Been Awhile

Not to much new going on. But mostly the same thing over and over. And hey, that aint a bad thing! One thing that is consistant, is God's love, gracy, and mercy that gets me through each day. He is my Savior, and I love HIM and need Him in all parts of my life. Work is still fun, there are lots of ups and downs, but I am so thankful for a job right now. God is good and always provides for me. Church has been so amazing, it always is, but lately there is such an encouragement from the Lord to keep going, keep fighting. Really, HE fights our battles, amen?! God knows what is ahead for His children, and the battles are stronger, toughter, longer, but WHO is the same, yesterday, today, and forever? GOD!! That my friends is encouraging!

I have been jogging, and it feels good. I can feel it in my body, and its nice. Woo. The exercise and sore muscles actually feel good. Make you feel like youre doin something!

If you read this, please pray for my teeth. That may sound funny, but they have been aching lately. Not having insurance, I really don't want to go unless it gets unbearable, so I will keep praying and ask that you pray too.

I love you all. God loves you more!

Candles?

Today I made 12 candles... hand poured, soy wax, candles. Five different flavors. Candle making is a science, and one I normally don't follow all the rules on. When I say rules, I mean there is a "melting temp", a "pouring temp", and paying attention to all the "flash points" of the different scents. Now, I did pay attention to the flash points because, well...no one wants a fire in their kitchen, right? But last week, I made 7 candles and really tried to pay attention to the melting and pouring temperatures. RESULT? Nearly flawless tops on all of my candles, and good adhesion to the sidewalls of my jars (Ball canning jars). I will admit, I paid a certain amount of attention to temps today, butnot nearly as much as last week, and my tops prove it. Some of them...I don't think I will even try to sell at the bazaar. In all my efforts to do my fun new fall/Christmas scents, I FORGOT to scent one batch of wax. And, it was after I had poured it, and set the wick...that I noticed. Thank the Lord, it hadn't set yet (except for one) and I was able to pour the wax back in, scrape that which had set, and remelt it, and add the scent. I scrubbed the jars (the good thing about soy wax, is to clean you only need hot water and soap) pulled the wicks out, and retabbed with a new wick, violla i was ready to re pour. Tonight, after coming home, I noticed...I had forgotten to empty one of the scentless candles...needless to say I have a jar of scent free wax, maybe I should save it as an in case of emergency candle. Just in case you are curious, my scents are:

Kettle Corn (yes, it smells like sugary popcorn, it's neat)
Cranberry Marmalade...one of my favorites!
Very Vanilla (usually a crowd pleaser)
Spiced Wassail, a heavy scent thrower. Makes your house smell yummy
and lastly, Home for the Holidays. I am not as crazy about this one as I thought, but it does smelly woodsy and pepperminty, maybe someone will like it. :)

This week has been a blur. Last night was my band meeting, and after the scripture and lesson time, we had a big bone fire (HUGE) thanks to my dad, and a hay ride, thanks to mom and dad. Mom and Sybil drove us around (well, mom did, sybil rode) for about 30 minutes, we had nine on the trailer with 5 bales of hay around the edges and racks up around the perimeter, so we wouldn't fall out. It was lots of fun. As we would drive by the cars, in the dark mind you, we would wave and shout "HEEEYY" and most would wave back, I am sure some thought we were crazy! It was loads of fun. We made smores, roasted hot dogs, and I made home made apple cider. Okay, so I sorta cheated. I bought pre made cider, but I also added a few things. I put the cider in the crock pots and added three sticks of cinnamon, an orange sliced in rounds and split between both pots, then also quartered an apple and added to each, topped it with about 1 tbsp of sugar per pot and let that heat up. I must say, it was pretty good. :)

We went to the corn maze on Wednesday, and didn't ever make it out the right way. But, we did make it out of where we started...it was pretty fun. The night ended in a rain shower, but we were mostly done before the rain started to fall to hard. I was glad to get to be with the youth. I realy love them, and their desire to spend time with one another. Most of all, I appreciate their seriousness and desire to press in with the Lord.

My heart is heavy tonight. I am not sure who all has seen the video I posted on my facebook account, but it is about the call to anguish by David Wilkerson. I don't know who this man is, or what he stands for, but this message is good. I realized, I have become complacent about so many things. I pray for my family, but do I get under such a burden for their souls, that I am in anguish?? God doesn't call people to be bench warmers. If I won't let Him use me, He will find someone who will let His will be accomplished in their life. I want to find an anguish for this world, to know I am doing my part, however small or great it may be. I know God loves me, I know He loves you, He is an all knowing and good God. But I know, He has so much more planned for each of us, than we can even begin to think of or imagine. He is the I AM.

Much love.

Heya!

It's FALL! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am so excited about fall. Such a wonderful time of the year!!! Spicey cented candles, fresh baked pumpkin and zuchini bread, fuzzy sweaters, beautiful leaves in my favorite colors (brown, red, orange), pumpkins, corn mazes, clear crisp mornings...need I go on?? UGH! I just love this time of year!! To me, it's the most peaceful time of the year. It is also harvest time. Harvest. Hmm...so much is entailed in that word. It's the time where a farmer reaps the benefits of the hard work he started putting in this time a year ago, all of the time spent tilling his earth, watering it to keep it moist, cultivating fertilizers into the rich soil, making even rows for good watering, finding the perfect seed. I wonder if we (and I am speaking to me) put that much effort into harvest one soul for the Lord, how much more would our results be. As this time of harvest is here, God grant me the spiritual eyes to see the crop before my eyes, and help me to be a worker of your fields.

mom and i

are trying to get one more camping trip in before it gets TOOO cold. altho' this weekend may be debatable on if that point has already been reached. pray for our safe journey and that we have fun. pray for me to feel better, my tummy is upset. your prayers are appreciated! loves much.

Smith and Wesson

Not much to report...other than I bought a handgun. :) A smith and wesson model 60 with a 3 inch barrel and adjustable sites. I know that probably won't excite to many people, but I am excited. Growing up with the father, and in the family I did, hunting, guns, and the outdoors were/are a big part of our lives. Now my dad isn't much into hand guns, but I wanted something to have when Mom and I are out four wheeling by ourselves, should we encounter any wild animals, or...people. I also bought a helmet to use when four wheeling. I never rode with one before, but have noticed a trend towards safety and people telling me I needed one, so I caved. The Lord is good, and thats all that matters most. Love to all.

SO...UNDEDICATED!

I haven't blogged since August 25th! Good grief. I am pitiful.

Today, I am blogging via free wi-fi at the Salt Lake City airport. This weekend was great. I got to attend my churches General Assembly, and was so abundantly blessed at how the Lord moved. One of the best messages I have ever heard came on the Youth Program Saturday night. Brother Brandon Hale gave an awesome message about stepping out of the boat (when Peter walked on the water) and if we are going to call on the Lord (as Peter did) we best be ready for Him to grab our hand and usher us to the shore. Meaning, leading us through the seas of life, no matter what they are, to get us to Heaven's shore. I am sure he had more to it than that, and I am not quoting him...but that is what I feel I personally got out of the message. He is our God, He is waiting to help us, but we can't keep taking our life and our situations in our own hands. We HAVE to re commit everything to Him! And KEEP it committed. It was just a fabulous-ly blessed, amazing, wonderful time. :) I am so glad I was able to go. Hopefully next year, Lord willing, I may be able to attend for the whole time.

As far as a trip run down, I flew in late Thursday night then drove straight to Clevenland and got checked into my room. Thank the Lord for traveling mercies. I was very nervous about traveling by myself, in the dark, with the perfect time for deer to be feeding and running across the highways, what if I got a flat tire, and so on...I didn't get to Cleveland until 2 am, so I was also worried i would get tired. But I kept remembering something Sis Joyce said to me before I left when I voiced my late night traveling concerns to her...she said, the Lord will take care of you. So simple. It repeated itself through my mind, actually, it was the Lord speaking to my heart. I really didn't get tired, I saw two deer, but they stayed on their side of the road, no rain, no car troubles, and seriously...that trip from Nashville to Cleveland has never went so fast. I plugged my ipod into the auxillary port and bam...I was on my way. The Lord really really helped me. He must have sped the time up or something! I got up early and went to the Friday morning session. It was great to see the growth and all the people. Saturday was WMB breakfast, I will admit, I was lagging...we were to be there at 7, and I kept hitting snooze until 6:40. Somehow, I managed to get ready, even curl my hair, not forget anything, and pull into the restaurant parking lot by 7:05. Shew. :) But that's how I roll...rushed. I sang that morning and was pretty sure I heard my voice crack more than once, but oh well, I sing to and FOR the Lord, not myself. That night my girls, Chels and Hays spend the night with me. We were up to sing on prelimaries the next morning...but before bed could come...we had to find a milkshake. No joke, we pulled into hardies drive through and as soon as Chels went to grab my purse from the trunk, they turned the menu box lights off and said over the speaker "we're closed" ha...we laughed. So then we went to BK, open, YA!!! "Our shake machine is down"...then it was really hilarious...so we crossed the street to McDonalds...ahhh, McDondalds satisfied the shake quest. Our choir director is ALSO chels and hays mom, I knew if I didn't have them there...I'd be in trouble. She said 8, we had to be there by 8. Out of pure stubborness (me, stubborn??? ha) I refused to be late. I got all packed, hair curled and put into my Ginger do (will explain later) and was there EARLY. YAYA again! Now for Ginger, we were doing a skit using the characters and story line of Gilligans Island, and for some reason, I was chosen as Ginger. I don't feel I fit the role of Movie Star Hottie-esque, but I digress. It was a TOTAL hit! Sadly assembly came to an end. I made my way back to Nashville, technically Smyrna, to see my friends. I had hoped to make it to Antioch that night, but Emily called saying it was over. I ended up leaving later than I had thought from cleveland. I really wanted to see my family, but it was late by the time i got to Smyrna and already dark. Emily had a little bday party planned for me and EVEN MADE ME A CAKE! It was great to see the face I did. My mini me, aint so mini anymore. She almost comes to eye level now..sigh. Why must time pass. ;) Emily got me some way cute sun glasses that I have been wearing today, and a awesome picture of us, which I look uber cute in. No I am not being boastful, I rarely like a picture of myself, and this one is good, SO I AM KEEPIN IT! And a uber cute wallet, in one of my favorite colors, and some head bands which I am wearing oene of them right now.

Now I am on my way back home. I miss Idaho. When I moved back, I really missed TN and all it had been to me in my life. All the memories it held. It took me a good six months to transition back to Idaho life. I will never forget the time I had in TN, and it will always hold a very very special place in my heart, my friends and family are tucked deep inside and make me who I am today. But, I do feel excited to be getting back to the state I grew up in, the place and family and friends who make up my history and now my future. I am ready to be home.

I love you all.