Tuesday, February 28, 2006

No Words- or at least- Way Too Many

Why is it that the greatest things in life often defy description? If I tried to describe the weekend I have had, it would take too many words, and when I was finished, I'd look and say, "Nope. Doesn't quite cut it." I could describe a moment, could find a phrase that embodies my feelings about the weekend. It still wouldn't do the thing justice. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love words. I love reading about people's experiences (not their philosophy, or theology, mind you, but their real truly live experiences) and I love this outlet for describing my own. But for this particular one, I'm not sure I have the words, much less the energy. We are all so tired, but so happy.

Some women from Vancouver, WA came to visit the church here. We were so excited about their coming, so ready to meet those who we would KNOW. They arrived, and the time was spent the first day or so mostly meeting together, singing (alot!), eating, sharing our stories and our lives. Really, it was recognizing each other. The familiar aspects of our Lord in them dawning in us, and as the weekend progressed, the sense of belonging became stronger.

But so much more than the relationship between us, was the relationship with the Lord. He was the ONLY reason for our coming together, the only thing that mattered.


This group of sisters is absolutely beautiful. Their desire for the Lord is so strong, so penetrating, that they are willing to drop old habits and cling to Him. They are willing to risk looking foolish, and sacrifice comfort to do so. These are women of the highest order. I can't express how grateful I am to have them in my heart, and to be on this journey together.

"You are the daughter of my Father, and that makes you my sister, and together we share a life that shows everyone His glory. We live for nothing of our own, no matter what it feels like, for what can this world offer to us, and we know exactly who we are."

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

What Emma Said

"Um, Donna? Do you sink it's fair dat two people are swapbookin and only one of dem has gwoo?"

As only our Emma would put it. Or Neena. All you off spring of the Shumaker-Berndt conglomerate, you tell me that this is not a very Neena thing to say. She was, after all, the woman who in her ripe old age, leaned over to her young grandaughter at the table and said, "Do you like these beans, Sarah?"

The proverbial chip, as it were.

We went to eat in the mall today, and somehow there was a little sparrow flitting around the food court, eating french fries to his birdie heart's delight. Emma looked at that bird, thought for a minute, gave a little chuckle and said "I sink dat bird is pwobably here to do some sopping."

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Mijo's

Hi Ho! Another weekend coming to a close here, at least for me. The husband and son are off tommorrow. We've had a good weekend. Alot of downtime on Friday and Saturday morning, which I consider glorious. Did a bit of scrapping, not alot, and am trying to keep up with the house so that I feel like it's staying clean! Friday night we took the kids to Curious George, which we all loved. Bill and I joked about going at "naptime" (for us) but then we chuckled all the way through it. The kids really enjoyed it. Very sweet, clever and funny. Thumbs up.

Yesterday some friends came to stay the night and visit the church, so that was fun- Charles and Kathryn brought the kids, and the five of them got along really well- no fighting, and much sadness when the parting came today. Stayed up late, and introduced Kathryn to Strong Bad. Charles defragmented my compy, and I am SO happy with the speed at which I am able to check all my usual haunts! It was getting so s-l-o-w!!! Thanks Charles!!!

We went out with the gang to Mijo's this morning, instead of our usual haunt Rise-n-Shine (or Levitate-n-Radiate as my dad and I call it.) It was snowing/sleeting/spitting cold particles from the sky this morning so we were all bundled and cozy and making tons of noise in the restaurant, which is always fun on a Sunday morning.


Here's Mom and Jessi looking utterly adorable.


Bo and Ryan in a staring contest. That was a short lived competition. It is hard to giggle without blinking.
Memma. Lucky shot. She distains the camera at present.
Darling Donna and Jared. This picture makes me so happy. Maybe because Jared just finished saying "Allo, Gorgeous!" to his momma.
The group shot. Or the half-the-group shot.

New Blogger Alert!!!! Scott has joined the blogging world. I do enjoy Scott. Share some blogging love with the new guy!! My sis has also started a new blog, a nice little fiesta of an opener there!!!

Busy and exciting week coming up! 6 sisters coming to stay from Vancouver, and Gene coming in!!!!

I will keep you updated....somewhat occupied with things at present...working on editing a nurse story to post at some point....trying to make it interesting!!!

Peace out.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Coffee

I always use my shiny red teapot to boil the water for my morning coffee.
Not because it tastes better,
or because I don’t like the wretched beeping of the microwave (though I don’t)
but because it is such a nice shiny red teapot.
I linger a second choosing which cup to drink out of.
Usually I choose the clear green glass mug Mom bought me in Langley.
It was the last

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease” item of my teenage years.
The teapot was a gift for my 29th birthday.
My coffee brews and I get on with the day,
and the half empty cup sits on the counter,
cooling,

cooling,
until at last I’m getting dinner ready
and it is tossed into the dishwasher until the next morning.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

He Came Through.

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful suggestions for what I wanted for valentines day.
You were all correct.

Bill did something that was not listed, but was A+ #1 in my book.
I worked and came home to a CLEAN HOUSE.
No, your eyes do not decieve you.
I said CLEAN HOUSE.
He hired someone to clean the house.
Now I am neurotically sweeping up valentine cupcake crumbs.

But sweeping them off a CLEAN FLOOR.
I know, wow.


In other faboo news this week- I got an email from
Leaving Memories Rubber Stamps asking me to be on the design team!!! I was, and still am, amazed. No. I really am. You should see some of the talent that's on this team----including the gifted KLaLa ! I am excited about the motivation to take my scrapping up a notch- always excited about that.

Here are some Happy Valentines Day shots!


The card I made for Mom and Dad out of the junk mail AOL box:




And some cutie-pie sweet cupp'ncakes shots.

Happy Valentine's day!!!!!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Comfort With God

Kim is in her fourth round of chemo, and just had her mastectomy. She displays a quiet joy. Thank you Lord, for Kim. We decided we would pray for her before her chemo, and she was sitting on the floor in my living room, and we all crowded around her, talking, laughing, joking, speaking to the Lord, speaking to each other. So natural. Bill took a picture.



A privilege indeed.

And thank you, Erin, for being a total inspiration on this layout! It was so much fun!


Friday, February 10, 2006

Ahhhhhh Friday.

Is there anything better than a Friday at home
when it is cold and rainy,
and you don't have to clean,
and there are new scrap supplies on your desk,
and your life has a sense of Purpose?

Not much.

Throw some candy into the mix, and plans for dinner with Mom and Dad at Mijo's and it's positively incandescent.

incandescent

Kiera Knightly used that word at the American ending of Pride and Prejudice, and it didn't sit very well with me. "Incandescently happy." It was almost as if the screenwriters thought they were being true to Jane Austen, but all they knew about her was that she used big adjectives. Which she does, of course, but she didn't sit down to write a book thinking, "Perhaps I shall invest in a collection of descriptive modifiers that will enhance my readers' linguistic capabilites, but shall in addition tell a narrative epic of the marital desires and common tribulations of young womanhood."

OK, so I can't say that I KNOW she didn't sit down thinking that, but I get a sense that our Janey was thinking story, not words.

Yeah, it's a rabbit trail. Add that to the list of good things about Fridays. The wandering imagination. So I'm gonna stick with incandescent, and if those screenwriters ever make a movie about this blog they can use that word. I will permit it.

I told Emma she didn't have to have "room time" if she cleaned her room. She trotted off quite happily- obviously thinking that she had gotten a great bargain. She's been in there for over an hour. Her room is now clean. She is delighted with the fact that she doesn't have to stay in her room for "room time." She is on the computer now, and very pleased with herself. I love being a grown up.

Bill has updated his blog, for all of you who enjoyed perusing the GUSB.

Bo also has updated his blog, and this time he did the thinking AND the typing himself! This wee entry made me giggle and sob a little at the same time. It's written just as he speaks.

There is a cyber crop this weekend! Stop by and play! There will be prizes! I made this layout for one of the challenges I'm hosting, so all you gttlc-ers, you get a head start. The challenge will be to scrap something of your daily life. Just don't post the layout before I post the challenge, and all will be well.
And WHY oh WHY did no one tell me about this line of paper? It is just right.
It's by We R Memory Keepers. Yes. I should say so.

Onward into a gloriously cold, wet, uneventful weekend! The last one of it's kind for a while. We are gonna be BUSY around here!!!!

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Books. And a question.

Here are some things about books.

They are good.

They smell good.

They are good for reading.

They look good on shelves.

Books are good goodness.


Here are some books I like right now.































I finished this whole series. Now I miss it.



I got this one for my birthday- by Em and Steph, and it is so inspiring!!!!!




















So I'm married to a comic book fan. It's all good. Call us what you will, but this book is amazing. It will forever change the way you see not only comics, but art of any kind, and I sincerely think it is a must read for scrapbookers- in a sense scrapbooking is a form of sequential art. It is absolutely brilliant. Bogglingly so.





















And finally, one of Bill's more consuming projects....
Seriously, this is worth looking at.

So to end with a question that's been presented to me this week.
"What do you want for Valentine's Day?"

Any help?
What do I want for V day?
And think BUDGET.
XO

Thursday, February 02, 2006

ARTiot Savant

I was oh so smooth sailing around Azel Art yesterday, looking for mounting supplies for my new purple onion stamps which are supah cool. I was also looking for beeswax, but unfortunately, they had just sold the one dish of it that the seemlingly chronically hungover sales- oh heck. Let's call him a "sales artist." Anyway, this dude said the beeswax had been sitting on the shelf since the 70's. Big week for beeswax, apparently.

I wandered through the clearance section (shelf) to dig (literally) through the items. Found a delicious assortment of wax crayons in off colors and remembered seeing some really cool things on her blog and I remembered she mentioned "crayons" of some sort, so these, being on clearance, are OF COURSE the sort! Hooray! I pick up a nice grey white, a deep pink, and a limey green, and carry them bouyantly to the counter.

Now the aformentioned sales artist who is checking out, not one, not two, but THREE people at the same time, says in his groovy kind of voice, "Oh man, these are really fun." " Yeah..." I say, hoping that I will have the opportunity here to NOT look like the complete haus frau that I am in my stained (with coffee not paint) pink hoodie, ponytail, complete lack of unusual piercings and tatoos, and little girl with pink bow in tow, "I've seen these used on some really cool things."

"Yeah"

says the clerk.

"like SKIN."






































I react. (see above)
I then try to play it cool, and look at Emma, as if this was all HER idea.
But inside I'm going

















IDIOT!!!!!!

So what lesson did we learn here today kids? Face painting isn't just for children anymore. It takes a real arteest to come up with such a clever use for these puppies. And lesson two? There is nothing you can do that is so idiotic that it is not worth blogging about!!!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

DESIGN TEAM OPPORTUNITY!!!!!!

Hey Everyone!!!!

There are two slots open for new DT members for www.goodtothelastcrop.com !!!!

You WANT to try for it, and I'll tell you why.

This is a super cool site.
The owner, Shawn and the DT coordinator Jenn are fun, hilarious and generous!
The site is still small, but growing rapidly, so the forums are personal and heaps 'o fun!!
The kits you get monthly are wonderful----chock full of goodness!!!

Also, Shawn is having a game right now--- if you refer someone to the site (and they mention your name) both you and your refer-ee win a prize after 25 posts! (find it in the challenge forum)

So go to "chat" on the main page, and join the fun! The DT requirements are listed in the Announcements forum!!! Hope to see you there!!!!