Hello long lost friend!

So, I'm not an avid blogger by any stretch of the imagination. When I think about blogging, I somehow remember all the other million-and-one things that I need to do that take priority over updating the blogging world. Facebook serves me well in those situations because, one phrase at a time, I can update my friends. It'd be a lie to say I haven't had anything to blog about given that in the last month alone, I've had 3 roommates move out and 4 new ones move in, my father had quadruple bypass surgery, I've started a new part time job of waitressing at the Villa Montez, decided to get my teacher's certification and starting substitute teaching twice a week. Aside from those things, I'm teaching Level 1 in BSF and still leading the large group at church for Sunday School. I'm also now on the Board of Directors for Bridge the Nations and as well as serving as their accountant. I still have time to exercise, shower, eat and spend time with Jesus daily so I'm doing good! I did get sick the first week and was a little emotional this past weekend deciding if working so much was worth it but in the end, I know it's the responsible thing to do!

I did buy my ticket to go home to Canada for a few days at the beginning of November for my mom's 60th birthday! I'm looking forward to seeing my dad after his surgery as well as Keira's little face. She'll likely be walking by then which is insane since she was only 6 months old the last time I saw her. She is really one the cutest kids I know!

Well, not too much else to say and even as I write this, I'm continuing to think about all I need to do! Farewell blogging world. Until next time!

"Lay down his life"

For the past few days, I have been praying for someone I have never met who belongs to a family I known for about 8 years. The "Arnolds" were a famous family when I came to Teen Mania as an intern and Michelle has one of the best blogs I have ever read. A few days ago, Chad (who used to work at TM) and his brother went into surgery because Chad was in need of a kidney translat and his brother decided to him him 60% of his kidney. Ryan was healthy and the surgery was successful for Chad's condition. Ryan had a tougher time after the surgery which is more common for the giver of an organ transplant. A few nights after the surgery, Ryan "blue coded" in the night and the next day they confirmed there was no brain activity. He went to be with Jesus yesterday.

John 15:13 says "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends". I have cried several times when I was thinking about this situation and praying for this family. Ryan showed the greatest example of love I have ever heard of besides Christ himself. The family wants Ryan's story to be told and for him to be remembered for the life he lived. He loved the Lord and left behind his wife and three small children. Please continue to pray for the family and Ryan's family. May his children grow up knowing that their father was a true hero and did something only a few imagine.

From the West side to the East side!

This past week I was in Seattle for a one day meeting and then went up to Vancouver for the weekend to see Lynn and Ian. What a beautiful place!!! It's a good thing my job wasn't asking me to move to Seattle because I'd probably highly consider it! Although they say it rains 9 months of the year up there, I only saw blue skies the entire time. I think what I love most about it was the water next to the mountains. You know the old question "would you rather live by water or by the mountains?". Well, in this case, you get to live by both! Another thing I absolutely loved was that all the seashells on the beach were purple! Isn't that amazing! God knew I'd be up there walking the beach and that if I could choose, I'd have the shells all purple, so He made them purple just for me! Here's a pic of them...

Needless to say, Lynn and I spent quite a long time picking up sea shells and putting them into the bag I had brought. It was absolutely splendid!

This next week, I'm heading to Florida to the head office to help finish up a project I'm working on. Once this project is submitted to the governement on August 15th, I will no longer be working with LKT and ATMS. Since they needed me to re-locate and I didn't feel peace about doing that, I'm now on the hunt for a new job. I've applied at a place that I really think I'd enjoy so now I'm just playing the 'waiting for them to call me back' game. If I don't hear from them by the end of this week, I'll give them a call!

Well see! The best thing is to know that I'm in God's Hands and He's got this situation under control!

Not even a sparrow...

While I was away at home in Canada, a sparrow came and built a nest in one of my hanging pots. Since my roommates didn't water the plants the entire month while I was gone, the sparrow went unnoticed. It wasn't until I went to see if I could revive the plant with water that I noticed the baby sparrow inside. I was so excited to know that although my plant had almost died, it was still being used to protect the little baby. A few days ago I went out to see how the baby was doing and much to my saddness, it had passed away. I didn't touch it or get very close to it so I don't think I was reason for it's death but I was still sad to know that the little sparrow didn't make it. I have always been very sensative to animals so in my saddness I told my roommates but they didn't really share my sediments for the unborn bird. I was wondering if it was silly for me to be sad about a wild sparrow but I was reminded yet again that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God noticing. This was the inspiration for my rug, which I design and have had so much fun making! Here's a picture of it...

This past Saturday I was at Rose Path working on this rug when I got a call from my boss saying that unless I moved to Florida, I was going to lose my job. I had a week to make the decision about whether I would accept the position they were offering me, but since I love living here in East Texas, I decided to decline the offer. I told a few people about my situation so they could pray for me and it's the best way to explain the peace I have right now. I know that God is leading me and I'm excited about a new chapter in my life. I didn't cry or get overwhelmed and I know it's because He's had me reflecting on His Word from Matthew 6:19-34. He knows my every step and just as He's aware of the sparrow who passed away in my flower pot, He's even more aware of me and my life.

One more week!

Isn't she a doll ?!? My beautiful niece Keira Grace! Just put in on here to show her off : )

Wow...three weeks already done and only one more to go! I wouldn't say I'm counting down the minutes but I am excited about getting back. There are few things about being at home that I forgot about which are both good and bad. The good thing is that my father is an incredible cook and dinners are always delicious (the only person in Texas who cooks as good as dad is Lisa Hasz). The bad thing is having to report my day to day plans with my parents. I guess "bad" is not really a good word to use...more like, "interesting". I haven't really reported my plans to anyone since I left home but I guess this is good prep for marriage. Naiyah is continuing on her bad streak. Today she ran into someone in the park right after coming out of the river so she got the girl's pants all wet. She has also emptied the cat dish completely (a few times), chewed the lid of the cat food right off, jumped the gate to get to the cat food (and while she was in the kitchen she tore into all the garbage cans spreading garbage around) and finally she just broke the gate into the kitchen (I guess she felt it was easier to break it then to try jumping it again). This week I've been dog sitting my neighbor's dog so I've been walking him, Naiyah and my parent's dog. I've mastered the art of walking two dogs on a leash (Shadow is the good dog who doesn't need a leash) which includes wrapping the leashes around my waist and abruptly stopping when the dogs are pulling too much (of course, this also includes the dogs running into each other when I stop). I'm quite the sight to see.

This weekend I'm heading on a retreat with my old youth pastor and youth group. My friend Lauren is going so my biggest reason for being there was spending the weekend with her although I'm glad to help. I've been appointed as the "Kitchen Queen" and I'll also be sharing with the teens on Saturday about the importance of reading God's Word. I'm very excited about it although I need to finish preparing.

In a complete non-related topic, the World Cup has finally started and my bets are on Germany (really, I joined a pool for $5 and I put Germany as the winners). We'll see. Unfortunately most of the games are happening during the day but my brother is taping them and I am getting TIVO when I get home so I can record them. There's just something about soccer that I absolutely love. I love watching it, coaching it, and especially playing it! I'll probably have a "Finals" party at my house to watch the last game when the time comes!

I attached another picture of my beautiful niece since I absolutely love her! With this face, she'll get away with anything! It'll be sad to say goodbye to her on Friday morning but hopefully I'll see her again at the beginning of November!

Adios amigos!

Life at home

I'm currently at home in Canada with my parents and things have been going great so far. On Saturday my older sister got married and she had a beautiful wedding. Keira, my niece, looks absolutely adorable in her outfit, suited with bonnett and all (the bonnett only made it on her head for about 5 minutes...probably for the better). Naiyah is loving being here because she now has another dog around to bug, a huge river at the end of my street to jump in daily, at a continuous supply of cat food to steal. The weather is almost as warm as Texas although it's a lot dryer. For breakfast I had "prune yogurt" since it's what my parents have for breakfast everyday and lunches are also an odd assortment of items. I am definitely missing Texas (mostly my friends, followed closely by my bed : ) Although I didn't really have any plans besides the wedding when I came up, I now am completely booked up every weekend. I'm house and dog sitting for the nieghbors and then my brother. I'm going on the youth retreat with my best friend and old youth pastor so that'll be fun. In general, things at home are good and I'm convinced this month will go by quickly!

The Ward!

Today I was looking through Facebook during my lunch break when I came across a group entitled "Raised in the Ward-Guelph and PROUD OF IT". The "ward" was the oldest part and in many ways the poorest part of the city I grew up in. The elementary school I attended was in the heart of the Ward and we lived on the outskirts of the Ward. There was a public school down the road that in some ways became our rivals. Because of the high population of Italians in my city, many of the people who lived in the ward were related and parts of large Italian families. I would often go to my best friend's grandma's house when they did the canning of their pasta sauce and processed their meat.

Although the "ward" didn't always have a great reputation, I absolutely loved living there because I loved my family and the memories I made. The street I lived on had about 30 houses on it and you better believe that I knew the names of almost every person! There was a guy down the street who taught me how to make origami stuff, my best friends who were twins lived two houses down, the woman across the street would make me cookies when I'd come visit, another lady let me play with her babies anytime I wanted and the list of other memories is endless. One of my very favorite neighborhood memories is playing Kick the Can with all the kids on my street. We'd get into camo gear and play it into the night while the parents hung out on their front porches and watched us (sometimes revealing the hidding place of one of the kids). There was a candy store at the top of my street so anytime I found .05 cents in my parent's pants, it meant I could get a candy. We had a river at the bottom of the street and a forest area that we built tree forts in and would catch frogs/tadpoles to keep hidden in our rooms until they all ended up dying.



To this day, my parents still live in that house that I grew up in and since they love it so much, they bought the house next to them as well! Most of the houses in the area have since been renovated and are selling for 3x what they were when my parents bought their house but my parents house looks almost the same!



In just a few weeks I'm heading home for a month and I couldn't be more excited! Of course I'm sad to leave Texas and all my friends here but there's something about being home that I just love. It's the familiar place where most of my memories were made and I could know where I'm at even if I was wearing a blindfold. I've convinced my parents to go "old people camping" (originally I asked if we could do real camping, like in a tent, but they said they're too old so they'd prefer to do old people camping...basically, sleeping a motel near a campground). This is better than just staying at home so I agreed! It'll be the first time since I left that I'll be at home for that long and I'm looking forward to the time with my family (especially my lovely niece!).



So although the "ward" didn't always have the best reputation, I too am proud to say I grew up there and it's still what I consider "home"!



Here's a picture of the street I grew up in (the snow is the reason I still don't live there

Loving Pensacola and missing Texas!

On Monday morning I got a call to see if I could come to Pensacola for work this week. I left the next day and go back to Texas tomorrow. Last night we went to the beach and I got to walk along the ocean. After thinking about it a while, I think the last time I was in the Ocean was Christmas 2008 when I went to the Bahamas on a mission trip! There is something so peaceful yet powerful about the ocean. It was the most beautiful sunset and I almost cried (not a surprise to those close to me) just enjoying the sheer beauty of it all! Like a kid, I decided I was going to find one shell to bring home and I ended up getting SEVERAL shells to bring home!
Here are a few pictures from last night.


Even being here though, as beautiful as it is, doesn't make me want to move to Florida. It's wonderful to visit but at this stage in my life, I just love Texas way too much to move.

I had the thought that it might be good to make a list of the top 10 reasons I love Texas so much and hand it to anyone who asks me! So here's my list:

10. Everything in Texas blooms twice a year so you get to enjoy your flowers twice a year!
9. It has the best TexMex food around given that it's named after Texas!
8. People don't really stare at you if you go out in public with a cowboy hat and cowboy boots on.
7. The grocery stores and Dairy Queen play Christian music.
6. I can buy a dozen roses for $2 on the side of the road!
5. The water in the lakes feels like bathwater in the summer and normal temps in the winter so you can swim all year round (only recommended if you're from the North and have a different opinion on water temps).
4. My house being hidden in the trees feeling like a slice of heaven saved on earth for me to enjoy!As well as the sunsets and sky! They're definitely bigger in Texas!
3. My church and the kids I serve every other week in Kingdom Kids
2. BSF, the ladies there who so inspire me and have become like Texan mothers to me including teaching me to knit (not sure BSF of course)!
1. All the incredible people in my life that I love and enjoy living my life with!

Moths in the pantry...again!!

Last year, around the middle of the summer, I discovered moths in my pantry. Not thinking too much about it, I killed the ones I could see and cleaned up their little bodies. A few days later, there were more moths. With the business of the summer, when I was home, I would clean the pantry of moths. When my parents came for a visit, to my mother's great disgust, she found the moths. Unlike her daughter, who was naive to the origin of moths, my mother began taking things out of the pantry and teach her daughter a lesson in the progression and creation of moths. Much to my disgust, almost all the items in my pantry that came in bags or boxes, had been eaten through and have larva as well as eggs living in it! My mother went about the task of cleaning out the entire pantry and purchasing several plastic containers to store the newly purchased replacement food. It took about a week to clean the entire pantry and remove all signs of moths and larve. We'll, about a year later, I found moths in my pantry again this week. Instead of just killing the few on the top, I took everything out of the pantry, put it on the table and told the girls to go through their stuff. I wrote the following letters:

The girls were quite disgusted by the sample larva and bag with larva and eggs growing in it. As I write this, I feel a little queezy. So last night once the girls had gone through all their items and put it back in the pantry in plastic bins, I disposed of 4 full garbage bags. I'm confident that some of that food had been in the pantry since I purchased the house over a year and a half ago! The problem with living with so many people is that they forget what they bought so they never eat it and when the time comes, no one claims it! In the end, I was able to transform the pantry and excite my organizational (aka, nerdy) side and label the pantry. I wish I had taken a before picture of the pantry but didn't think of it until I was taking the finishing picture! Here is what the pantry looks like now!

Notice the labels on the plastic bins! This makes my heart very happy! If I was as cool as my friend Lisa Hasz I would buy a label maker machine but I think my roommates would fear me labelling them with my passion for labelling! Naiyah's label would read "lazy dog - no need to beware". Pookey's label (the cat) would read "careful - I bite". I will leave my roommate's labels undisclosed!

So after a clean pantry, freshly mowed lawn and cleaned baseboards in the living room, life at home seems more at peace!

Green is in the air - literally!

It's amazing how much things can change in one week of being away! I feel like when I left last Saturday, the trees were just beginning to bud, the grass didn't need mowing, and now everything is green and certainly in need of mowing. When I write everything, I meant it! There is pollen on literally everything! My car has turned a shade of green and since everyone has green cars too, I don't feel as inclined to clean it! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!! A few other changes in just one week is that my mailbox door is completely broken off and now resides inside the mailbox and the bottom drawer of my oven is no longer attached to the hinges. When I tried to put it back, I found 6 cat play toys and a shopping list I looked for EVERYWHERE a few weeks ago (I obviously didn't look under the oven...obvious place of course!).

My trip to Colombia was absolutely wonderful, until around 1 AM on Friday morning when I woke up with a fever, shaking from being cold, in a room with a temperature of 93 degrees! Mentally, I knew I shouldn't feel cold but since I was cold, I packed on clothes until I lay there without the fan blowing on me, wearing long pants, a long sleeved shirt, a sweater, warm socks and two blankets. After some evaluation, I decided the best plan was to call my mother in Canada at 2 AM her time. This is the second time I've called her out of bed in the middle of the night in a foreign country thinking she could help me (the first was in Cambodia). Since she didn't really know how to help, I called my nurse friend Beth! She was more resourceful than my mother for sure and after following her advice, I felt a little better in the morning.

Today, 4 days later, I still have a parasite that I'm trying to get out of my body, but I feel much better than I did. I haven't been able to eat more than a few crackers each day but I don't feel quite as weak as I did. Being sick is no fun, but it's even less fun when you're in another country sleeping on a hard bed using a shower without hot water and having to use toilet paper that feels more like newspaper!

I am now trying to get back into "life" here including going to Bible Study last night. I almost threw up in class last night because one of my kids pulled her teeth out while I was doing their discussion of the previous week's lesson. In many ways, I feel ready to be a parent but the thought of their little teeth coming out of their mouth sort of makes me feel queezy! As a kid it seemed cool but as an adult, the "coolness" fact has somewhat dimished. The obvious cool part was putting it under your pillow and getting money. In my house, the tooth fairy must have worked at the Christian bookstore where my mother worked because we always got Christian tapes. Assuming the toothfairy threw out the teeth after collecting them from under our pillows, I was shocked a few years ago to stumble across a little container filled with baby teeth! I'm not sure if my mother was planning to make a necklace with them one day or just couldn't help parting with them, but I certainly feel that once a tooth falls out, it should be disposed of. I suggested to my kid last night that she just throw the bloody tooth out and draw a picture of it to put under her pillow but she kept the tooth.

On a lighter note, I saw my first hummingbird today! I can't wait until they are swarming the feeder outside my window! Gotta love Spring!

In Colombia

Top 10 reasons why Lindsee is my favorite travel buddy:

10. She thinks I know where I'm going so she trusts me to lead...even if I have NO idea!

9. She packs light so we aren't carrying around a ton of bags.

8. She doesn't mind sharing drinks, food, toothpaste, etc. (no toothbrushes though).

7. She makes me try new things...like skinny jeans!

6. She loves the people I love that we stay with!

5. She makes equestrian wear look hot!

4. She is willing to try all sorts of new foods!

3. She KNOWS good coffee and not so good coffee.

2. She isn't picky about sleeping arrangements, even it's the top of a triple bunk with me!

1. She doesn't mind getting lost : )

We are having a wonderful time in Colombia! Although I know my parents made the right decision in moving to Canada, there are parts of here that are so beautiful, especially the mountains! We are going to be staying with my cousin in Cota, just outside of Bogota, until Wednesday and then we're heading to the warmer area in the South until Saturday! It'll be great to relax before heading back home!

Just lovin' it here!

Life in the green!

So, I wonder how many days have to pass with not posting on this thing before people assume you've gone back to the "not posting anymore" on their blog! I have thought about the pictures I wanted to post the last two days for wordless Wednesday. This is my wordless Wednesday picture for this week!

Since it's not Wednesday, I'll let you know what this is! It's the view from the balcony at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando which is where I was this past Wednesday for work! I flew in on Tuesday and left on Wednesday so needless to say, it was a fast trip but I fun on nonetheless! I got to know the team a lot better that I directly work with. Hopefully this Wednesday I'll have an even cooler picture since I'll be Colombia! I'm going with my good friend Lindsee B. The last time I saw her was in October when we went to New York. She's my favorite travel buddy because she's very chill, doesn't mind getting lost and is quite daring to try new things! It's an added bonus that I get a discount on Starbucks coffees when I'm with her (although I've come a newly converted tea drinker).

Other that travelling to Florida twice this week (once for work, once to catch my flight to Miami), life is great (with it's share of daily "thoughtful" moments). I'm beginning to prepare myself mentally for being in Canada for a month in May. I'll still be working but it'll be great to be with my family at night. I also can't wait to see my dear niece Keira! She's due for some kisses and spoiling!

Right now I'm sitting in my sunroom working and on one couch Naiyah is curled up sleeping (what's new) and on the other couch Emma is curled up sleeping. They look like the absolute picture of peaceful. The window is open so there's a slight warm breeze coming through, the sun is high in the ssky without a single cloud and Emma has some really beautiful peaceful music on. When I'm in places of such peace as this, I almost hesistate to breath for fear of dismissing the peace. Outside the trees are starting to bloom, bud and life is turning green! I'm convinced green is God's favorite color, followed closely by blue!

Anyways, don't give up on me blogging world in my lack of daily posts! I'm still thinking about you when I'm not writing on here! Much love!

P90X - Be eXtreme!!!

So Emma and I have gotten up the last few mornings to do the hour long P90X videos. It's been fun to get my body moving in the morning and I always love spending time with Emma, however I never suspected I could be in this much pain! I survived ESOAL twice, ran a half marathon, finished a TM triathalon and yet I'm not sure I've been in this much pain! Yesterday I didn't really feel it all day until I tried to erase the board at BSF. All of sudden, I realized I couldn't put my hands over my head. The entire concept of P90X in that you spend 6 days a week, for a two week period working out a different part of your body every day. After those 2 weeks, you repeat all the videos again for a total of 90 days. So the way I understand it is that withing a 2 week period, EVERY SINGLE part of my body that could potentially hurt, will. Today the guy on the video with one leg was doing better than us but hopefully as we stick with it, we won't be in as much pain and don't be embarrassed to watch ourselves try to do the different moves.

Chuck Norris

Happy 70th Birthday Chuck!

Yesterday was Chuck Norris' 70th birthday and as a tribute to him, I decided to put some Chuck Norris jokes on my Facebook. Little did I know that around 11:15 PM last night, I would sitting in my living room with all my roommates trying to read the jokes through my tears and jolts of laughter. I could barely contain myself!

You know when you laugh that hard or see someone else laughing that hard, you either join in their laughter without know what they're laughing about just because you think it's so funny that they think it's so funny or...you stare blank-like at them wondering what they had in their cereal that morning, if they've taken Benedryl in the last hour or somehow lost all brain power to control themselves?!? Well, the reactions were mixed from my roommates.

Here were my favorite jokes:

Chuck is so tough, he can make a fish drown.

At night the boogeyman checks under his bed for Chuck Norris.

Chuck is so tough, he only needs to knock down one bowling pin because the others faint.

Chuck knows were Carmen Sandiego is.

Chuck Norris is Luke Skywalker's real father.

Chuck Norris does not sleep, he waits.

Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.

Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the world down.

When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms with only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has never had to pay taxes, ever.

For some reason, this last one is my favorite....

If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.

I think the reason I like these jokes so much is because they have much an air of dry humor. I think the funniest things are when you have to be witty to understand the joke. I hope my future husband and his family have good sense of humors! If they don't, they might have a hard time understanding my family!

Lunch break over, back to work....

Wordless Wednesday

My friend said that all "bloggers" put a picture up on their blogs on Wednesday for "Wordless Wednesdays". I guess since I'm blogging regularily now (for the past few days anyways) and I want to be in the cool bloggers club, I'm going to post my wordless Wednesday pic! The concept is that the picture speaks louder than words so here's my pic of the day...

Stepping up to the plate

Last night I was at girls night with some of my friends watching Biggest Loser and eating bon bons. Okay, we weren't actually eating bon bons but we do normally have dessert while we watch these people work their butts off. Originally girls night started with Carla and I going to the gym and working out while we watched the people work out. For the second hour we would go to her house and eat dinner. That was almost 3 years ago! Now we go to Austie's house and only work out by moving from the living room to the kitchen during the half way update to get ice cream!

Last night as we were leaving the house all talking about getting married, Austie made the statement "ladies, we just need to step up to the plate" in which I responded "I'm playing in the dirt at the plate and I seem to be in a field all myself!!!" Now soccer is definitely my favorite sport and you can play it all by yourself but you definitely can't play baseball with yourself. Doesn't quite work like that!

So here I am, waiting at the plate of life to see who will come and make my baseball career a success : )

Two guesses what Naiyah is doing right now...

You probably don't need two guesses. She's curled up in a little ball, snoring and fast asleep. A funny thing I've noticed about Naiyah is that she really likes to rest her head on a pillow like a human being. She also prefers sleeping on or with a blanket. It's a current reality that I spend more time with Naiyah than any other living creature since I work from home and then she sleeps in my room. Someday I hope that changes : )

My biggest highlight is that this weekend I learned how to Rug Hook. This now makes me a "hooker". I'm really enjoying it because I love blending the colors and making a linen cloth with an outlined drawing come to life! I am currently working on a pillow with bees, sunflowers and a beehive! I'll figure out how to post it on here when I'm done! My second biggest highlight is that the daffodiles in my yard are in full bloom and look absolutely beautiful! I love the yellow with white. I think my wedding might be in those colors. It's be great if we could have daffodiles too but not sure how long they're in bloom and the timing would need to be just right in meeting my husband.

Off to continue working...

Feeding the bees

Recently someone asked a close friend of mine if I was an "old soul". They had heard that I was a knitter and thought that was an odd thing for a 26 year old! My friend replied "definitely not". At first I was satisfied with her answer because anything describing me with the word "old" in front of it doesn't sound very attractive but recently I've had to re-examine myself to decide if I really am an old soul for the following reason...I feed the bees. Basically, since I was a kid, we ALWAYS fed the birds. It was something my parents took great pleasure in doing and often times while we were sitting at the kitchen table and a beautiful bird flew into our feeder, we would all stop talking or eating to enjoy the bird. Through that I got to know the names of most common birds. In buying my house in Texas, one of the "must haves" was to have trees in my yard. Little did I know that I would end up with over 1.5 acres of trees and several birds. Last year I put up a finch feeder, hummingbird feeder and small bird feeder. I don't think word got out to the birds about the free food last year but they definitely made it headline news this year because the birds are eating like crazy! They are eating between half to 3/4 tube of food per day! I knew it wasn't hummingbird season yet but simply to keep them ready, I decided to fill the hummingbird feeders too. I noticed after a year days that the liquid was definitely going down but I knew it wasn't the hummingbirds. Yesterday I went out the feeder and noticed about 20 bees on the feeder having a hay day! The best part is that since the liquid is red, their stomachs actually glow red! So now I'm not only someone who feeds the birds but I also feed the bees.

So maybe there's a part of me that is an "old soul" but don't tell my future husband until after we're married! Don't want him to think I'm old : )

Naiyah's Birthday

This morning was Naiyah's 2nd birthday. I woke up before her and put treats from the bedroom door leading to a big, juicy, ham bone. She didn't quite know what to make of all the treats but she soon figured out she should eat them quickly before the cat got to them. For the remainder of the day, her plans are to sleep, have dog training and then sleep some more. She' quite gifted in the area of sleeping in several different positions and locations throughout the day.

Today also happens to be my dad's 66th birthday. I was going to wait to call him at midnight his time so I could be the first kid to call him on his birthday but I was getting sleepy and since he is old (and getting older), I knew he wouldn't stay up until midnight so I called at 11 and we made a deal to "pretend" it was midnight. I love him so much and I wish with all my heart that I could be up there celebrating with him. All the family is going to my sister's tonight for dinner and I'm sure dad's highlight will be holding Keira!

Tonight I'm going to the Wednesday Night Service at Green Acres. They are working through the book of Revelation and it's facinating to learn so much in depth about the churches of the New Testament. It's additionally interesting to me how human's haven't changed much in our 6,000 years on earth. We are still guilty of the same sins they are guilty of.

I'm still not confident that I'll be an avid blogger but this does finish post for day #2.

Well as you can see, the blogging world wasn't something I was ready to commit to yet and thus, it has been over a year since I posted my initial post! At this point, I'm not making any commitments to posting on here regularily but it has been on my heart more to write about the interesting things that happen in my life.

For the past few weeks I've been looked forward to the daffodiles in my yard to bloom and this week, the first one bloomed. Due to the large amount of rain we had yesterday, I found the flower face down on the ground today so I cut it and put in a vase beside my computer. I've only taken about 30 pictures of it in my office because it's so beautiful! It make life so much more pleasant! Fairly soon the daffodile farm should be opening up and I'm so excited to go and see the fields of them!

Besides the flowers blooming, Spring is definitely in the air. The birds in my yard are eating through about half a tub of seeds every day! For such little bodies, those birds eat a TON! The squirrels are doing their share to help and I'm thinking about putting grease on the pole for my own amusement of watching the squirrel try to climb it and continually slide down.

Naiyah is in dog training and today she was watching the birds when she should have been paying attention. Such a funny dog. Tomorrow is her 2nd birthday and I'm thinking about hiding treats around the house for her to find in the morning. We'll see if I have the energy to do it when I get up!

Now back to work...