Category Archives: Christian

A Splash Bash Kind of Sunday!

Good evening!

WARNING: this is going to be a photo-centric post. OK, you have been forewarned!!! 😉

Today was our church’s annual Splash Bash, which by the way, just happened to be my sweetie and my first, Splash Bash!! and let me tell you…it was

SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!

So what is a Splash Bash? Well, it is a community get together at our church, where there are 5 large water features brought in for the afternoon. Then everyone in the community is invited to join us for some Summertime fun, getting wet, having a delicious dinner and some yummy desserts, spend some time getting to know each other, and generally just have a CRAZY-ZANY DAY OF FUN!!! 😉

The weather today wasn’t as hot as it has been this past week, which would have normally been a downer, but it turned out to be really quite a great day for our water-filled day!!! It was overcast, which meant it was not too hot to be outside, and there weren’t any sunburns to be had -YEAH!!

So, I took so many pictures of today, and really am excited to be able to share them with you, so let’s get this party started!!! 😉

There were these 5 AMAZING blow-up features that were brought in for the afternoon! 3 of them were water features and 2 were regular blow-up type rides, where kids could climb, slide, jump, and play!

 

I did not get wet today – being a “Dry Girl”, and wanting to take pictures – I knew that getting wet was not going to be feasible without ruining my camera! Seeing this ride kinda made me second guess my decision to stay dry!!

You had to run, jump, slide, splash, and try not to fly off the end of the slide!!! That appeared easy for most of the people that were playing on this slide, however, when it came to the big guys playing on the slide – they really had some difficulty stopping and would occasionally go flying off the end!! There were between 3 and 5 adults standing at the end of the slide to try and “catch” the men before they went flying! It was quite funny for all of us bystanders!!! 😉

 

Jason patiently waiting, and wet, in line for his turn! 😉

There was no falling gracefully when it came to this slide!! It was also funny, because when a larger person jumped down the left-hand-side, and a small person was waiting on the right hand side for his turn to go up – the right hand side person sometimes got catapulted into the air! Kind of two rides in one, if you ask me!! 😉

Here is Jason and Bethany, trying to stop Zach from flying off the end of the slide!! Beware if you should happen to be standing behind this group because they splash created when the slider hit the wall was HUGE, and you were almost guaranteed to get wet!!! Lesson learned the hard way! 😉

See what I mean? This was Jason and his splash!! 😉

 

Here is the fearless BoobieJo!

She really impressed me with her ability to fly down this slide!! She had the most graceful slide out of most anyone who slid down this thing!! At least she was able to stay right side up!!! YOU GO MISS BOBBIEJO!!! 😉

 

They also served dinner, and afterward had a HUGE buffet of pot luck desserts!! It was soooo hard to behave myself and enjoy a treat in moderation!! Thankfully Jason was there, and was able to help me keep my dessert intake into perspective!! Thank you, Love! I couldn’t do it without your help! 😉

If the awesome rides were not enough, they even had these cool water shooters that, of course, my sweetie found and quickly proceeded to get into a water fight with these really little kids, who just thought he was the coolest adult every!!!

 

Jason even jokingly started to refer to this cute little guy as his “arch-nemesis”, and would feign pain and fear whenever this little cutie was able to figure out how to work his water shooter!! LOL!!! Jason is the cutest oversized ‘4-year-old’ that you have ever seen!!! 😉

 

Then the calvary AKA, Zach, came in to save the little kiddos! and Jason and him spent the next half an hour or so hiding amongst the large rides, and trying to ambush each other and douse the other with cold water!! I apologize to any innocent bystanders who may have been harmed in this afternoon of fun! I try to keep him check, but alas, there are times when he has the uncanny ability to just run amok!! 😉

This is the face of a man who knows when he has been beat!! LOL!!! 😉

 

and of course, just to prove that I was really there, I decided to slip this little pic in to the mix!! 😉

It really was a great day, and maybe, just maybe, next year I may even convert and become a ‘get wet girl’ instead of ‘dry girl’, but I am NOT going to make any promises!!! With that said, we are both pleasantly tired and ready to have a nice quiet evening at home!!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

 If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

We Found Our Church Home!!!

Good afternoon!

I am sooooo excited to write today’s post!! To say that my sweetie and I have had a good day is SUCH AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!! Just look at these two happy faces!!!!

It has been a FABULOUSLY BLESSED day!!! 😉

Many of you may not know, but my sweetie and I have been searching for our church home for a LONG time now!! Having, myself, grown up in the church, and having met my sweetie while in church, I have seriously felt that we needed to find a church home. A place where we can find other Christians to call friends, and to grow spiritually in the body of Christ. I am so happy to report that we think we have FINALLY FOUND it! OUR CHURCH HOME!! 😉

This church is called Relevant Life Church. It is a small church that I happened to stumble across while looking at one of my girlfriend’s pics on Facebook! Can you believe it??? I couldn’t either, matter-of-fact this church has been here FOREVER, and I practically drive by it every day to get to work!!! 😉

What impressed me right away was when we walked in, there was such an atmosphere of love and acceptance! It was very easy to feel God’s love in this building!! Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. They made sure that both my sweetie and I knew where everything was, to make sure to answer all of our questions, and to help us feel right at home!!!

My sweetie and I were both impressed with the pastor and the sermon. Pastor Kevin has a way of delivering the message which helps make the lesson feel personal to you, and very applicable to your everyday life! After the service, when one of our new friends, Bethany, asked us how we liked it, my sweetie quickly replied, “Did you hear me snoring?” “No,” she replied, looking at him a little oddly. Jason responded, “Then I didn’t fall asleep, it was a good sermon!” (I just love that crazy man!!) 😉

I also loved that after the service, almost everywhere you looked there were small groups of people praying for each other. The feeling in the building is so hard to describe, but the best way that I can describe it was a feeling of unconditional love, joy, and acceptance!! This is what I have been praying for!

It was also obvious to us that this is not be one of those churches where you either have to be really old, or married with young children to fit in, which Jason and I are neither!! The ages of everyone there really varied, and those that were there had an air of artsy-hipster-let’s-have-fun kind of -people AKA OUR KIND OF PEEPS!!! 😉

After the service, my sweetie and I were fortunate enough to be able to go out to lunch with a few people from the church. There were 7 of us in total, My sweetie, myself, BobbyJo and her husband, Mark (who we also happen to know from the bariatric support group we attend), our new friends, Bethany, and her husband (who happen to be the church’s youth pastors),  and another first time attendee visiting from out of town, J.B. We had so much fun just gabbing away!! We ended up there visiting for sooooo long! It was really like we have been friends forever, and just needed to sit down and catch up!! I am really excited that I will have some new friends to go antiquing, used book store shopping, discount bag/vintage shopping, or maybe even camping with!!!

God really is sooooo good, and I am truly feeling so happy, and sooooo very blessed that I happened to stumble upon this little gem of a church!! I can’t wait to go again next week, and make sure that I didn’t dream this place up during my sleep!! 😉

In the meantime, I am going to go enjoy the rest of this lovely sunny day with my sweetie!!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

 If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

A Night of Rest!

Good evening!

I am very happy to say that my sisters and I made it home safely from Women of Faith. We had a marvelous time – to say the least!! I would love to tell you about everything that has gone on today, but we are all so tired, and ready to call it a night!

We watched an amazing performance by Selah, we heard motivational stories from Patsy Clairmont, Lisa Whelchel, Brenda Warner, Sandi Patty and Marylin Meburg!

I ended up leaving with a few treasures:

  • A Women of Faith Devotional Bible
  • A Women of Faith Over the Top DVD
  • and a spur of the moment purchase 2 Selah CD’s (I am going to SOOOO LOVE listening to that in my car!!)  😉

The lessons that I am taking away from this weekend is that we are all uniquely made by God for a specific purpose on this Earth, and that even as a child you are somehow drawn to that purpose, intuitively. I have also learned that even with your biggest dream for yourself,  God has an even bigger one for you, and that literally every tiny action we take to move towards that goal, that tiny action can cause a ripple that could change the world!

Isn’t that exciting!?

I really needed this weekend! I feel like I have found my faith again! and for the first time in a VERY LONG TIME, I feel like everything truly will be alright!

We already have plans for next years conference – I ALREADY CAN’T WAIT!!! 😉

Thank God for all of the participants of Women of Faith!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

 

Women of Faith! Finally!

Good evening!

Well, after much drama this morning (my drama, of course), and getting supremely lost, again of course (I ended up crossing the freaking bridge something like 3 times before we figured the freeway out!! SHEESH!!)!! We FINALLY made it to Women of Faith!! We have only gotten through the Friday morning sessions, and we are now back at the hotel waiting for the evening sessions to start.

The morning sessions, as always were so much fun! The main speakers of this morning were Patsy Clairmont, who just happens to be my FAVORITE speaker! She is so down to earth, easily relatable, and seriously funny! She calls herself a cracked-pot, which you HAVE TO KNOW, I LOVE!!! I can really relate to her story, having dealt with living in fear a lot in my adult life!

The second morning speaker was Andy Andrew – isn’t that the BEST CELEBRITY name??? Anyway, he is New York Times #1 author, a down home boy from Alabama, and probably one of the most interesting speakers to watch!! SERIOUSLY!! You see, he has SOOOOO MUCH ENERGY, is a little ADD, and was not only all over the stage, but all of the arena floor as well!! It was so comical, but he is truly such a GREAT story teller!!! I hope that we get to hear from him again this weekend!! 😉

I had my doubts about coming to Women of Faith this year, as I was worried that because my sis, Nette wasn’t coming this year (I had never gone to Women of Faith without her before). Even though it is different coming without her, I am still so thankful that we have come. We are having a lot of fun laughing, and pointing at each other whenever one of the speaker that says something that describes one of the other of us to a T!!! 😉

Well, I don’t really know what else to say right now, but we are anxiously awaiting this evening’s program, I am sure it will be GREAT!!! I will keep you posted!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

An Homage to My Past!

Good evening!

Saturday evening, my dad, his wife Trudi, my sweetie, and myself all went over to the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center to watch the Seattle Temple Brass Band and Songsters perform.

The band was really terrific. They reminded me of my youth growing up in the Salvation Army myself. Some of you may not know this, but I grew up going to the Salvation Army. One of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE part of all those years was singing, and playing cornet in the brass band.

I remember picking up a cornet to play for the very first time in Portland, Oregon, when I was something like 6 years old. It was very slow going, with a lot of squeaks, squawks,and blats, but little by little, I got a little better, and a little better, and pretty soon I was having the time of my life trying like the dicken’s to play with the big guys!!

I played all through middle school, junior high, high school, and I played until I was about 23 years old. I ended up playing in marching bands, symphonic bands, pep bands, and brass bands alike. We traveled all over the west coast doing performances just like the one we were watching! That was quite a while now, but listening to this band play made me think about picking up my cornet and start playing again!!

Oh the memories!!

I still have my cornet, bright, shiny, and ready to play at a moments notice sitting in my closet. Not to say that I WOULD be able to play again at a moments’ notice, that would take quite a bit of practicing, and possibly some relearning too!

You know I have been busy these past few months searching for my new art medium?? Well, it sometimes amazes me to know that I had an “art medium” all that time, and never once went looking for it, it just seemed to find me! Music is something that had always seemed to come naturally to me, although I am sure that it really helped being born into a musical family. Most everyone in my family either played a brass instrument, or could sing.

I wish I could do that all over again, knowing what I know now!! I am not sure I would have ever given it up!!

Anyway, we really did have a fun time, both the band and the songsters were amazingly talented and extremely fun to listed to – and Jason even impressed himself by not even remotely falling asleep once!! LOL! 😉 I was just dissapointed that we couldn’t purchase a music CD of them playing – that would have been GREAT!! and I am sure I would be busy driving Jason crazy with it playing over and over again in the car!! GOOD TIMES!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

Do You Have a Dream?

Good evening!

I have had an Ah-Ha moment this evening. A couple of weeks ago I had picked up a copy of a book called The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. It was one of those purchases that was unplanned and kind of random, but I had read one of his other books called The Prayer of Jabez, and loved it so thought, why not? Well, for some reason, I decided to carry it around with me today. I just had this strange feeling that I really needed to read this book, and NOW!! Well, as I got home from work today, I sat right down and started to read.

WHAT AN AMAZING LITTLE BOOK!!

It is basically a little story about a very big idea. This modern-day parable tells the story of a man named Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his BIG DREAM.

This book, in a very interesting, and compelling way shows you how, with Faith, and some truths that you learn along the way,  you too can leave your own Land of Familiar and pursue your big dream, the one that God had made you for, too!!

This book starts out with Ordinary living his life day in and day out going to work, coming home, watching the tele, going to bed, going to work, coming home, watching the tele, going to bed, etc. Sound familiar to anyone out there? Well, Ordinary starts to become sad as he realizes that there has to be more than life to this. Sure it is comfortable, but he is not content to live the same life he has been living for so long. So he embarks on a journey to go towards his big dream. What an awesome little book. I truly believe that it was serendipitous that it almost literally landed in my hands that day!!

Anyway, before I leave you for this evening, I thought I would share some of the pics that I had taken from my dad and his wife’s visit with us this past weekend!

This is my sweetie and my dad “cooperating” to have their pictures taken!! I couldn’t get them to look at the camera, and when I told them to scootch closer together, they literally just leaned there upper bodies towards each other while hiding behind their menus! Thanks guys!! 😉

Here is a book set that Trudi found at a large antique store we were in, she said she had this set as a kid. I want this set as an adult!! 😉

Here is Jason’s dream find of the day! It is a Dutch cast iron Aebelskiver pan. Aebelskivers are like Dutch pancake balls – they are truly very DELICIOUS!! Here is a recipe in case you are interested! 😉

Here is a Shriner’s tunic my dad found. Is what really cool! I love the colors and the designs of this!!

We went to a brass band concert on Saturday night, and I will share pics of that with you tomorrow!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

Oh Em Gee!

Good evening!

I have had such a GREAT day!!! My time is so short this evening to get my blog posted before midnight tonight!! So, here is the VERY abbreviated version of my day with my dad and Trudi!!!

  • Got up early!
  • Rallied the troops late!
  • Went to The Original Pancake House for a yummy lunch!
  • Then back to JoAnn fabrics – just to return something from last night!
  • Made a stop over at Pier One Imports for a new scented candle – had so much fun there, even my sweetie picked out a scent for himself called Spiced Cake, which he said made him want Christmas early this year! I am ALWAYS game for that!! 😉
  • Went over to Catherine’s to see if I could find something I have been looking for – no luck
  • Went to sports store to find a pair of tennies for my dad – luck! 😉
  • Next off to downtown Salem to go antiquing, and had a BLAST searching for treasures!! DO YOU KNOW THAT PLACE IS HAUNTED??? I have it on good authority that any old building is haunted, and if there is any place in Salem that qualified as old, was the place we ended up at!! 😉
  • We headed back to our place for the world’s shortest mini/nap/break/pause before we headed out again to go to a brass band concert – SO MUCH FUN!!! (Made me want to start playing again!!!!)
  • Then Jason and I stopped – super late – to pick up dinner and then off to meet Dad and Trudi over at Cold Stone Creamery by our place.
  • At Cold Stone Creamery the owner came in, who Jason happens to know, and I ended up having the BEST chat with their 6-year old daughter, who is just as cute as a bug in a rug!!! SERIOUSLY!!! 😉
  • Then maybe the MOST AWESOME part of our day, we stood outside of the Cold Stone for over an hour just talking, and getting to know the Cold Stone owner and her husband!! I just LOVE her and her family!! I know that I have just met her for the first time this evening, but I feel we have known each other FOR EVER!!! I will most definitely be getting in touch with her again soon!!! OOH!! Maybe she would like to join me and my girlfriends for our next Girls’ Night In!!! That would be FANTASTIC!!!

Anyway, I have a whole BUNCH of pics to share with you but since my time is sooooo short this evening, I am going to make sure to take some serious time to get them posted tomorrow!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Blast From the Past!

Good evening!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there, or those Aunties, Sisters, Girlfriends, or Daughters who sometimes have an active mothering role to someone special in your life out there (that covers just about all of us, I think!!)!!! Today, my sweetie and I got to have a lovely visit and a great big ol’ lunch over at our mom, Linda’s place!! It was a bunch of fun!!

Happy Mother’s Day mom!!! 😉

Today, I wanted to share some of the pictures I took of Camp Kuratli up in Boring, Oregon yesterday. This is the Salvation Army camp that me and a lot of friends grew up going to every Summer. We had music camps, family camps, young adult/teen camps, and community camps. It seemed at times that we lived at camp almost all Summer long. One yea, I remember we made it home for EXACTLY 3 days all Summer, which gave us just enough time to wash all of our clothes!! I am not sure exactly how we were able to function without washing our clothes!! We must have smelled SOMETHING AWFUL!!! 😉

Here is what you see when you first get into camp. The main office is on the right, and the gymnasium, which I know we called something else, but I can’t seem to remember what is on the left of this pic.

Here is another pic of the large gymnasium! We hosted a lot of concerts here!

This is the old craft house and the stairs that all of us kids would race down to get to the shower house so we could get into the pool first during free time!!

Here is the caboose AKA Canteen (where we would wait in line to buy all sorts of candy and junk food!!)/Nurses Station – at least it was when we went there as kids. I don’t remember it quite looking so fresh, but we all sure had a fun time playing all over this thing!!! 😉

The camper cabins are all spaced out around this large loop. Here a few of those cabins.

You couldn’t really call being out at Camp Kuratli as roughing it because all of the cabins had indoor plumbing, running water, and space heaters! This place was really more like a resort for kids. 🙂 Here is some more of that loop of camper cabins!

Here is a pic of the other side of the circle, I am not sure what everything is now, but back in the day the building on the far left was the rec hall, which was where we could go during free time to play board games and stuff in case it was raining – although most of us spent EVERY free time in the pool – we figured we were already wet, so who cared if it rained??? The next building is the mess hall, and in front of that is the flag pole where we would line up every morning for revile, lowering whatever item of clothing happened to have gotten raided the night before (usually some poor camper’s underwear, of course!!), raising the American flag, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and then prayer for the meal. The next building was where the staff washed their laundry! I have no idea what that tiny building on the far left is, I don’t remember that, but it is right at the top of those stairs that you saw in the craft house pic. and a little farther to the right is where the caboose lives.

Here are a couple of pics of Merlo Field. This is up behind the circle of camper cabins, and this, for me, has changed the most dramatically since my days of going to this camp. This used to be a great open field!! Now it houses the camps swimming pools.

It sure is still beautiful though!! I know it is hard to tell, but up in this bit of forest is a very large house, and I remember whenever the campers would get really loud, the owners of the house would complain, and for some reason that made all of us campers laugh!! Like we were doing something right!! Even thinking about it now, still makes me smile! 😉

But mostly it was and is all of the lovely trees, the creek that runs through the camp, and the fact that we were right in the middle of the MOST BEAUTIFUL Oregon forest that helped make this camp special to all of us kids.

Here are a few panoramic views of the main circle, please feel free to click on these, or any of the pics to see them at full size – they are pretty large!!!

I hope you enjoyed these pics as much as I enjoyed taking them and reminiscing about this AMAZINGLY FUN time in my life!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Hello Monday!

Good morning!

I just wanted to stop a moment this morning and say hello to this FABULOUS Monday morning!! I am not sure exactly what you have in store for us today, but I know that what ever comes our way, we will be able to handle it with grace, gratitude, and an open mindedness that there will be a hidden positive message somewhere in whatever comes our way.

Today is the day, and for the rest of the week, that we find out who is being laid off and who gets to stay, at work. Even though I know that we are safe (at least for now), I know that there will be a lot of people who are not, and my prayers go out to them and their families. May God provide them each something above and beyond what they have now, or what they might have ever dreamed for themselves. I pray that these changes will bring about in those affected a renewed vigor to go out and go after their dreams in a way that they never thought possible. No matter what happens, we are and have been family. I don’t see that changing!

With all of that said, bring it on Monday! I am excited to see what challenges, lessons, blessings you have for us today!!! I am ready!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

Creative Affirmations!

Good evening!

I know I have already posted my blog tonight, but I am going through my Artist’s Way Chapter for the week, and I realized there are a couple of thoughts that I may want to call upon later during this week, and maybe longer. So, I had thought, seeing that this is my online journal, I would share them here so I may refer back to them!

Taken from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist Way, pgs 37-37

Creative Affirmations:

  1. I am a channel of God’s creativity, and my work comes to good.
  2. My dreams come from God and God has the power to accomplish them.
  3. As I create and listen, I will be lead.
  4. Creativity is the creator’s will for me.
  5. My creativity heals myself and others.
  6. I am allowed to nurture my artist.
  7. Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.
  8. Through the use of my creativity, I serve God.
  9. My creativity always leads me to truth and love.
  10. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness.
  11. There is a divine plan of goodness for me.
  12. There is a divine plan of goodness for my work.
  13. As I listen to the creator within, I am led.
  14. As I listen to my creativity I am lead to my creator.
  15. I am willing to create.
  16. I am willing to learn to let myself create.
  17. I am willing to let God create through me.
  18. I am willing to be of service through my creativity.
  19. I am willing to experience my creative energy.
  20. I am willing to use my creative talents.

Have a FABULOUS evening!