Summer Wonderings

Boom- ba boom- ba boom... 
My puppy gallops across the yard, with fluffy, bouncing ears and a tongue flapping wildly out his smiling face. He pushes his big head through a rope diamond in my hammock. He could just go over the edge, but he insists on pushing through a hole. 
A quick "kiss" on my nose. "Hey Mom! Watch me!", I feel like he's telling me. 
And he bounds off to grab a stick, prancing around with his trophy held high. 
I read my book until the light grows too dim to see the words, then I look up, and realize I've really been missing it. Up above, the branches of the two trees who graciously hold my hammock up meet far overhead. Hearing a light, trilling song I search the mess of leaves until I spot its singer- a red cardinal. It lets me listen for a few more measures before darting off into the dusk. 
Lightening bugs start to twinkle and one almost lands on Piper's nose. He snaps at it, cross-eyed, pretending he knew it was there all along. 
Inspired by the serenity my mind starts to wander around the globe. The world isn't so big- I think. I have a dear friend who at this moment is asleep in his bed in Herne Bay, England. I can picture his back garden that he probably sat in before bed tonight, just like I"m doing. I know missionary families in a dozen countries. There are kids in Czech Republic that I've held and laughed with. I know students studying in Asia, serving God in Africa, traveling in France. Yeah- the world isn't so big- just think.. I"m just "me" and I can list 30 people I know all over its surface. 
My mind went further.
 And besides the ones I know personally- there's the people that have affected people I know. A best friend of mine lived for two years in Southeast Asia. That older couple that gave her a home? The man she bought bread from each week? The children she played with and the young girl she befriended? I'm somehow connected to them, though we've never met. 
And another close friend- he's Brazilian. His parents and grandparents and childhood friends and teachers in Brazil I've never met, yet I'm more "acquainted" with them than thousands of other Brazilians. 

Blue to pink to streaks of deepening purple. 
The sky melts into a masterpiece painting. 
And just as I had started to convince myself of my theory that the world isn't quite so big, I realize just how far off I am. 

That sunset- how is it even made? Do you know? I'm sure you can explain to me how the colors and air and light happen- but really, can you reproduce it? The lightening bug- that one, right there- how many times did it flutter its wings today? Was it in the child's jar across the street and it's tiny heart just stop racing from its near-death experience?
The trees and birds and air and people with their dogs in Louisville, Kentucky- I can try to convince myself that this world isn't so mind-blowing- but it really is just that. 
God
He spoke that sunset. He spoke it to happen and it did. 
He knows the life span of every lightening bug, not just in my yard tonight but the ones that I chased and caught when I was six the summer of 1992. 
He isn't just familiar with stories of a bakery owner in Asia- He put the love of baking into the man. 
He knows the number of hairs on my dog, and the thousands more that have already fallen on my couch and carpet! 
The cardinal glorified Him in singing that song tonight, for that was exactly what that bird was made to do. 
Piper, it being so distinctly dog-like, in digging holes, galloping after cats, laughing and panting, chasing sticks, is praising his Maker. 
Yeah- the world is big- really, really big. But I praise my Maker that He knows- no, more than knows. He spoke into being and loves and is sovereign over every beautiful bit of this earth. 
Tonight, don't miss the sky's light display. Lay down your book and just watch. And praise the Author for writing you into the world tonight.

Blog Failure?

January 21 to July 16. 

Half a year. 

I didn't get on here to write about the big things.... buying a house, moving to a new country, having a baby, leading lots of people to the Lord.... 

Oh wait- those things didn't happen! Maybe that's why I didn't get on here to write. 

From January until July- 

I went to work every day- interpreted elementary school for two precious students. I jumped rope with little girls, praised artwork, had Gospel conversations with two first graders time and time again, got to know co workers, co-wrote and co-directed a play/musical, taught hearing kids how to better communicate and understand deaf culture.... 

nope- nothing big enough to blog about there. 

Cody and I lived six more months of marriage- praising the Lord for growing us in praying together, and also going through more weeks and months of struggling to pray and study the Word together. We went for walks, wrestled with our Piper, planted a square foot garden, laughed a lot, cooked meals, worshiped with our Immanuel family, read books.... We spent countless hours with our best-friend-couple... eating meals, playing games, watching movies, doing life. 

I got licensed to teach Zumba! 

I learned how to do bookbinding and have made four handmade journals from scratch. 

I took my National Interpreters Certification Performance exam in March- STILL going crazy as I wait awaiting results patiently.... 

Over the past six months we went to concerts performed by friends, watched friends graduate college, visited with friends from Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Grenada, Indiana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and more I'm sure, celebrated family's birthdays, welcomed home church families who adopted kids, praised the Lord with joy over pregnancies of friends, labored in prayer for the salvation of family members....

I traveled to North Carolina to visit my sister and have a mini road trip with Celia. 

Cody and I traveled with Celia and Felix to New York City and spent a wonderful week walking, seeing, eating, and walking some more, soaking in as much of the city as we could hold.

All in all- six months of little things, of day in and day out things. Month after month of things that I don't feel like I should blog about- that no one really cares about. 

But this is life. These little things DO add up- 

A Gospel conversation with a neighbor is important- because God's Word accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it. 

A game night with friends is a memory I'll always have and cherish. 

Laying the hammock with my husband after work is now part of who I am...

And so- yeah, nothing "big enough to blog about" happened the past six months- but thousands of little moments did indeed happen, and each one plays a part in who I am now; in what my life is, was, and will be. 

Sorry I didn't blog about any of it- but then, isn't that the kind of life I want to live? The kind that is so full of little, day in and day out goodness that I can't put my finger on any one topic to blog about- but instead just go on living in the joy of it all? I'll take that :)

"Brown paper packages tied up with string..."

List making, reflecting, goal setting, journaling, and letters.

These are just some of my favorite things.

And this is a bit of what I've been up to the past few weeks.

At Christmas, I got a gift in a really pretty blue and brown box- the box was almost just as lovely as the gift. I brought it home and tried to think what good purpose I could use the box for. Well- at the same time, I was doing some cleaning of piles in closets that never gets dealt with. I came across multiple shoe boxes of cards and letters- from birthdays, Christmases, dozens of notes from my mom, letters from my grandmas when I went off to college, and special encouraging notes from dear friends. What to do with them all?
Ah hah! The beautiful blue and brown box!





I got some cream and brown cotton crochet thread from the craft room and started the glorious task of re-reading all these notes and cards and bundling them into stacks, with cute little tags tied on to label them. Oh, it was so fun! It made me realize the importance my words can have- if the sweet words of a girl from youth group sent to me in a card when I first moved away from home to college STILL bring a smile to my face 7 years later, I really should be more intentional with writing encouragement to others.



I also got a nice little spiral bound journal in my stocking at Christmas. Now, I have journals and notebooks going for everything: Prayer list notebook, prayers written out journal, regular life journal, various trip and travel journals, marriage notes and ideas journal, church serman notebook, interpreting experiences journal, Christmas gift ideas notebook, and a plain old notebook just to make lists in. So, what should this one be for?


Ah hah! A new idea! I need a "books I have read" book!
I started making a list of all the books I read as I finished them about a year and a half ago (in my normal list-making notebook, of course). So I copied that list into this new book, and then started 2012 with a page devoted to each book as I finish it. I put the title and author, give it my own star rating (from 1 star "didn't hold my interest at all" to 4 stars "I'll give it away as gifts and probably read it again in my lifetime") and write a one page review of it. So far, I've finished 4 books in 3 weeks and have had a ball writing about them!



Lastly, Cody and I have been busy working on our Year End Review and Goal Setting. We still aren't done with it- it takes a while, but it is fun and has been a blessing. I came up with 11 categories - anything from Life Highlights, Finances, Challenges, Mission, to Hobbies/Fun, and Time Management and more- and together we reflect on the past year in that category and make goals for the new year. I love the thought of having these written out for each year of our marriage to be able to look back on in 50 years and see what goals we set in 2012 and what our greatest struggle was in 2026 and what life highlights stood out in 2034.

2011- A Multitude of God's Blessings

I know its already almost a month into the New Year- but I just wanted to publicly praise the Lord for His grace in our lives in 2011. Some things, like death, aren't necessarily things I'd label as "thankful for" but they display His grace and mercy in our lives.
(the following is a condensed list that Cody and I came up with in our Year End Reflection)

• Cody passed Greek with an A! and did just as well in all other classes (He says God's grace was most displayed in that Greek grade though!)
  
• The Lord provided Ashley with a new job- a HUGE blessing in so many ways!
  
• Cody's Great Grandma goes to be with the Lord- March 27, 2011
• Our dear friends, the Viola's, were blessed with their first son- our first "nephew".
  
• We were able to travel to London, England for a week- a wonderful trip, and the blessing of Cody and David getting to meet!
• Celebrated our 2 year anniversary! Praise Him!
  
• Traveled to Wisconsin to visit Cody's family, Asheville to visit Bethany, Indianapolis with friends, to Illinois several times, to Cincinnati--- love being able to spend time with people we love!
  
• the Lord protected Ashley when hitting a deer, and also provided the money to buy a good used car.
  
• We got to celebrate with my dear one- Alyssa, on her and Josh's wedding day!
  
• The Lord grew us through His Word, blessing us through the preaching of it at IBC, and the study of it in our home- Praise Him!
  
• We were able to visit Kathleen in Colorado- SUCH an answered prayer!
  
• He was so good to us to give us new friendship with the Borges- Thankful for countless hours of encouragement and laughs with them already.
  
• His goodness gave opportunities to share the Gospel in 2011- yearning for more in 2012!
  

And the list could go on and on- (our own personal list does, in fact!)

2011 was a wonderful year for us- we can't wait to see what 2012 brings from the hand of the Lord, for His glory!

Christmas and New Years

Happy New Year, All!! I hope everyone had a blessed and safe Christmas and New Year's Day. Here are a few pics from our festivities.


This was the dinner I made for Cody and I on "our" Christmas Eve which was really Dec 23. See the beautiful flowers in the background? They were sent from David, my "granddad" in England.

I LOVE this pic. This is at our home church on Christmas Eve. This is a pic that I forced to make happen :) of "youth" from our past at church. Its sort of an eclectic group because there are some friends older than Cody and I who were sort of on their way out when I joined youth. And then there are some friends here that are 4, 5, all the way up to like 8 years younger than us. And, this includes a wife and baby, grafted in to our "youth group" conglomeration. Gosh, when I look at this and see some of these girls all grown up- the ones that my friends and I thought of as "The Middle School Girls" when we were seniors- and now they are almost done with college- where did time go?!

Me, Mom, Grandma Pat, and Bethany before our meal. Mom made a wonderful Christmas dinner! It's usually at Grandma Pat's house but this year was different.

Piper guarding his stocking stuffers- between my parents, sister and Cody's grandparents, we won't have to buy him treats for like a year.

Attempting a photo with the Piper and Grandma Vi. They like each other a lot. :)

We got Piper a bed for Christmas. Its really an enormous, furry pillow. But I'm glad he loves it. This was after we came back into town, the next morning. He slept till 1 in the afternoon. I guess that bed must be something!


Sadly, this is really a very poor representation of our New Year's Eve but its all I got. All in all, we had sushi for the first time at a real Japanese Sushi bar (YUM!), then went to see Mission Impossible, then came to this- cheese and chocolate fondue (separately)! and games and fun until the wee hours with these people:

A little blurry, I know- but best we could do with that hold-your-arm-out-and-try-to-get-all-4-people-in sort of shot. Happy 2012!!!

Homemade Gifts

Just a short post to show you the things I made for Christmas this year.
If you don't know, I am big on homemade gifts. To me, giving a homemade gift shows my love for someone way more than a store bought gift, no matter the value. I just can't usually find a store bought gift that means the same.
I have given handmade gifts since I can remember- like age 3 or 4 probably. Now, my handmade gifts were pretty crummy up until, probably, high school or so. But now, I think I have definatly improved :) I also have unfortunately had to stop giving handmade gifts to about 7 family members ans 4 or 5 friends a year and narrow it down to just 2 or 3 people a year. Life is too busy right now to make much more. But, nonetheless, here's what I've done so far.


A simple, quick scarf for Cody's little sister, Echo. She is 8 now- and I thought a fluffy, soft, pink and purple scarf would be perfect. Made this one up in one night while watching a TV show on the laptop with Cody.

Thick and chunky, perfect for a cold Wisconsin winter. For Cody's Mom, Kristi. Vertical stripes in an irregular pattern.


One of my most beautiful crocheted creations to date! A scallop-y, lacy scarf for my beautiful friend, Celia. It was a fun, new pattern for me to figure out, started with a chain which ends up being in the middle, then you work down one side, building the scallops until you flip it and build the other side. Let me know if you want the pattern- it was easy to follow and quick to work up for being so complicated looking. I modified the pattern just a bit to make it longer and wider.

Doesn't she look like a perfect little doll? That is Evera, Celia's niece. In the car on the way to IKEA I decided to try to make a hat for her with some scrap yarn I had. It turned out a bit big, but she'll grow into it. Wish you could see the flower close up- its really nice!


Map Coasters- for Celia and Felix. I have never tried anything like this before, but thanks to Pintrest, I found this fun idea! Just use ceramic tiles from Home Depot, make color copies of maps from atlases checked out from the library, Modge Podge them on, and glue cork to the bottom. The 6 maps I used were of where Celia grew up, map of the college area they met at, where Felix grew up in Brazil, where they got married at, their first home/jobs, and their current home/jobs. The coasters turned out really nice- definatly will be making more of those!


Well- that's it for now. I have 2 days so I'm hoping some more homemade gifts will be happening!

December Life Summary

Ok- for the three friends out there that have now stopped checking this blog because I haven't written in a month, sorry! I've been busy doing life! But now I want to cram my last month of life into a blog post with potentially a lot of pictures. So here goes!

November 30- celebrated my 25th birthday! Can't believe I'm 25-holy moly! I was blessed with an awesome day- I got about 30 handmade cards from kids at school with really sweet things written in them, and some beautiful, heartfelt cards from close friends. Sweet husband got me really nice silver earrings, and a few friends came over for brownies and ice cream. What a great day!

Lovely ladies came to celebrate the big two-five. Husbands there too- sorry guys, didn't take a picture of you!

Dec 2- Light Up LaGrange-the choir kids that I help Celia with performed at this outdoor small-town Christmas festival. It was good times- they did great! I wish I could put a pic up of that, but I can't. I walked around with Celia's family who were in town for the occasion, and completed the night with homemade soup and hours of games, that may or may not have included one called "murder in the dark" until 2 am :)

Dec 4- My mom came into town for my 2nd annual Christmas Tea! It was super fun! This year I tried making scones and clotted cream- not as good as England but not bad. It was a blessed time with some of the very best friends a girl could ever ask for. Our time together went by too fast but we sang a few songs and were even treated with a drop in celloist :) The few who stuck around till the end even got to visit with none other than our lovely Emily Vacek!

Oh my, seriously, LOVE these girls! So glad mom got to be here to celebrate too!

Dec 5- Mom came to zumba with me!

Dec 6- our choir kids do 2 performances- one during the day time for the school and one a night for parents. Mom and Cody come to watch. The kids did great! I have really cute pictures of them signing a song (tear-jerker!) and playing recorders and xylophones, but can't post them to the blog, bummer. Whew- glad that is over though- a big weight lifted off my shoulders now that the performaces are done!

Dec 7- Go to a beautiful orchestra and choir concert to hear Felix play cello for a church. They sounded amazing. It really helped get me in the Christmas spirit! Finished up the evening with BoomBozz, my first taste ever! It was delish pizza!

Dec 8- Zappos! Found cute boots on a great sale! yippee!

Dec 13- Christmas party afterschool for teachers and staff. Fun white elephant gift exchange.

Dec 15- Violas in town for a short visit- I get to catch up on life briefly with Jessi and Tim and hold my precious "nephew"!

Dec 16- LAST DAY OF SCHOOL praise the Lord! A fun but exhausting day with an assembly in the gym (by candelight), and Christmas parties in the afternoon.

Dec 17-18 ROAD TRIP with the Borgeses! Short little trip to Indy. We stayed in the Union Station Crowne Plaza Hotel which we got on Priceline for a great price. It was a fun hotel with old trains in it- though we were lame and didn't take any pictures on the trains. We went to the Indianapolis Children's choir concert- don't diss, they are really good. We celebrated Celia's bday by playing Nertz into the night. Fun Fun!!

For lunch on the way there we stopped in Columbus, IN (violas were out of town :( ) and ate at a cute little ice cream parlor.

Look closely at her food- I had a 2 and a 7 candles stowed in my purse the whole weekend to be used on her B-day. Yayee for blowing out candles on a sandwich, hehehe!

Dec 19- Christmas shopping- 13 stores in one day!

Dec 20- Dinner and visiting with Sarah H!

Dec 21- Buy a new car- traded in my first car. celebrate new car with Pie and Ice Cream Kitchen Date. Give Piper bath- consequently, mop bathroom. Stay up till 1 am working on homemade Christmas gifts (see following post)

Goodbye, Sunfire! You have been so good to me!

Dec 22- Spend the day with the Borgeses in Cinci- IKEA and Jungle Jims (Never been there? You should go!). Dinner at her parents', played games, laughed really hard. They got us a game for Christmas called Quelf- its pretty hilarious!

Husbands laughing hard during Quelf. Watch out with this game, you may end up doing pretty embarrassing things!


OK - whew- so you probably didn't care a lick about all that. And in between it all, fill in cooking, groceries, cleaning, working every day, Cody's final exams (all A's!), reading the Word, going to church, doing life and marriage, zumba, and more.

My December has been immensely blessed. And celebrating our Savior's birth is still yet to come!!