You are GOOD!

Life contains many surprises. But, wait, its more like the Lord has many surprises planned for our lives. We can choose to look at them negatively and wallow in misery and pity, or we can look them square in the face and take them with a teachable and open heart. This is something that I am struggling to do. I have to constantly run to the Lord to help me so that I do not take a negative outlook on life. He desires to strengthen us and provide us with peace, but this only happens when we yield 100% to Him. We must give Him the reigns of our lives and get in the back seat. This requires us to give up being in control. I don't know why it is that I want to be in control, since I do such a poor job of it. Actually I do know... it is my flesh, but the Lord said that with His strength, I can do all things. That means I can conquer my independent spirit.
It seems that the Lord has plopped this concept right into my lap... our family is paying the price of these hard economic times. My first instinct is to freak out, not sleep, fret, worry, and whine. But this is merely a waste of energy. I praise the Lord for His power and goodness and I know that "all things work together for them that love God". This may not be what I would classify as good, because God's and my definition of good are not very similar. He has given me strength and joy beyond what I could ever ask or hope for. He is faithful!!

~You Are Good~
~Point of Grace~

When the sun starts to rise and I open my eyes,
You are GOOD, so GOOD
In the heat of the day with each stone that I lay,
You are so GOOD
With every breath I take in,
I’ll tell you I’m grateful again
When the moon rises high before each kiss goodnight,
You are GOOD

When the road starts to turn,
around each bend I’ve learned
You are GOOD, so GOOD
And when somebody’s hand holds me up,
helps me stand you are so GOOD
With every breath I take in,
I’ll tell you I’m grateful again
Cause it’s more than enough just to know
I am loved and you are GOOD

So how can I thank you?
What can I bring?
What can a poor man lay at the feet of the king?
So I'll sing you a love song,
It's all that I have
To tell you I'm grateful
For holding my life in your hands

When it’s dark and it’s cold,
And I can’t feel my soul
You are still GOOD
When the world has gone gray and the rain’s here to stay
You are still GOOD
With every breath I take in,
I’ll tell you I’m grateful again
And the storm may swell, even then it is well,
And you are GOOD

So I'll sing you a love song,
It's all that I have
To tell you I'm grateful
For holding my life in your hands

You are holding my life in your hands.

I praise the Lord for His goodness!! If you see me down, feel free to remind of this. Our God is awesome!

Being Thankful for the People...

As Thanksgiving rolls around yet again, I want to stop for a moment and be thankful for as much as possible. But right here I want to especially give thanks for the people in my life ( only the first four groups are in order, the rest are random).

• The Lord: Thank you Lord for being my Rock, my Savior, my Comforter, my King. You are the One that has given me eternal life and the One that renews my strength each day. Thank you for showing me yourself and for being faithfull and kind.
• Dad and Mom: Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for desiring the best for me and striving daily to bring me closer to the Lord. Thank you for your faithfulness. I love you both.
• Melissa: Thank you for putting up with me and hanging out with me. Thank you for all the wonderful and sweet memories that we share together. I love you.
• Grandpa and Grandma: Thank you for being some of my best cheerleaders. Thank you for the pride that you take in your grandchildren and for genuinely caring about us. I love you both so much!
• Emily: Aaaah, what do I say my awesome friend? You are wonderful. I praise the Lord that He has brought you to college, it has been a blast. I love you tons! Thank you for listening to all my talking, for calling me, for IMing me, for studying with me, and for being such a great friend.
• Vanessa: Thank you friend for all the fun and encouraging talks. It has been a blast over the last year to get to know you. You are a very dear person and I look forward to getting to know you more in the future.
• Shelby: My dear, dear friend... thank you for being such a good listener, encourager, advisor, and friend. What fun memories I have with you! I feel blessed to have you in my life and am grateful for how you have helped me through tough times. You are a jewel!
• Bailey: Thank you dear for being awesome! You have brought much joy to my life. I am so glad that we are alike in so many ways. Thank you for being willing to listen and encourage and then being so much fun to be with.
• Karissa: My bestest Spanish buddy. Thank you for the late nights, the studying, the getting breakfast together and for walking me to class. You are awesome and I pray that we will be friends for the rest of our lives... and maybe towards the end of it, we can have a full conversation in Spanish.
• Grant, Dylan,Andrew: Thank you for being my "brothers". Thank you for caring about what happens in my life and being willing to help me when needed. All the times of laughing, playing, studying, talking, etc. are very important to me. Thank you for your patience and for teaching me more patience... you guys are the best brothers anyone could ask for.
• Anna: I am so grateful to the Lord for placing us in the same class! You have made it so much fun and I have so many great memories of studying and freaking out together and then being serious! What fun we have!!
• Courtney: My friend, a short time I have know you, and yet it feels like forever. You are a treasure. I miss you lots but know that the Lord has a plan for you. Thank you for your spunkiness, fun, laughter, and serious side. Remember that I am always praying for you.
• Kalee: Oh friend, what would I do without you? You are a sweet treasure to me. Thank you for all the talks and fun times. I laugh so much with you and it has been fun to watch the Lord grow and bless you over the year.
• Roxanna: What fun it has been to got to school with you. Thank you for your kind words and thoughtful encouragement. Thank you for taking my observations of things so beautifully.
• Mandy: Thank you dear one for your wisdom and care. I love you and am so grateful to the Lord for blessing me with your friendship.
• Kaisha: Thank you friend for your joy! I love being with you and have so many sweet memories. Thank you for you example of patience.
• Trevor, Ryan, Mark, Wes, Kyle: Thank you guys for being there for me at school and church. Thank you fro listening and offering words of advice, encouragement, or humor. School wouldn't be the same without you guys!
• Kelsey: My sweet friend, thank you for caring about me. I treasure the sweet talks we have had and all the times you have come along side me with a hug, a friendly word, or a thought out piece of encouragement.
• Abigail: Thank you dear for all the encouragement you give me. You are so great and I am so grateful for you. We have memories that will last us a lifetime.
• Sarah: Sweet girl, you are a treasure. You will never know what a blessing you have been in my life. Your words of wisdom have planted great seeds and I am so grateful to the Lord for allowing our paths to cross. I love you my sister in Christ.
• Jordan: Even though I don't see you very often, I know you pray for me. Thank you for caring and for genuinely wanting to know what is going on in my life.
• The Running Start Ladies (Laine, Sarah, Tricia, and Bridget): Thank you for welcoming me so kindly. Thank you for making me feel wanted and appreciated. You have made working at school such a fun experience. All four of you are very dear people and i am so thankful for the opportunity to get to know all of you better over this past quarter. What a wonderful team you make!
• Corina: I have felt so blessed to get to know you over the last few months. You have blessed me greatly by your example of gentleness and patience!
• Mrs. Larsen: My second "mother". Thank you for your sweet words of encouragement. Thank you for giving me opportunities to minister. Your care and love mean so much to me and I love you.
• Kristi: Thank you dear one for you example. Thank you for your encouragement and advice! You have been a great friend to me.
• Pastor Steve, Pastor Dax, Pastor Mark: Thank you to the greatest pastors. Thank you for shepherding your flock according to Scripture and for making God the most important. I have learned so much from all three of you.
• Janel: You are so much fun and I have laughed tons with you. Thank you for your kind and gentle spirit.
• My Brigadoon buddies: What fun you all are!!! We were the most amazing cast ever. You all have been such a blast to get to know and I will forever treasure the many times spent dancing, singing, laughing, talking, and acting. You are my stage family!
• Brittany: Thank you dear for your ready encouragement and smile. You always brighten up my day and bless me.
• My piano students: What talent!!!! I am so blessed!!! You all constantly blow me away. I love you all and am so thankful to the Lord for blessing me with 7 of the best students in the world!
• Marg: Thank you Marg for giving me so many wonderful opportunities. Thank you for teaching me so much and being flexible and encouraging with my schedule.
• Mr. Rutgers: Thank you for directing choir and for giving me singing opportunities. Thank you for caring and taking me before the Lord in regards school.
• Mr. and Mrs. Bell: Thank you for keeping the boys at your house. You will never know how greatly you have blessed us. We love you both!

I pray that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Praise the Lord for His goodness!!!

The Loft

I have three very great fears... rather silly ones but they are fears.

1. the Dark (hate it)

2. Heights

3. Spiders (not knowing where they are)



Well, our hay loft puts all three together. Today was my day to go up in the loft and throw down hay (Melissa did it last time), and as I drove to the boys I pondered this. There was no way I could get out of it, I HAD to do it. When we arrived, I trudged into the barn. "Here it goes" I thought. I carefully placed the 10 foot ladder up against the opening into the loft. This opening is rather odd... probably 3' by 3' feet and at a weird angle and in order to get in you have to place the ladder almost completely vertical. I flew up the ladder (my thought is that if you get up faster then you can get off of it faster) and came to the opening of the loft. Complete and utter darkness awaited me there as I grabbed the beam high above my head. The next move was to place one foot on the ledge to my left that was 3 inches and the other foot on the 2 inch ledge to the right that was against the wall. Then with my feet spread wide apart I placed my elbows in front of two beams and proceeded to hoist myself into the loft. Not a pretty picture, but that's what you have to do. When that was done I was laying on the floor of the loft and then had to roll over to get completely in. "Ooooooh and its dark, and there are spiders" I said out loud. Finally I stood up, but the ordeal was not over. I had to find the string to turn the light on. This string is amongst all sorts of spider webs and gross stuff. This is the time that I become Hannah the "Brave", or at least I try to. I found the light and everything was good, well almost. I threw down the hay bales.... 1, 2, 3.... all the way up to 8 until I ran across one that I was sure has spiders. "I'll just get the others and leave that one for Melissa" I thought. But I didn't... I had to get that one out of the way in order to get more, and besides that would have been mean to leave it. So down went the "spider" bale. *shudder*. After a few more, it was time to come down. The light went off and the process began all over again, this time backwards.

I am not deathly afraid of bringing hay down, but I used to be. There was a period of about 8 months where I could not go up into the loft because I was too scared. Then I got over it. It is part of being a country girl!!!! Yay for the country, for horses, for hay, and for LOFTS!

Making History

This picture just might be history, then again it might not. Gas may keep dropping in price but it might go up again. And so I am posting this picture so that we may all remember this part of our history... when gas was under $2.00

Dial-up

This shall be my shortest post...
Due to dial-up internet.
What a patience builder!!!!
Oh... I am going to go take a shower while this post loads, maybe it will be done when I get back.
:D jk
Awww... life with computers!

"Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy." - Joseph Campbell

"Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog". - Doug Larson

"Computer are like air conditioners: they stop working when you open windows."

"Press the any key... hmmm where's the any key?" - Dan Castellaneta

My Boy

A little short, blonde hair, and brown eyes that can melt your heart. Very athletic, a good jumper, fast runner, mischievous, and all out adorable. A great listener, compliant, eager to please, super smart, and sensitive. That's my boy!!!! Look at him! Isn't he just the cutest thing you have ever seen?!?!?!






His full name is Strongheart 3RF, but we call him Storm. He is my boy and I am his girl. I named him Strongheart because I liked the idea of having a strong heart through life, and he has lived up to that name. His nickname: Storm, originated from my favorite basketball team. Oddly enough Storm has a distinct lightning bolt across his left eye!!

I have been with him ever since day one, even before. When his mom was giving birth to him, I helped her. Both her and Storm almost died, but the Lord kept them both alive. I helped him stand up for the first time, gave him grain for the first time, put the halter on him for the first time, and rode him for the first time.

He is a beautiful golden color with a cream mane and tail that wave in the wind when he gallops. Energy, naughtiness, and loyalty are some words I would use to describe him. The days that I am tired and go to ride him he is always naughty and somehow I have to find more energy that day. He knows my buttons, knows what makes me happy, and knows what he can do to make life more "interesting". He loves to go fast which is good because so do I. There is nothing like the feeling of going top speed... you can't hear anything besides the wind in your ears and the thunder of hooves, mane is in your face and tears begin to gather in your eyes because you are going so fast!! Wow! It is absolutely amazing!

Storm is smart... sometimes too smart. If I am not paying attention he will take advantage of it. When I teach him something new, he gets it right away. Sometimes he pretends he doesn't remember something, but he is just testing me. You can almost see the glint in his eye as he pulls some mischievous trick. I can never stay mad at him for long because he is so cute and funny.

The bond between horse and human is something very special. I had the privilege of training Storm's parents... they were my two most favorite horses, that is until he came along. When the Lord took them away from me... he gave me Storm. Storm has listened patiently to countless school stories, to dreams of becoming jumping stars, and to my non-stop babble.








I still dream of the two of us becoming jumping stars but who knows... the Lord does. Hopefully Storm will be there for my kids to ride! What fun! If you ever want to meet this special guy... let me know! Hopefully soon he can give people rides. I am so grateful to the Lord for horses and especially for Storm! I feel extremely blessed to have a horse of my own!

Humbling, Embarrassing, and Funny times...

So most of us have those days... you know? The ones where things just don't go quite right, where your brain seems to have a short. Well, today was one of those. The morning was so full of those brain "shorts" that I probably shouldn't put them all here. Everything from not being able to read the clock to cutting myself with the scissors. Aaaahh... tis the life. :D But the afternoon was the crowning episode to my rather odd day.

First... some background. So I ride horses and I ride english (that is a type of riding where there is NO horn on the saddle, ie. nothing to hang on to). And because of this I wear breeches. Breeches are the kind of pants that are not comfortable (but if you don't wear them its way more uncomfortable) and not attractive. I was once informed that I looked like I could go play baseball... that is what the "pants" look like. Well, to continue the story, I decided that I was going to ride my horse today. I got home from work and walked into my room. I looked at my stack of breeches sitting neatly in my closet. "Aaah" I said " I will just pick the pair on the top of the stack, I don't want to knock all of them over to get to my favorite pair". So I picked up the top pair... a very ugly pair that are about 6 inches to short for me. Now, nobody can see this because I wear tall boots that come up to my knees so why not wear things that are too short?!?! Well that was my first mistake. The second was that I left my running socks on, which (by the way) are just long enough to cover my feet. Yes, now you are seeing the picture... rather odd.

Next I threw on my sweatshirt and pulled my hair back. Then my sister and I left to go to the boys. I had a marvelous ride, got all sweaty and dirty. On the way back my sister told me that one of my mom's friends would be at our house when we got back. "Oh well" I thought... "she has seen me like this before". She is one of the very FEW people that have EVER seen me looking like I looked, which is probably a good thing, considering how hideous a sight it is.

We pulled into our driveway. The car parked there was not my Mrs. D's car... how odd. As I entered the garage, Melissa raced up the stairs ahead of me. She started to swing the door open, but then she quickly shut it and got a horrified look on her face. Instead of Mrs. D it was another person with her son (somebody I know pretty well). My happiness crumbled as I realized that I had one option and it was not cool in any way shape or form.

"What should I do?" I screeched to my sister. Mmmmhmmm... only one option. Face it. So I crept up the stairs, put my hand on the door. Then I did it... I swung the door open and ran for my life. As I sped past the people in my house I said a quick "hi" and disappeared downstairs. After a few minutes, my sister appeared and hysterical laughter began. What a sight...hair a mess, dirt streaked across my face, hay all over my clothes, breeches that were 6 inches too short, and running sock, not too mention the nice purse that I was holding. Oh, now it is funny. At the time, it was horrifying... still is in a way... but in a silly sort of way. lol

My sister...

This is my sister. My beautiful, crazy, and fun sister. She is really cool! Melissa has a sense of fashion that nobody in our house has. She can't be quiet... always singing. She will singing anything from Broadway to pop to classical to her own songs. She plays the violin and can make almost anything sound good on those strings. When she finds something she likes she then loves it. She is passionate about what she loves. We have a lot of fun together. We sing, ride, go places, and do tons of stuff together. Melissa was the one that biked next to me for 7 miles on one of my long training runs. Melissa is the one that stays up late dancing to songs. Melissa is the one that was my "guy" for learning dances in plays. She is the one that laughs with me and that does crazy stuff with me. We have rapped out together, gotten dressed up in crazy clothes together, and trained our horses together. Throughout her life she has wanted to be everything from a major league baseball player to a dancer to a fashion designer and even a soldier at West Point. I am so grateful to the Lord for giving me such a wonderful sister. She is my best friend and I don't know what I would do without her. I love her tons!!

Rain...

It comes in sheets... it comes in drops... it comes in mist... it comes in buckets (does it?).
Rain.
It is something that we see here in the Pacific Northwest rather often. Once it starts in the fall it doesn't really quit until sometime in spring. Now I should probably go into what a raincloud is made of, but I don't feel technical.
Today as I watched the rain come pouring down outside I settled down deeper into my down vest and sighed deeply. Rain is so beautiful when you are warm and inside. Then I had to go out in it. But surprisingly it wasn't that bad. It was actually fun as I sloshed from one building to another... spraying up water and watching as the water line on my pants creep up higher and higher. I grinned... and suddenly I had this strong desire to put my backpack down and jump in the puddles. Hahaha... what a sight it would have been. But, I didn't give in to the temptation. Maybe some other time though... and for some reason I think that there will be quite a few opportunities in the next few months. :D