Life in a small town...

I laugh when I read my SIL's blog name on here called, "Life in a small town." T. or C. isn't a metropolis by any stretch of the imagination, but the town I associate most with (I don't live in a town) is one square mile. I want to do a string of posts like this that are real life instance I have seen first hand or, like in so many small towns, heard second (third, fourth, etc.) hand. Kind of a cousin to the "You might me a redneck" jokes.

My FIL and the hub went out pheasant hunting today as it was the last day of the season and the FIL hadn't been yet this year. Afterwards they came and picked me up and we went into town to eat. As we went in and sat down there were 3 couples there that I knew separately but were all sitting together. My FIL informed me that two of the men and one of the women were siblings. I love it when this happens! There is so much family in this community that I have no clue about that it makes it like a little surprise package for me when I hear it.

Anyhoo... Life in a small town means that you have no shock when you hear a conversation that consists only of;

John: Hey Jim
Jimmy: Whaddya doin, John?
John: Not much. I thought you'd be the one deliverin' my fuel yesterday.
Jimmy: Nope.
John: Oh. Welp, see ya around.
Jimmy: K

Neither of them being cold, just said all they needed to say!

Friday Foto

1) Taken Fall 2008
2) In my north yard
3) Lighting - Need I say more?
4) This has such a cozy, reflective emotion to it. It makes it sentimental without having any other connotations to it. And it's one of my MIL's favorites - well, it's in this series of pics.
5) Named, "Dusk Highlights"

25 Random things

I was tagged on Facebook (I think by Mrs. Bonnie) for this and since I get all of these exported from here to FB, I'll just do it here!

1) My back is out so bad right now I can hardly walk.
2) I absolutely love living in the middle of nowhere!
3) I really love being an hour and a half from Wal-Mart.
4) I have an entire wall in my dining room collaged with my pictures in solid black frames.
5) My diploma from my college is worthless, but the knowledge I gained while there is priceless.
6) I have always been terrified of being in a pen with large livestock, until I got married and had to do it anyway. Now I love it!
7) My favorite place I've ever lived (besides where I am now)is Rifle, Colorado while my dad pastored. We got to meet so many neat people and always had missionaries over!
8) My friend, who shall remain nameless, and I devour an entire package of Chewy Chips Ahoy every time we get together.
9) I enjoy butchering animals to the point of scheduling my days off around it.
10) I am the only one to shoot an animal with my husband's new rifle.
11) My first car was a 1974 Dodge Dart with a 360, but I never got to drive it.
12) One of my former babysitters has become one of my best friends.
13) Seeing as this is #13 - I am not superstitious but I have had several bad instances related to the number 13 and Friday the 13th.
14) I hate having to be dependent on a pianist or a soundtrack in order to perform singing, hence I do a lot of a capella songs.
15) For a long time my husband and I were the only people in our church between the age of 18 and 45.
16) My favorite smell is the smell of SSBYC.
17) #1 absolute pet peeve - People not putting things back where they belong.
18) Over 95% of the driving I have done in my life has been in the last 4 1/2 years.
19) Although I am from Texas and can appreciate the famous "Yellow Rose" I will not allow my husband to buy them for me because of that "Yellow Rose."
20) I thrive off of lists.
21) The best way to scare me is to jump out from a corner. Light or dark, doesn't matter. I could even know you are there and it still make me wet my pants and scream like a 5 year old girl.
22) The fastest way to make me MAD is to tickle me, unfortunately it's very easy to tickle me.
23) I love surprises (Not the scary kind like #21). Whether someone is surprising me, I them or watching someone else get it. I love the thoughtfulness in it!
24) Even though I love being behind the camera, I kinda hate the fact that there are limited pictures of me. Who will my children remember?
25) I have a sinus at the end of my tail bone... that's a good way to end this!

Christmas week

Christmas has been lingering around here because we still had Christmas yet to do with David and Katarina. This week we finally got to do it!

David and Trina got here Monday morning and surprised us by being here 10 hours early! All day monday was spent butchering the beef they were to take back with them. Then, Monday evening we went to Jimmy and Kitty's for supper.

Tuesday I went to work and Everyone just kind of took it easy all day. That evening we went bowling. I wasn't in the greatest of moods. Jerrad and I had a really bad evening and I was so emotionally drained that I had no right to be in public. But we were there, nonetheless.

Wednesday I was off work so I packed up Christmas and went to J&K's house. We had biscuits and gravy as a good starter to a long day!! We went to Garden City and shopped all day. Jerrad found a great barber that he will probably go back to often. We then went to Crazy House (western wear store) because I wanted a new pair of jeans and I NEEDED a new pair of boots. By the time I found my boots, there was no time to shop for jeans. While in Crazy House, my boot salesperson was very rude and wasn't answering my questions. She just really didn't seem to want my sale. So I grabbed Trina to help me. After working 2 years at Shepler's, she knows what she is doing! She fitted me for a new pair of boots (that I LOVE) and got me 10% off!

By that time we needed to get back home to get ready for church. We got to church and practiced a couple of songs. I asked Pastor which one he wanted us to sing. He replied, "Both!" Well, we sang one. Then when the service was over, Pastor made us sing the other one as well! We skidaddled out of church and headed to Candice's house for scrapbooking. We got there and Trina realized she had forgotten half of her pictures. So she got to make a card for David. We had a BLAST that night eating Sonic and Chewy Chips Ahoy! Tradition at Candice's house!

Jerrad and I stayed the night at J&K's hose that night to be there in plenty of time for Christmas breakfast. We got everything set and had a wonderful breakfast as usual. We opened gifts and just enjoyed having eachother around. Except for Bambi (D&K's Chihuahua/Pug mix). She will be calm as can be, but if Jerrad puts his hand in front of her, she goes nutso! They are the funniest thing to watch. He is definitely the antagonist!

We then went over to Papa and Marmie's for dinner. We had prime rib, shrimp and grilled salmon with the works! After letting it digest a little bit, we headed over to the Menno Building for family pictures. This, I believe, is my best photo shoot yet! The lighting was beautiful, the scenery impecable, and there was no wind. You heard me... NO WIND! We had a lot of fun doing it and we got some REALLY great shots of everyone!

We went back to P&M's and Trina made some cherry pie (YUMMY!!!) while Kitty and Marm Put together a pumpkin pie. Then we realized we still had fireworks to shoot! We got back to J&K's and got set up for a show. We had no idea what we were in for! Trina and I got cuddled up in our blankets while everyone else was getting set up. I had bought some HUGE sparklers for Trina and I to play around with, but they wouldn't hardly light. Jimmy had a 4 foot tall box of artillery shells that he planned on using up. Jerrad had a box full of goodies as well.

Side note: This family gets all sorts of excited about fireworks because they used to run the stand in town before Kitty got a job in the summer cooking at Silver State.

Trina and I were enjoying ourselves despite the faulty sparklers, but it was cold! There was a little breeze but not much, so Jerrad and Kitty started a fire in the driveway. Jimmy kept tying more and more artillery shells together, giving an evil laugh each time he went out to the cannons. Until he said, "Jerrad, come help me with this!" That should've been the clue right there! He had 4 3-shot shells and 2 2-shot shells (16 shots) all tied together. All six cannons ready to go. They lit it and RAN!!! When the first one went off, it exploded in the cannon, knocking all of the others over. Most of them were now shooting at us, instead of at God where they should have been going! One hit Jimmy in the back as he was running. Trina and I were so tangled in blankets it took us a while to get up and move. Once the booms were done, we looked over and there were two fires in the front yard. Trina and Kitty got one fire out, while Jerrad and I stomped out the other one... Me in my new boots! After all of that excitement, Jimmy went back to one at a time! As the fireworks were winding down, I asked if there was going to be a grand fianle. Jimmy denied; he figured there was no topping the 16 shot KA-BOOM!

We had a wonderful Christmas in January and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Trina. This was the most enjoyable and exciting trip David and Trina have had here, that's for sure! Well, this was a LOOOOOOONG post, but there was no leaving any of this out! If you made it through... Kudos to you!

Friday Foto

1) Taken a few miles from my inlaws' house at the Menno Community Building.

2) Yesterday evening we went out for a family photo shoot.

3) The lighting on this is gorgeous, and her smile is very genuine! She loves our dog and Jerrad's sister's dog!

4) This picture makes me laugh because my mother in law apoils her "grand dogs" soooo much! I can only imagine what she will be like with real kiddos!

5) Named, "Kitty lovin' the Pup" <-- My MIL's name is Kitty

A VERY good Sunday!

Last Sunday was good and bad. Well, this Sunday was really GREAT! I still got a bad headache, but those are pretty common these days (I really am going to the chiropractor tomorrow!).

First of all, we had missionaries there today. A very funny couple that has struggled as they planted several I-F-Baptist churches over the midwest amongst the Mormons. We had a dinner with them in the fellowship hall and just enjoyed each others company!

Our pastor and his wife went to the HBBC home missions conference last week and were back today with reports. It was so neat to hear of all that I was once a part of. Even more exciting was that my tithe and offerings went to the conference to help those people. I was hoping that our pastor would tell us of someone he had helped and it would be a classmate of mine, but that wasn't the case. He was able to help 10-15 church planters though and that was awesome. Even more, he took some video to show the ones in our church who hadn't been before what it was like. In that video I saw some familiar faces. I wanted to hug the screen when I saw Sam Davison on it so bad I could hardly contain myself! Then the church planter that he was introducing was a former professor of mine, Russ Bishop. THEN (the really awesome blessing of the video) as the names were called out of men who were helping Bro. Russ, several of THEM were my classmates. Even better! We didn't help my classmates, my classmates were helping other church planters! What a thrill! I sat there and cried (this isn't unusual for me... I cry at the Onstar commercials on the radio) just as I did when I was a student watching God move over the crowded gym.

The highlight of my day, however, was when I sang my special. I had been practicing this song... lemme back up a little. In November we went to see Legacy 5 in Ulysses. The closing song was a piano/vocal solo by the pianist, Tim Parton. It is a fabulous song! 2 other girls and I were debating about which soundtrack CD to buy from the CD booth and the one girl just bought all 3 and said she would give them away as Christmas presents. I had forgotten all about that until after Christmas I got a late Christmas present from her. It was the soundtrack with this particular song on it.

That night I got home and checked my email, like always, and I had an email from my MIL asking me to get that song going for a special in church. It was so much of a God thing I just kept it under my hat. I was going to sing it last Sunday but things didn't work out. I was thinking that I had made a mistake by not singing it when I should have. I beat myself up all week about it. But nevertheless, I sang it this Sunday. Not exactly a "Missionary Sunday" song, but it's still a fabulous song!

I knew I wouldn't be able to look at my MIL when I was singing it, but I tried anyway... NOPE!!! The highlight of my day was when I got done and stepped down from the platform (I always keep my head bowed because I am really humbled at being able to sing for my church) there was my MIL standing in the aisle waiting to grab me up and hug me. We stood there for a while and just bawled. She told me later that it was exactly what she needed TODAY! You see, Keagen would've been 18 months old today, and God needed me to sing that song to my inlaws TODAY through that tough time.

Here is a video of that song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UODpfuRvNNk

Friday Foto

1) May 26, 2006

2) SSBYC

3) This is a most technically perfect portrait! Beautiful, clear subject; blurred background; rule of thirds in play; the most genuine smile - after all... it's her wedding day! Oh and the colors! I can't forget the colors - look at those green eyes!

4) I was privileged enough to be able to take my S I L's wedding pictures. I was also amateur enough to screw up 2/3 of them, but we won't go into that right now... I enjoyed my supper the first time around, don't need to taste it again!

5) This one has a very general name because it is the epitome of a "Bridal Portrait"

Good/bad Sunday

Today was such a good Sunday. Church was good, we had an awesome dinner... then I got a really bad tension headache and didn't go anywhere the rest of the day. These have been coming on a lot lately. I am going to the chiropractor tomorrow to see if she can help me! But the good part of Sunday... We sang some of my favorite hymns that really lifted my spirit and made me more prepared to listen to the wonderful preaching.

My MIL called last night and wanted to bring soups and stuff to have for dinner in the fellowship hall. We do this every once in a while just for family. It's hard to drive 30 minutes to get home and cook, and eating out gets expensive. We had wonderful soups, and home made bread courtesy of my MIL!!

Yesterday on FB, I changed my status to something about wanting a good chat with a long lost friend. Well, I got that today. It wasn't the friend I was thinking of, but it was the friend that God wanted me to have a chat with! We reconnected today, and it was nice to have a peer at church to talk to again! It was definitely a God thing, because of a lot of things that I have chosen for myself. I have felt really akward about talking to anyone from Skyland since I got fired so there have been some friendships fall by the wayside. Everything to do with my firing was so secretive, I had no idea who was in on what so it was hard to trust anyone. I am better with that now. It's not a big deal. I have come to realize that getting fired from Skyland was the best thing that happenned to me in 2008. Although at the time I thought it was among the worst things that would ever happen to me. But so many good things have come from it, I can't imagine still being there.

1) My marriage is better because I don't have that pressure from work. I was so oppressed when I worked there, I had a terribly negative attitude everywhere, but it strained my marriage the most.

2) I got 6 weeks off in the summer time to go and do things that I wanted to do! These weren't just my own interests, but my husband's as well. I was able to do more photography with my time off. I was able to go and do things with my husband. That probably meant the most to me! There were so many things that I missed out on before because I ALWAYS had to work. This summer I was able to stand by my man's side as he got his first "green" on the 1000 yard range. I was there to take pictures as he got 3rd place in the Morton County Mudrun. There were so many great moments that we got to share TOGETHER!

3) I have the most fabulous job now! I looked at my wages and benefits at Skyland and it scared me out of going anywhere else. But even though I took a huge paycut, the Lord has provided and we have not hurt any more financially than what we were before. Not to mention my boss is probably the best boss anyone could have! I have awesome co-workers who are just there to do their job, nothing more, nothing less!

I know I digressed a little from my original topic/title, but what are blogs for, huh? All in all, God's been good!

Friday Foto

1) Taken on the Apishipa Trail Head on the back side of Cordova Pass - Around Trinidad Colorado - Spanish Peaks - by our cabin

2) Fall 2007

3) The light almost makes you feel like you are right there under the trees!

4) This one reminds me of seasons spoken of in Ecclesiastes.

5) Named "Sunny Shade"

Two dead batteries

I have been having a tough time with something today. I only know of one person I can talk to about this. So I called up my SISTER in law (God made her brother marry me so we could become such close friends). She seems to be the only one that I can comfortably talk to about the subject without feeling pressured or completely out of the loop. I just wanted to say that after two dead cell phone batteries I do feel a lot better. And I am reminded of a few (never on this earth will I know all of them) reasons why God has put things where they are. It makes me ever more confident in where He is putting them! Here's to my seester that I never had. (I posted a picture of when we were both skinny!)

A few of my favorite things...

A few of my favorite CHRISTMAS things that is! I wanted to do this a while back but didn't have time until now. And yes, I do still have my tree up. If I get my way it will still be up when Trina gets here because Christmas will not be over until they leave! This is my favorite bulb ornament. It's so fun and festive while still being classy.

My solid black bulbs look awesome on my tree! The reflect the lights perfectly! These were given to me by my MIL.

I love these ones! They are so awesome! My MIL got them for me as well.

The classic First Christmas ornament. Circa 2004

This is my absolute favorite Christmas decoration in my house! My grandma made this ceramic nativity set before she died. It is so simple and elegant. Probably the closest depiction of the nativity scene!

I know... Two posts in one day

And not very far apart! But I love these pics of my inlaws that I took at Christmas so much I had to share before next friday! Enjoy!

A new year...

On the way to a new me.

I don't usually make new year's resolutions because I rarely keep them. But I was thinking today that it is a really bad reason! It only promotes laziness, which is one thing I constantly battle! By making my resolutions public, I make myself more accountable for them.

1) Spiritual relationship with God. I want to strengthen that relationship this year. I have been really lazy in this area and want to do better. My main goal is to use my driving time every day to praise him and pray. Rather than talk on the phone or daze out!

2) I would like to do some sort of excersize everyday. Not a full blown workout, but something purposely to work some muscles. New year's day, Maggie and I went on a walk; Yesterday I did squats at work (No one else was there hehe!); And today I plan on biking to the mail box and back (That's two miles for you city slickers who think it's silly!). Maybe I'll run up and down our stairs a few times as fast as I can. Just to do something!

3) I don't ever want to tell my husband, "You have clean_____ in the dryer. I love you! Bye." I want there to always be what he needs on his clothes rack. Not just skinning by on the laundry issue. Or housework altogether. I am going to get on a weekly schedule for housework that way every week the same thing gets touched. Rather than trying to do it all on Saturday because I've been lazy all week just for something to come up on Saturday and it still not getting done.

I'm going to stick with those for now. I think they are big enough to make a big change in my life. I hope I can do this!

Friday Foto

1) Taken at Prairie Lanes bowling alley in Syracuse at my brother's wedding reception.

2) December 27th, 2008

3) Love the lines of the alley. There may be a little too much color contrast, but it makes it modernly retro. I am trying new editing techniques.

4) It was my brother's wedding reception so it means a lot to me. I felt privileged to have my brother ask me to do his wedding pictures.

5) Named, "Wedding Quirks"