward to His blessings in the future.



Thursday I got to go to Cold Stone to celebrate Ashley's birthday. If I've never told you how much I LOVE Cake Batter ice cream, let me just tell you now. I LOVE CAKE BATTER ICE CREAM. Oh, and Ashley is really cool too! Oh, but even before that, at exactly 2:17pm I was able to drop off my last client of the week. Boy, was that a relief, although that also meant I had TONS of paperwork to look forward to that afternoon and Friday.



Friday I procrastinated as much as possible about doing my paperwork, but in the end had to buckle down, because, let's face it, it was due that day and I didn't really want to be at work until 5:00 if I didn't have to be. So, I managed to leave work at 3:30. Hooray for the weekend! Friday evening I was able to spend the evening with 7 of my cool friends for an early birthday celebration. We went mini golfing and then to Kari's for dessert and Wii playing. Now, when I sent out the birthday invite, I respectfully let everyone know that since it was my birthday, they needed to let me win mini golf. Suspiciously enough, I came in dead last. Hmmm...maybe I should think about getting new friends....



Saturday I refused to get out of bed before 10am. : ). Then I got ready and went to buy my new couch for my new apartment (the one I talked about a couple of posts back). It will be delivered the day before I officially move in! I am SO excited. My new roomie went with me and we were able to sit on the couch and chat while the guy looked it up to see if it was in the warehouse. It felt right. I also almost bought a dresser, which I will probably go back and buy later this week. Then I came home and finished sorting the boxes I brought home from my mom's. I found an old card game that I used to like to play and taught Daynah. Then I did some paperwork for work (that's why I was able to leave at 3:30!). Then I balanced my checkbook. Then I started blogging. Yippee!

High Maintenance

Apparently, I have a high maintenance brother! Josh left for camp for a week. It's his first time away from home for that long. So Amy and I were discussing how we think he is doing. Well, I am used to him, but she was telling me about an email that she sent to the children's minister at the church, and I started laughing at all the things she had to be warned about. Number one, Josh gets carsick, so Amy packed him a barf bag. He has to sit close to the front on the bus. Number two, he sleepwalks. Not just every once in a while, but almost every time he is short on sleep. Number three, he used to wake up with night terrors. This hasn't happened in a while, but he used to wake up about once a week screaming as if he was being eaten alive. He falls back to sleep and doesn't remember any of it in the morning. I think that's actually it, but three pretty major things to have to watch out for when you have a kid at camp. Too bad for his counselor!

Oh, and I got home from work today to discover my chairs had been moved in the garage. I didn't think anything of it until I heard that Daynah and her friend had been racing to see who could push off the wall and slide the furthest since the chairs are on wheels! I told Daynah she better not break my chairs or she would be in BIG trouble!

An Assortment of Pictures Per Someone's Request

I was the first to point out that I hadn't posted any pictures in a while. So I've been lazy. But at least I've been posting something : ). Now, I have ten pictures to share that I took today!

This is the yard at my dad's house. Notice that there is no grass. The yard was completely gutted two weeks ago in order to reseed and relandscape.
For awhile, with the rain, we had a mud pit. Sorry I didn't invite anyone over to mud wrestle. I didn't want to show everyone up with my superior skills.
This is the concrete and poles that will eventually become the new privacy fence going up around the yard. The fence is a necessity because...
This is our new swimming pool! Well, the hole that was dug for the installation of the swimming pool, anyway. Kind of fishy that we are getting a pool just a few weeks before I move out!
And these boxes are the swimming pool! The guys are coming to install it tomorrow, I think.


And in more interesting developments...

These are the boxes I brought back from my grandma's house. I have been through several of them.
Notice the box to the back right, on the floor. This, so far, is the only stuff I intend to take to the apartment : )
In one of the boxes were these two books. When I was in 6th grade, we wrote our own stories. Then we illustrated them and made the covers. Once we were all through with the books, we took them to the elementary school to read to the students. Two things are ironic in this story. Number one, my illustrations would look the same if I drew them today. Number two, my grandma, who loves me dearly, proposed that I get them published. She might be a little biased.
And here are my two chairs. Aren't they so cute : ).
Here is the story of the chairs, as I remember it (which I've learned in the past couple of months I might not have remembered it too accurately). My grandpa either had these chairs made or bought them specifically because they were lower to the ground and he and my grandma were both shorter. I think the chairs are older than me. They were originally covered in 70s orange material--very up and coming when they were purchased. My aunt eventually had them recovered in this fabric, I would say about 10 years ago. So, the fabric is wearing thin (apparently the fabric was not upholstery fabric). I remember my grandpa and grandma sitting in these chairs from when I was very young. Eventually, as my grandma got older, she got a recliner and the chairs moved to the living room. That is where they have been until now. Now they are temporarily being stored in my garage until I move. Then hopefully I will be able to fit them into my apartment. It might have to be one in the bedroom and one in the living room. But they are mine, and for that I am very excited! : )

I hope this satisfies the lack of pictures from previous posts.