31-derful!

hApPy bIrThDaY lindsey!!visit my sis-in-law lindsey is 31-derful today. visit her blog for a birthday give away!

photo above- me, kristen, and lindsey.

How blog friends spend a week together.

stuffed!

my heart is full. i am stuffed with God's goodness. the heart meal He served me this weekend was 5 course! every part of it DELICIOUS. and guess what...there are leftovers.

i will be spending this week consuming the savory leftovers, and thinking about how "He brought me to His banqueting table, and His banner over me is love."

can't wait to share all the yummy-ness with you.

Pretty Messy

i'm a guest blogger over at joy's hope today.

you may remember that last weekish julie (of joy's hope) accused me of trying to kill her!

well, apparently such a crime is a good thing in julie's book because look what came in the mail for me today...i can't wait to wear my new Pretty. Messy. pin while drinking a cold glass of sweet & spicy good earth ice tea!

THANKS JULIE!

time keeps on tick'n tick'n tick'n into the future...

today we went to bass lake. you should know that i LOVE bass lake. of the almost 16 years that i have lived in these mountains, i have lived in bass lake for 8 of them. now we live 40 min. away from bass lake, at the south end of these mountains. i miss the green fragrant pine trees, purple mountain majesties, 10 degree cooler weather, walking around the lake, and i miss donna our old neighbor (she really loved our family, we really loved her).

we had to head up to the lake to get some things ready for next weekend. next weekend we are having friends up at the lake. BLOG FRIENDS!!! and i am SO excited.

next weekend is also our church's 6th Feast of Tents, and we are having the awesomest speaker and worship leader EVER! Al Siebert (who happens to be this person's father) and Chad Markley (who happens to be the same person's husband).

i had the privilege of meeting Sarah, her family, and parent's in December. we have been looking forward to our time together next weekend ever since!

Kristen is also coming! Kristen and i have never met in person, but we have met on skype. it was love at first skype. we have been looking forward to a bass lake get together for some time. (yep, she is traveling all the way from idaho. she ROCKS!).
(Kristen and Sarah have met once).

so there are lots of details to finalize this next week in preparation for thier arrival, and for the Feast of Tents.

so ( hmmm, i say "so" a lot to begin sentences) today we headed to bass lake to make sure the most important thing was ready for their arrival ... what's that? we had to put the BOAT IN THE WATER! after all what good is a lake if you can't go on it?and now this is a bit pathetic, but i have lived here for nearly 16 yrs, and have NEVER driven the boat on my own. when Michael told me i had to drive the boat back to the house, as he drove the truck w/trailer back i FREAKED! it was an inner freak, i didn't let him know i was freaking (i think he knew i was freaking). because i was inner freaking, i planned on driving the boat along the shoreline at a safe 5 miles per hr. but when i got out there on the water... i aborted my plan, and went straight out onto the middle of the lake at a fast speed (fast for me is 25 mph).

this is me driving the boat without other adult supervsion.
this is where i parked the boat without other adult supervision.
i am very proud of myself.



for some reason the Steve Miller Band is lake music to me, which is why i titled this post with lyrics from a popular S.M.B. song.

What is lake music to you?

What blog friends would you really like to meet?

When are you coming for a visit?

but i didn't try to kill her... really!

go-cart

noah turned 11 last week. for his birthday gift he had one request, a trip to home depot to purchase supplies to build a go-cart.
the directions for the go-cart can be found in this book
(btw- after receiving this book noah said, "if our house was to burn down i would grab my bible, my swiss army knife, and the dangerous book for boys, because the book gives directions for how to build a fort to live in, trap a rabbit, and skin it." )

part of the gift was time with just his dad building the go-cart.
here they are using power tools.
enjoy the video of noah riding his go-cart and CRASHING!!



(special effects courtesy of daddy)

noah wants me to tell you that he was disappointed that i stopped filming, he wanted to see the rest of the crash..the part where he runs into emilie, and both of them hit the pavement.

michael wants me to let you know there will be a follow up post with video after the go-cart is painted and has brakes installed...

i'll be ready, with camera in one hand and the first aid kit in the other!