WINTER! It has arrived. (if we weren't sure before)

Check out these pictures I took this morning...! I'd normally post them on my photo blog, but I think they're too cool not to post here. Enjoy them! (oh, and they're on Picasa, so you can leave comments if you want as well)

My awesome brother Judah's sitting beside me, and I asked him for advice on what else to say in this blog post. He said to say that "the track is really cool". You'll understand when you look at the pictures - Ezra and Judah made this wicked cool sledding track off our porch and onto the patio. I guess you have to get creative and make your own hills, when there aren't any where you live. Oooh and Judah just told me they iced the track too. Slippery = speed! hehe!

(and of course, we have to start with a picture of a cat.)

12-26-10

promises

This is beautiful. Just beautiful. I love reading this passage - especially since it comes straight from the mouth of our Heavenly Father. So many wonderful promises in here. :)


   "If you walk in My laws and guard My commands, and shall do them, then I shall give you rain in its season, and the land shall yield its crops, and the trees of the field yield their fruit. And your threshing shall last till the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last till the time of sowing. And you shall eat your bread until you have enough, and shall dwell in your land safely. 


    And I shall give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and no one make you afraid. And I shall clear the land of evil beasts, and not let the sword go through your land. And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. 


   And I shall turn to you and make you bear fruit, and shall increase you, and shall establish My covenant with you. And you shall eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. And I shall set My Dwelling Place in your midst, and My being shall not reject you. 


   And I shall walk in your midst, and shall be your Elohim, and you shall be My people. I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim (Egypt), from being their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright."

-Leviticus 26:3-13

"In other news..."

...that's kinda my job. With my new interning job (have I mentioned that on here? If not, I recently scored a job as an intern at the local office of US Senator John Thune. I love it!!!) part of my job is to be informed about the news that's going on locally and around the world. That way if someone calls with questions, I can further help them with any information I know. It's so cool to be 'up and up' on the news! Just a quick thank you.... to all the people paying taxes in SD. You are helping me to have an awesome job helping the Senator. :D

Along with interning, teaching dance, school, getting ready for ballet exams, eating and sleeping - life is crazy busy. But I like it that way. It keeps me out of trouble (haha), and I have lots of opportunities to try and show God's love to the world. Which is what our lives should be all about, right?

Shout out! New blog in town! My best friend (who happens to be my brother) just started a blog. "Honest Exaggerations" is the title - go read it, follow it, put the page on automatic refresh: this guy is hilarious. http://honest-exaggerations.blogspot.com/

With that, it's lunch time. Farewell for now! Have a lovely weekend :)

an in-coming story that's rather late

Yep, I haven't blogged in forever. Hopefully y'all didn't think I died or anything - because I didn't! No worries! Blog posts might be a bit sparse from now on though - working 2 jobs, 40 hours a week.... doesn't leave much time for much else, let alone blogging. But I digress. 

Story? Ah yes. (to the friend that asked what the airport security comment was about - this is that story now).

As many of you know, I recently took a trip to North Carolina to visit some dear friends! The trip was amazing - and as Mom and I are going through the Charlotte NC airport security, one of the TSA officers grabs my bag and starts going through it. I'm busy tying my shoes and I didn't really notice her say that she had to run my bag through the X-Ray scanner again. She does that, then rifles through my bag again.... this happens about three times until she pulls a pocketknife out of my bag. ......yes, folks. A pocketknife. So she takes it away, I take my bag away, all is happy. 

No, no, no. All is not happy. I was pretty upset - as my Mom can attest. It didn't help that I wasn't in a happy and bouncy state of mind since I just said good bye to all my lovely friends - but I was upset for a couple more reasons. 1) I actually didn't notice that there was a pocketknife in my bag when I was packing! Shame. On. Me.! 2) The Minneapolis airport security didn't notice my pocketknife in my bag on the flight from Minneapolis to Charlotte. 

Those are the facts, folks. The Minneapolis TSA officers and all their fancy equipment let me take a pocketknife into their airport and on their airplane. I know for a fact that I didn't just pick the pocketknife up in Charlotte or anything like that - because - the knife had the name and address of my Dad's place of work engraved upon it. So I knew it was my knife. 

Final thought: the TSA wants to look through your clothes to see if you have bombs on you - when they allowed a pocketknife to get through their security. To take a quote from National Treasure: "It's upside down." 

Hopefully there will be a "In other news...." post coming later this weekend. :)

from the Eastern seaboard

"I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich." 
-(I think it's a movie quote from someplace)

It's true. Family is awesome. You have your quarrels and squabbles of course, but at the end of the day, you're stuck living with them.... so you either end up loving them or leaving. I love my family. And it makes me a bit sad... cause right now I'm away from them. Granted, I am having an absolute blast with some awesome friends for the weekend.... but there's really nothing like your own family.

*points to title of post* Yep, I'm in Eastern Time. It's so weird! I'm used to going west, and having everything be an hour earlier, but for everything to be an hour later? It's just messing me up. Maybe that's why I'm not tired - cause it's only 11:30 back home. :P

Regardless, I should get to bed. Lots going on tomorrow - including possibly caroling! Should be fun... except for the fact that I'm a horrible singer. Guess I'll be standing in the back - hahaha!

Israeli Proverbs

I love Israel. The land, the people, the culture, the food, the history... the fact that God chose them for His very own. Most Israelis think that all Americans hate Israel. (I know, because I have good friends that live there) How sad is that? What have we done to make Israel think that we don't love them? There are probably many reasons - which I won't go into here and now. But just for the record, and for anyone from Israel that's reading this - I LOVE ISRAEL! And I know other Americans who do as well.


I came across a site full of Israeli Proverbs today. Some of them are just so great! Here are my favorites: 


-People make plans and God laughs.
-Let a good man do good deeds with the same zeal that the evil man does bad ones.
-Never trust the man who tells you all his troubles but keeps from you all his joys.
-Where two Jews, three opinions.
-Worries go down better with soup.
-The favorite place of God is in the heart of man.
-Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side.
-If there is bitterness in the heart, sugar in the mouth won't make life sweeter.
-One of life's greatest mysteries is how the boy who wasn't good enough to marry your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchild in the world.


Aren't those just great?! I had a good laugh over a few of them... especially the last. :D 

do-over

Sorry the last post turned out to be a flop. :(

I have another poem in my head... needing to get out... so here goes.

-----
walking alone. in the rain.
people passing by.
walking alone. feeling pain.
falling from the sky.

standing alone. far away.
sun begins to shine.
standing alone. another day.
hope shall become mine.
-----

that's all I have for now - more verses might come later.
hehe, now I feel like e. e. cummings :P

watch, and be amazed

I'm not usually one to post crazy videos of random YouTube awesomeness - but you have got to check this video out! Talk about going outside-the-box, DIY, creative ingenuity, talent.... this is so great!! For real!

....maybe I like it so much because I can totally see my brothers coming up with something like this. Although they aren't very musically inclined :P