Monday, March 29, 2010

Move On to Greater Things..

I had this moment today.

Ian and I were driving over my favorite picture perfect Florida lake.

Palm trees around the shore, slight chop to the water, alligator eyes popping about.

I voiced what I was thinking...

"This is the last time, ever, we'll get to drive over Lake Jessup!"

and then I had a little cry out to God...

"God, I LOVE Florida. I love it, I love it, I love it. Your creation is so beautiful! I don't want to leave here!"

and, lighter than the breeze rippling through the cattails, I heard God saying,

"Yes, but do you love Me more?"

I wanted to be able to answer with a resounding "Yes, Lord!" but my human self came up with only snarky answers.

"Of course."

"Why do you think we're moving to the desert, to live amongst a people that confine and restrict how the women act? To a people who speak a strange language, who have odd customs, and eat weird food?"

And all of a sudden, it was simple again.

I heard the question.

"Yes, but do you love Me?"

It needed no explanation, no justification, no reasoning, no excuses.

It called for an answer.

It called for a response.

Really, it called for action.

And what we do with our lives really is a response to that question, isn't it?

So, tomorrow Ian and I will drive out of our home state one last time {for awhile anyways} and say goodbye to the sunshine, warmth, and love that has been our home for a long time.

Goodbye Sunshine State!

Goodbye Family!

Goodbye Friends!

I'm moving on, to another place, to show God's love, to a different race!


VOW 5

Look at the nations and watch-

and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe,

even if you were told.

Habakkuk 1:5

{one of my heart verses}

Friday, March 26, 2010

In the Sunshine State

We're finally "home,"

even if it is only for four days.

We had a minor disaster of a day today

(but more on that tomorrow, after I've slept on it and can laugh about it.)

We had our favorite mexican place.

I went with my father in law to the wonderful place that is Costco.

We got our trunks almost all packed and ready for the road trip to Nashville/flight to Vancouver.

I'm loving the heat.

I forgot about the humidity.

My hair is officially a 'fro.

Our plans for tomorrow include a walk to a local estate sale, only to browse of course.

My camera is going to be unpacked in 2 minutes so I can take my picture of the day.

I've been loving on my brand new laptop! Downloading iTunes, Picasa, and Firefox.

I think I've just about got all of my music in order.

Next up....pictures!

I hope ya'll are doing wonderful!



Monday, March 22, 2010

VOW 4

Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your Truth,

we wait eagerly for You,

for Your name

and Your renown

are the desires of our souls.

Isaiah 26:8

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A Blip

This might just be a blip of a post...

But I wanted to post SOMETHING...

even if it was really nothing.

Exciting, eh?

We had an {almost} amazing weekend.

With beautiful sunny weather,

conquering 2 of our 4 papers,

house church meeting at a Awesome 100 acre park today,

cultural worship being of the African nature (dancing and all,)

skyped with a good friend of mine,

walked along side of a pasture full of brand new calves,

and ate non cafeteria style food (twice!)

The only un amazing part was my desire to crawl into bed yesterday and not leave it. Stupid, final shot clinic left me weak, achey, and feverish (thank you Hep A or B.)

I got some semi great shots (camera, not medical) this weekend and I can't wait to share them with you!

We only have 2 1/2 days left of class/scheduled time, and only 3 days until we hit the road for the great road trip of 2010! I'm sad to say goodbye to our new friends, but I can't wait to see family and get packed for the big move to Canada! And yes, Canada is our last blip of training. It's really not as training oriented as Virginia was, more like application in a secure environment, if that makes sense!

So, if you don't hear from me for a day or two, keep us in your prayers! We'll be packing, cleaning, moving, packing, laundry, moving, being at my sister's wedding (the 3rd of April!) and packing and flying out to Vancouver! We'll have steady internet in the BC though, so I'll get back to it then!

Friday, March 19, 2010

An Exchange

Husband: Humming contentedly

Me: Oh, watcha singing honey? "for thine is the power?"

Husband: No, the Soviet national anthem.

Me: Oh.

Naturally

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

New Fangled

Ian and I were just sitting in the computer lab of our training center when a tour group walked by.

{A tour group of mostly twenty 70+ year olds, mind you}

The tour guide paused to explain what was in this room, explaining that us younger people tended to take laptops with us when we headed to the field.

This started an impromptu discussion of technology but one voice rang out to us inside the room

{who were all typing away}

Old Man- "My son just told me that my VCR is outdated! I guess I'll have to get a new one."

{crickets}

REALLY?!?

I'm all for letting older generations hang on to their ways, but shouldn't you at least know that there are new ways? As in, be aware?

Didn't the whole DVD revolution happen over 10 years ago?

Do they even sell VHS?

It made us all crack up inside the room at the humor of the situation.

{and it made me want to go up to them, loveingly pat them on the head and say, "don't worry, it will all be alright!}

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Week 10- Project 365

Oi.
I'm really behind on posting pictures. So here is March 1-March 7.

I really AM taking a picture every day, just this darn lack of internet is making it a little more difficult to post them!


Impromptu $4 centerpiece for one of the tables at the wedding shower I was planning for my sister!

More wedding shower decorations. I bought a kit to make these tissue paper balls, and then tried to replicate them with regular tissue paper. Didn't work out like I'd hope. But this pink one was pretty!

I bought the BEST game prizes ever. All from the lovely Crate&Barrel. There is a cutting board with a dish towel, a giant "Breakfast" cup and saucer with a variety of tea bags, and a cute green mug with a honey bee stick and a tin of blood orange tea!

Once I bought my dress for the Bridal shower, I realized I had gotten rid of all of my dress sandals in preparation for the move. T@rget fixed that pretty quickly though!

Red Velvet cake balls were one of the desserts on the menu for the shower. They turned out a little wonky because the chocolate wasn't very good quality. They were a big hit though!

*Sigh* I'm really happy with the general feel of the shower. I went for a pretty unique feel. More on that later. Here were our Georgetown cupcakes and homemade cake balls all on display.

Our next training {April-July} takes place in Canada. Alot of us aren't super pleased about having this road block in our travels {albeit a pretty cool road block} so I think the directors of the training are trying to bribe us into complacency. They sent these Kit-Kat esque candy bars called Coffee Crisp, which turned out to be pretty good. A little dry, but I think that's because they are supposed to be dipped into coffee.

Hence the name.

Monday, March 15, 2010

RStone and other such things

I just spent 5 hours in the library.

FIVE!

{cue angelic chorus}

One of our presenters couldn't make it so our afternoon class was cancelled. I brought our one and only laptop up to the library and set up shop for the afternoon.

First up on the agenda, we ordered my new laptop!

YAY!

It's been 2 very long months and let me tell you, nothing can try your marriage like the way your husband may/may not arrange his favorites on the menu bar.

seriously.

Plus, the Windows Start bar on Ian's computer moves up and down, which drives me absolutely NUTS.

So, in just two short weeks, when we are back in Florida, I will have my own beautiful, lightweight laptop with MY specifications and preferences!

It's the little things, folks.

Also, I just got word from the librarian here that my license for using the Rosetta Stone program has been extended for our entire time in Canada!

YAY!

AND, she checked out to me the RS audio companion, so I can put it on our iPod and Arabic it up on the plane!

I {heart} librarians.

They know where all of the good books are.

So, it took me about 2 hours to load all of the discs into iTunes and another hour or so to load 7 pictures onto blogger.

On a completely different note, my hair is NOT enjoying this rainy weather up here in Virginia. Either that, or I need to switch shampoos. I love my shampoo {smell} so I'm going to choose to believe it's the rainy weather causing the explosion of frizz.

{change of topic. Again}

I have my last class tonight for our seminary class! Big sigh of relief. I don't mind the extra work (and I still have more to do this week, because our three papers aren't due until next Wednesday,) but the class time just about slays me after sitting in seminars and workshops for 8 hours straight.

{and again, new topic}

Tonight, after class ends at 8, I plan on curling up in bed with my crocheting and watching an episode of the last season of 24. Or two. Probably not three because that would be way too late. And then I will Sleep well. Because this is the last full week of training and we are not panicking at all about having to pack everything back up again.

Oh, no. No panic here.

VOW 3

Peace I leave with you;

My peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

-John 14:27

This one is really rockin' my world this week!

What verse of peace is a comfort to you?

Saturday, March 13, 2010

I Heart Faces (and Desserts)



Nothing hits the spot quite like my momma's Molasses Cookies.

She sent me a box of these right after our (second to) last move to Virginia. (We live in Vancouver now.)

I'm posting this picture as an entry for iheartfaces.com, a photo tutorial site!


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Just In Case

In case you were wondering.....


We only have 2 weeks left here in Virginia!


There is less than 1 month until my sister's wedding!


There is EXACTLY one month until we move to Vancouver!


I am extremely sick of cafeteria food...like, I may be skipping real meals and just eating cereal in my apartment.


Blood Orange Tea may sound disgusting, but it smells and tastes like a warm Florida summer day.


We MAY have figured out how and where to spend our first Stateside Assignment (in 2013...we're longterm planners.)


It's finally warm here. At least for today anyways.


I bought my first pair of peep toed shoes and they are adorable!


And finally, only 2 weeks left until I have real internet again and I can attempt to get caught up on blog world! I've said it once, but I'll say it again, I miss ya'll!


Friday, March 5, 2010

Week 9- Project 365


And, I got to take people pictures! I'm finally feeling a little more at liberty to take pictures of certain people and post them! I wouldn't do that with everyone, but these families have okayed it!












Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Finished!

We just finished our rather intense security training.

I can't say much because then we wouldn't be...you know...secure.

Ha!

But I survived, and only cried like a baby twice.

Thanks for all of the prayers!