Double GGGRRRRrrrrrrr

I just checked out the digi challenge on 2 peas, and I have the perfect idea in my head for it, but I guess it will have to wait. Triple GGGRRRRrrrrrrrr....

World Traveler

We are in Germany, and I am at Humedica headquarters, and I am getting to catch up on a little blogging, and the lives of my friends that do blog, too. Our trip was...well, interesting. You would have to really know us well to understand how very adventurous we can be, because I am amazed at the things we do sometimes! But, here are the highlights of my thoughts throughout the trip (typing on a German keyboard is an adventure in itself, so please forgive me if I dont punctuate right, I cant find some of the punctuations I need, and y and z are switched!)
1. I told Dan about driving past some cops - I was going the speed limit - in Kosova, and looking in my rearview thinking what would happen if they tried to chase me down. I told him that I thought about trying to out run them. He told me that I would have already been too slow if I could see them behind me in my rear-view. He said that as soon as I had the thought, I should have gunned it. And, not that we are trying to become professional criminals, or join the mafia, but, I would make a lousy bad guy!
2. My drivers ed teacher would be horribly disappointed with my driving in the last few days, but that is assuming that he doesnt know what it is like to drive in Europe. All those little rules about good drivers, sometimes get set to the side in Kosova. But, driving throughout six other countries in Europe, they promptly got chucked out the window and left stranded on the side of the road. These people are crazy!
3. I hunted down a Starbucks in Munich, Germany. And, because the clerk (male) forgot to ring up the caramel apple bar that we ordered he gave it to us for free, and because he was flirting with me!! (Europe is very different that way!) And, Susie, I got something headed your way!!
4. I am surprised at how much German I really do know.
5. I am so bummed that I do not have photoshop with me for these two weeks, I think I could learn a ton more, and go nuts making layouts. GRRRRRrrrrrrrr! I could kick myself. I just did kick myself.
6. Judah has to be the cutest child in the world (sorry, all you other mommies), and I am amazed at how he knows how to work people. He wraps everyone, literally, right around his pinky.
7. my poor son will not know which language to speak by the time we get back home, neither will I

Leaving on a jet plane...

Don't I wish. We will be gone for about two weeks. We have to drive through central Europe to Germany to register the van. So, I'm not sure how often I will be able to post. When I get a chance I will. have a good day.

Surprise!! Congratulations!!!

Since I always arrive at parties early, I figured this one should be no different. Congratulations to Elizabeth Dillow, one of the winners of Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame Contest. Elizabeth has been one of the people to challenge me (without her ever realizing she was doing it) to do more with scrapping, and to encourage me. Little did I know my little sister's teacher would one day be my friend! I am so happy that she is.
Have a great Day, Elizabeth. Happy HOF party. congrats!

Really cool link

Hey, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Rob and Cindy Litzinger are now the pastors of an awesome, active, blessed, and growing church in Santa Maria, California. The church family there has been so wonderful to us, and we feel so welcome and at home with them, it is a blessing. But, so you know... each week, I do a newsletter about our lives here in Kosova. What's going on, who we went and visited, little things that God touched our hearts with, and how he is moving in the lives of the people in this land.... and Church for Life has put a link on their site that publishes the letter with quite a bit of other stuff. It's awesome. I'm putting a link on this site, and I'll make little notes of when I put a new letter out.
God bless

Friends

Yesterday, I mentioned that I had posted some digital scraps on twopeas (see previous blog entry), and two of my friends (who became dearer by doing this!) went and checked them out. But, not only that, they commented and I think that my head grew five times larger when I was them! Thanks so much. But, like my hubby said, I can't take all the credit. Yes, I worked really hard to get the 'us' on my sisters layout to look right, but I downloaded a lot of the stuff I used for my Paris layouts online. (I'm all about sales and free stuff!). And, then, today, my friend who is going to travel a third of the way around the world to visit me reminded me that I am a valuable piece of her life. And, a person that I have just met online (female, of course!) has been being a huge encouragement to me in this new little learning trip I am on. I guess I am just feeling hugely blessed with friends right now. Wherever they are, and how ever I know them, I am so thankful for them.

hooray!

This is how I felt yesterday morning and I was so excited to digi-scrap it! I also posted some of my most recent stuff (okay, the first and only things I've ever created!) on twopeas. I have really been enjoying learning all these things in photoshop, and am getting pretty addicted. The feeling that I get after creating something that I am proud of is really heady. Aren't I feeling empowered! And, I figured out how to make a link for you to go there directly to see them. So, now, off you go....

It's Spring!

I don't have any flowers blooming in my yard, yet, so no pictures of that. I tried to upload a picture of me beginning the first day of spring, but computer/internet are deciding to not like me today, and no picture. But, it is still the first day of spring, the first beautiful day we have had in a while (how appropriate), and I am filled with the hope and joy that I get every year in spring, and that makes me excited for the days to come. Isn't God amazing? He knows that we get tired of the same thing over and over, and that change is something we desire in our lives. He knows that just when we think that we can't take another cold, wet, windy day, the spring sunshine will pop through giving promise of life abundant! And, I think you all know what I mean! I am so ready for spring.

Random thoughts

Okay, so I don't hate 2 peas as much now because, Susie told me where to go, and because they have free digital scrapbooking kits for me to download. Now, I just hate our electricity (what's new?) because it doesn't give me much time on the computer with Photoshop, and our internet connection for being unreliable so that I have a hard time downloading the kits that have made my life pure 'fun' since I started using them! Oh, my gosh, on Thursday, using layers in photoshop just clicked and I have been going nuts ever since. Like, I said, when I have good electricity and good internet, I'll upload them to 2 peas so you can all tell me how cool they are :P
--
Being in Kosova has been good for me in so many ways it is scary. I mean in terms of growing up into who God wants me to be. But, there are some yucky side-effects that I have begun to notice that kind of worry me.
1. I am so unconnected from what I know as a 'normal' life (normal being American female), that I don't know if I relate very well.
2. I'm not sure I know how to be a very good friend anymore. Things here are always so superficial, and that is how I have to be a lot of the time. I try to get to know these people, but they don't understand me, and don't know how to open up, so....
3. little lies run through me head, and because of the reasons already referred to, I actually entertain them. Things like, 'all of my friends have way cool lives and I'm stuck here', 'I don't have any real friends, they all just take pity on me, so they make themselves e-mail', 'I could be and do so much more if I weren't here'. Grrrr.
4. I have forgotten that I like to be the type of girl who is feminine but can still change a flat tire in high heels. Here, because of the male-driven, male-directed, male-living culture that exists (if you have a penis you can do whatever you want), I have forgotten a little bit of how to be bold. I act like a little wimpy bettycrocker and hide behind my husband (now I'll get in trouble from betty crockers, which, really there isn't anything wrong with that if that is how God created you, but he put a lot more kick in me than to just sit in the house and take that as all that I do)
So, I am trying to remember that I don't like these things being developed in my life, and paying attention if I am allowing myself to act in them!
---
Judah has been talking like crazy lately, and growing up into so much more of a little boy and not a toddler. Sad, but fun.

***and, if anyone comments on this, I will know that you did it out of pity or guilt, so don't!

Flashback Friday (late)

Sorry, computer wasn't very kind yesterday! But, here's a short flashback. A little over a year ago. Aren't they cute? Judah's the only kermudgin with shoes on, third from the left. Too cute.

In over my head

I've been checking out stuff for digital scrapbooking- which I hope I can figure out because it is amazing, can be used as such a blessing, so much easier for me since I live in a place where you can't just bop to the local ______ store that sells scrapbooking stuff, and it really is so amazing- and amazed at the stuff that is out there, and the gifted people, and the ways that they have used it. I can feel my head starting to spin, but I don't want to stop!

Trend-setter

TREND: PASTEL GREEN EYE SHADOW
DO: Cover your lids or line your eyes with a sheer pastel for a "clean, fresh look" (worn by Scarlett Johansson and Nia Long), says Gage. DON'T: Wear your favorite forest or hunter green shadow from the holiday season – it'll look too heavy.

Well, it looks like I'm back in style finally!!! Too bad I have to do my own make-up each morning...

Danny

I love you. You let me be me. You encourage my dreams, laugh at my cheesiness, and go along with my nuttiness. You like my quirks. You are honest with me even when I don't like it, and you hold me to a better way of being. You inspire me to be better. You challenge me to not give up the first time, or the second time, or at all. You tell me, honestly, when I have done something good and help me feel special in my accomplishments. You are my best friend. I love your smile. I love the jokes that we have between us. You are my hero and I like having you as my protector. I love having you hold my hand. I love being with you. And, all of these words and more don't tell enough of how much I love you.

silly people, me included

So, I got a very American, female hankering today, and popped onto people.aol.com. (Don't know how to to set up a link for you automatically, sorry, I'll figure it someday). And, I could barely tear myself away to go potty in amongst catching up on the stars! How funny are we? These people, who have done nothing more than play some part in a drama are made up into super-people, and we all adore them and love to know what they are doing. It really is quite silly, but I'm still going to keep checking it out everyonce in a while. But, while I was 'checking up', some thoughts came to mind:
!. I am way out of things, Gwen Stefani is pregnant! and too cute.
!. why can't I wear the things and outfits that some of these people wear and get away with it?
!. Britney Spears was pregnant about the same time that I was. How has she done losing the baby fat?

Other people's underwear

@@@ not my undies, but I would like them to be!
I've heard some kind of saying, at some point in my life, that it isn't good to hang your dirty laundry out for people to see. Why you would be hanging dirty laundry is beyond me, but it should to double for underwear. Since we live in a village, where everyone knows if and when I sneeze, I always wonder about hanging my undies out to dry, especially the really small cute ones! So, the small cute ones get hung over the heaters, and the other ones get hung towards the middle of the drying rack so they are hidden by various t-shirts, jeans, and non-eye-raising clothing. -oh, in case you were wondering, we don't have a dryer, so everything is hung to dry, and Dan says that since there isn't that much to them, the small, cute undies just need to be swung around in the air a few times and they're dry! not true, there's a little more to them than that- anyhow, we constantly have guests at our house, and this last week, I had to do some laundry for them. And, I have to admit there is something a little widgy about hanging other people's underwear up to dry. There's something very widgy about hanging out other males' underwear. Yeah, I know, they just went through the washing machine, but, still... So, it gets me thinking, "What is it that makes me so weirded out by this? I mean, everyone wears them (and if they don't, I don't even want to think about it), and normally these people are extra clean, so what's the big deal?" There are a number of reasons that are jumping around in my head. Maybe it's because I would feel really funny if any of the people whose underwear I am handling and hanging were handling, and hanging my underwear. Or, maybe I feel almost like a perv. For goodness sakes, I am touching someone's underwear other than my family's; of course, I'm trying to touch them as little as possible and have considered using clothespins to pick them up with and hang them (I know, getting a little obsessive!), but they are still the underwear of a person that I have only met six days before! It gets a little weird, but some things that I have learned from hanging up other people's underwear is that: I need to go through my underwear and take out all of the ones with holes in them, just in case someone else had to wash them for me ~ I don't own granny panties! Never have, and trust me, never will. Even the big, saggy, gray ones that go almost up to my belly button aren't grannies (I would have taken a picture of some real grannies, but I thought that would be betraying a confidence or something!!) ~ it's amazing how the type of underwear tells so much about a person! What's you underwear say about you?

I don't like 2peas

Okay, so it is an adorable sight that challenges me and makes me want to be creative, but it is intimidating, impossible to find my way around in, and set up so I can't figure it out. I have really cute pictures that are just sitting in my computer doing nothing, and 2peas isn't being very supportive. I hate to be the whiny, hold-my-hand type, but I'm going to admit this one, and yes, whine a little, before I try again to have my face rubbed in cyber mud!

I don't like 2peas

Okay, so it is an adorable sight that challenges me and makes me want to be creative, but it is intimidating, impossible to find my way around in, and set up so I can't figure it out. I hate to be the whiny, hold-my-hand type, but I'm going to admit this one, and yes, whine a little, before I try again to have my face rubbed in cyber mud!

Flashback Friday

I finally am remembering to post a pic for Flashback Friday. The rest will be not-so-long-ago flashbacks since my pics are all in America, but this one is pretty cute.
Can you guess which one is Danny?

Getting organized

You can tell it is coming up on spring by the number of people that keep mentioning things like 'stay on task', 'organizing', 'tidying up', 'unclutter', etcetera... So, my friend blogged a helpful little list of things to do to help all of this. You know, keep the counters clean of clutter, table clean, do a two-minute run-through of the house periodically through the day, yadda, yadda, yadda. So, I am inspired, and I am going to do this. But, then I started looking at all of the 'surfaces' that have been 'cluttered' in the last four days, and my spirits fell just a little. I even took pictures (I stopped after 8), but since me and internet seem to be having a misunderstanding today it will give me that much extra time to get to work. Since we are in the middle of a doctor team, the one desk in the office is exempt, but on March 18, the exemption ends. So, maybe if I can keep up with the little stuff, I can finally post a picture for Flashback Friday without feeling like I have no time to go and hunt for one!

To-do list

So, I'm wondering. or thinking. or something that resembles something in-between the two of those. About all of the things that I have to get done and all of the things that I want to get done. Of course the list of 'have to get dones' get priority and that is why my floors are still somewhat able to be seen, but the 'want to get dones' don't go away just because they aren't getting attention. So, what, other than the 'have to get dones', is holding me back. Well, electricity doesn't allow me to finish my sewing jobs. Fear doesn't allow me to post my cool pictures on 2peas. Lack of focus keeps me from adding to Judah's scrapbook. And, knowing about all of those keeps me from thinking too hard about all of the rest. But, they are still there. So, I have decided to list them. I am going to make a copy of this list so that I can hang it somewhere that I will see it, and actually start to work on it. Perhaps, little by little my list will get done, even along with the ‘have to get dones’. I always think that it would be so much fun to just forget about the ‘have to be dones’ for a week, but I would go stark-raving mad, so it’s just a fun thought.

1. finish scarf tops for sisters and mom (and, yes, this, in essence, ruins the surprise, but if I don’t do it, there will be no surprise!)
2. Bible alphabet book with songs for Judah, and possibly a publisher (I know, crazy big dream)
3. one scrapbook page for each month from Judah’s three months until now, and then some
4. start family photo book, not scrapbook, but not a simple album, either.
5. paint Ps. 40:5 on my entryway wall
6. paint Mt. 5:8 on Judah’s bedroom wall
7. make canvas collage pictures for decorations, three of them
8. learn how to do ‘layers’ in photoshop
9. type out the songs that I have written instead of leaving them in handwritten, mixed up, crazy form
10. get some great pictures of ME, ones I really like, that make me smile, and allow me to feel beautiful but still me

Doctor Team

We have a doctor team here right now, which means the population of our house goes from 3 to 6 (doctor, nurse, and translator), which means the work grows that much, too. Dan is out with the teams during the day until dinner time and then, we crash into bed. I try to hold down the fort and the kindergarten. My mind is blank...tired...I made chicken chimichangas for dinner...hope the chicken didn't have bird flu!

WOW

There are some days that I can feel God's blessing so tangibly in my life that it is almost as though he is virtually holding my hand. For the last few days I have felt this in such an amazing way that it is hard to explain. "What are you talking about?" you may ask. Well, we have spent all of last week and this weekend preparing for and welcoming the first medical mission team of 2006. There is all of the work that I have to take care of in the house, but Daniel has to line up what villages the team will go to, take notices to those villages, put in a notification/permission to the regional government offices, turn in an application for an import license of the medicines that the doctors will bring in, and then go and get the import license. Basically, a lot of driving, and then, we still have to go back to Prishtina and pick them up. Well, the CV joint on our van started clicking the day that Dan was driving all over the countryside of Kosova, and there wasn't going to be time to get it fixed until today (Sunday). Would it make it until then? Would it quit on us right before we picked up the doctors? Would it quit on us right after we picked them up far from our home? The first day, Daniel prayed right then, and God healed the van...no clicking. The next day it started clicking again, so we prayed, and I felt God say, "it will drive until you get it fixed, don't worry." Why? Because it had to. We needed it. Because we had no other way of getting all the things done that needed to get done without it. And, it did, and now it is fixed, and we were never stranded on the side of the road! And, then this morning, I picked out worship music for the service, and got everything ready. We take our keyboard each week since it is what I know. But, when we arrived at the church, there was no electricity! Something that we in the village, are very used to, but the city normally doesn't have the problems that we do. Plus, the house where church is held is set up on a battery system that charges the batteries when there is electricity, and then runs the house when there isn't. But, they had had such bad electricity that the batteries hadn’t been able to charge! So, there goes worship right?! “Just sing as loud and proud, while I play my drum.” -Dan’s suggestion. God’s suggestion- “go grab a guitar.” HA! Right! I have practiced a whole of three times in the last two weeks, but all of the songs that I had picked out were made up of the chords that I know well! And, I led worship with the guitar, and did pretty darn good for it! Besides the shakes I had from a cup of coffee and nervousness, worship was blessed! My life was blessed! My day was blessed! Wow!

a growing promise

I just watched his tiny little butt wander out of the office. His pants are barely staying up because I am attempting to start potty training and without the onesie, that is a pain to unsnap each time he goes to the bathroom but acts as a little bit of friction to keep his pants on his behind (and they are safety pinned, too). But, as he wandered out I wondered about the days that will come in his life. All of the different ones that he will wake up to. What will he look like as he plays soccer with the other eight-year-olds? What kind of music will he like when he's fourteen? Will he mind talking to his mom and dad when there are other people around? And, the more poignant ones: Will he accept Jesus at an early age? Will he follow God all his life or take a few years and try out his own way? Will he be great for God? Will he be a man of honor and integrity that follows God's word with his heart? But, then my heart is told, by my soul, to be still. To stop fluttering so, and enjoy peace. Enjoy contentment. Enjoy promise.

Many, O Lord my God, are the things you have done
The things you have planned for us, who can recount to you?
Were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Ps. 40:5

Enjoy run-n-jump hugs, enjoy cheesy little grins, enjoy trying to potty train little by little, enjoy dinosaur noises, enjoy toilet paper shreds throughout the house, and enjoy loving a boy whose future is full of promise!

Christel Louise (Evans) Fleming

Isn't she so beautiful? Allow me to introduce my younger sister, the one who tortured me in high school by trying to wear all of my clothes, and trying to be like me. The one who could pinch us with her toes. The one who always had loads of friends while I stood on the outside of the 'cool crowd'. The one who I am learning to adore! Even though there were so many ways that we were (and are) different, there are so many ways that we truly are alike, apart from the obvious one of being sisters. And, her gentle and quiet spirit that has always drawn people to her, has become an adornment as she has matured into a woman. While I normally let my feelings and emotions pour out of me like a leaky funnel, her tentative spirit has drawn peoples troubled hearts to a place of calm.

It is such a blessing to now have a friend of my sister. A true friend. And her goofiness (it's genetic in our family, so she does have it, it just doesn't show up at first notice like with me!), comes out in beautiful, fun, quirky ways that make the people who love her, love her even more.

And, now, the next time I see my sister, she will have changed a little bit more. Her sweet, funny self with have a baby to direct it all at. That living piece of her that will join our family will cause her attributes to blossom even more. I can't wait. Although I am super bummed I don't get to touch and rub and hum to the tum, I am more excited for this great present that is coming to my sis!

New Link

Just letting you all know about the new link I slaved to put onto my page.... I'm going to campaign for a typepad blog for mother's day. It would save me soooooooo much time that my husband doesn't like me spending 'messing' anyhow. But, anyhow. we'll try putting our pics up this way for you. oops, just lost electricity, gotta go.