Day 29: Hopes, Dreams and Plans you have for the next 365 days

So, dear readers! As you can tell, this post is the second to last of my thirty day challenge that I started in January. Oops.. I apparently can't stick with something like this y'all. My apologies but I had so many other topics the Lord laid on my heart to share between this challenge. But on to Day 29! 

Hopes, Dreams, and Plans I have for the next 365 days . . . I don't know what this next year brings for me but I do know who holds it. My life is in the hands of the Almighty, and ultimately, He will have His way with my life and what I do. :) It's great to know that He will have His way with me. It takes so much pressure of my shoulders. Just think how much less stress you would have if you didn't have the worry of what your future holds. We only need to place our lives in His hands and trust Him with it!  ^"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) That verse makes me happy and motivates me to live for Christ even more! . . .

My Hopes, dreams, and plans for this next year? . . .I am hoping to impact

more people's lives with the love of Christ. "In the same way, let your light 

shine before others, so that they may see your good works and 

give glory to your Father who is in heaven"  (Matthew 5:16). . .  I want, when 

people look at me, to see Christ and want to glorify Him as well. I fail sometimes like every human out there, but knowing when to pick yourself up and ask God to forgive and 

to help me be more like Him..Our heavenly Father is so good and forgiving. So 

full of love and grace. I know for a fact that as I seek Him more, He will mold me more 

into what I long to be, a servant for Him to glorify His great name to the fullest!  

My Dreams ( or as I like to call them my desires/aspirations ) are definitely held

by my Jesus in His hands and will present them to me when the right time 

comes. "Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your

heart. (Psalm37:4). . . When we take pleasure in glorifying and delighting ourselves 

in Christ, He takes pleasure in granting us the things we desire most for. 

He wants to see us happy. So to that, I know that my desires will be given to me when 

God knows I'm ready for them! No sooner, no later. :D 

My Plans. . .boy do I have plans. haha..For one, I plan on memorizing more scripture. 

In the past it seemed harder for some reason. I thought to  Myself, "Why is it so

 easy to memorize lyrics to my favourite songs and quotes yet harder to memorize

 scripture?" When I would think of memorizing scripture, I  thought to myself "Where 

do I even begin?". . .but recently I have had the chance to have someone challenge me 

to want to learn scripture more and more and make it easier by showing me to just take it once verse at a time and grow with Christ as I learn each verse. Not getting

 overwhelmed but to feel the impact of each verse that I learn. I am so thankful to have that

person challenging my faith and by that, growing closer with my Jesus!!

Anything I hope for, dream, and plan on doing will all be looked over by my Jesus. He has been so good to me, blessing me in so many ways. . . I am inexpressibly grateful! I know my Jesus has great plans for each of you and me! We just need to make sure the life we are living, is living for Him and Him alone! And we need to live for Christ in the moment and not worry about what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future. Not worrying. We know what God says about that -> " Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34). . . Let's live in this moment, not neglecting to tell the people around us how much they mean to us, because we are not promised tomorrow. Try not to leave quarrels or falling outs left  un-mended. (“In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,) -Ephesians 4:26. . .We should try our hardest to live in peace " If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. " (Romans 12:18-19). . . So what I'm trying to get out of all this is, We know what the Lord wants from us (Christians)..We need to try to live in the most Godliest ways giving Him all the glory and trusting Him with our futures. He has each of our lives in the palm of His hands and wont let us go. 

That pretty much sums up my hopes, dreams, and plans for this next year. There's more I didn't mention..but If I did, this post would never end. ;D I hope everyone is well and having a wonderful Christmas holiday 

Day 28: A scar you have and it's story

I am determined to get this 30 day challenge finished. ;) I don't think I have ever seen someone let a 30 day challenge last longer than 8 months,  but I have, and I apologize. . . 

I found todays challenge to be a little tricky because I have plenty scars on this earthly body of mine. :( from cuts and burns to chicken pox scars and all of those every day sort of accident scars. I think of it like, "hey, there's a story that goes with each scar we have. Good or bad" ( mostly bad haha ) but there is definitely one story that pops in my head most when I think of any scars I have. So below I will obey this challenge's commands and give a story about my the scars that left a mark on me and my memory. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was a normal Thursday in March of 2010.. I had gone to work ( at a restaurant I worked at then ) for my typical evening shift. I was feeling well all day, nothing stopping me from doing everything that I usually did on a daily basis. About an hour after I clocked in at work, I had the slightest pain in my stomach. I really didn't think anything about it because I had always suffered with stomach problems even as a young child. . As the evening grew older and older, my stomach pains were getting worse and worse. I was thinking in the back of my mind what this pain might be from. I even thought maybe it was the catfish I ate for dinner but my pain started hours before that. By the time I got home (around 11:00 p.m.-ish)  I cried myself to my parent's bedside asking my mom what this pain might be. I had never felt it before. I felt bad because I knew they really couldn't do anything to help my pain go away and probably felt helpless because of that. I told my parents that I would try to go to sleep and see if I would feel better in the morning. I was trying to toughen up because I knew that I would have to go through more pain in my life than just a "bad stomach ache". I walked up to my room, hunched over, holding my side, because that was the only way I could walk. Usually if I don't feel well, after a long night's sleep I would feel really refreshed, but that night I couldn't go to sleep from this excruciating pain that kept on. I remember just crying out to the Lord all night long as I kept moving side to side because no position I could get in would be comfortable. That was one of the longest nights I had been through..sleepless, in the worse pain I had ever felt. I didn't want to wake my parents because they were both sleeping and had a busy day. Finally around six in the morning, I got out of my bed because I couldn't handle the pain any longer, walked to where we keep our books and picked up one about the human body. I started reading what organs were where and so on... I took the book to my mom and asked her to look at it as I showed her where my pain was. I remember her saying "Rachel, we are bringing you to the hospital as soon as you can get your things together. I think where you're pointing is your appendix but I want to be sure" The thought of going to the emergence room gave me a quiver but I new that that would be best because I could barely handle the pain any longer. . 

In the car, every bump on the road felt like it was meant to hurt me. That 25 minute drive felt like hours. We finally got to the ER, they took all my basic info and asked ordinary questions, finally put me in a room, got into a hospital gown and waited for the doctor to see me. After the Doc. saw me, he wanted a CT Scan done because he had a really good idea what was wrong with me. I had to wait about almost two hours for the CT Scan. Once they took the scan, the Doctor came in and confirmed that I had Appendicitis and that they were going to need to do an emergence surgery. In 2009 I had the stomach virus and the pain from that was quite similar but not the least intense as it was right there. So yes, I was in fear. I know the doctors do surgery every day to people but them doing it on me was a just scary thought. I kept praying and praying that God would put his hand over my body. I remember right before going into surgery, they had started pumping me up with all sorts of medicine. A scary thought was that they said they gave me something that they give pregnant women for pain because the morphine wouldn't help in the least bit. I literally felt like I was levitating and spinning around. the most peaceful part was when they rolled me into the room where they would do surgery and the anesthesiologist spoke softly to me until I had dosed off.  I remember dreaming while in surgery. I was walking in field with really tall grass and feeling the most pretty breeze and sunshine. just feeling the warmth of the earth on my bare feet. It was really neat.

Waking from surgery broke that nice dream with pain worse than when I went in. They couldn't give me any medicine for pain until I woke. I can't actually remember getting rolled into my room or the rest of the day really. it was all a blur. But I do remember that I felt as if I were a patient in one of those doctor movies. It was so weird because the hospital was rarely seen by my family or me. After the surgery, the doctor said that after they took the CT scan, my appendix had gotten even worse where it almost burst. It sounds all icky and nasty but once it does that, it can lead to infection in the whole body and then worse. They didn't plan on it getting as bad as it did, so the surgery lasted even loner than expected. I am just thankful I was asleep for all of this. . .

I also remember being put on a clear liquid diet for four days. The thought of living off of apple juice and chicken broth was bad enough but then when my parents and siblings brought poboys, salads, and other foods that smelt so good into the room for dinner, I was being tortured! haha they had to eat too ;) The day after my surgery, my doctor came and checked me but saw that I wasn't healing like I should be, so I had to stay at the hospital another day and a half. 

It took me over a week of bed rest to heal. I had to fight the "getting off the pain medicine" and making sure I didn't catch pneumonia. Walking straight again was tough, but each day I pushed myself. I hadn't yet seen what the surgery left on me. I was wrapped in bandage and had to be careful it didn't come off. A week after surgery I had to go see my doctor for the last time to get my stitches out. One word explains it. P.a.i.n.f.u.l.! He didn't even tell me he was pulling them out. You can probably guess I wasn't happy in the least bit. I finally got to see the scars that were left on my tummy. Three of them. not big ( two are like, 1/2 inch and one is an inch ) but they'll always remind me of that time in my life. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

The one think I'm most grateful for is that God was protecting me through everything. He didn't let the surgery go wrong, He didn't let me get pneumonia, He healed me, and I now have those scars to remind me of that. His healing hand that touches us all the time. We will have to suffer from pain while living in this world. Many painful things will happen to us, wether that be physical or emotional, or in most cases, both... But as Christians, we have this huge advantage that makes me smile at the thought of it. This verse explains it so perfectly ‘'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” ( Revelation 21:4 )  Won't that be amazing. The thought of no more death, pain, or crying because all of that will be gone when He takes us up with Him to live with Him forever. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes!! He is so awesome and worthy to be praised. . . 

Day 27: A physical feature you love

I want to first start out by saying that I know this "30 Day Challenge" was started in January, and seven months later, I'm still not finished with it. I guess I  just had so many other things on my mind to post on here that I had forgotten to finish this challenge. . . Sorry followers. ;D 

So a Physical feature that I love! Hmm. . . I think one physical feature that I always look at people first and admire the most has to be their eyes. Each person's eyes are so different than someone else's and each pretty! With our eyes, we see this beautiful world the Lord created for us. The people He placed in our lives.. And we get to read His word and learn so many things with our eyes.

 ^"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"

~ Matthew 6:22-23 ~ 

How true! Let us see the good things the Lord has given us to see and filter out the bad. . . For then our eyes will have no darkness but will be healthy and full of light!! :D

. . . So these three pictures are all taken by my sister, Katey. She is an Amazing photographer and you should really check out her photography blog! ( click here ). . .

observe how each one is different (except for the three pictures of my little cousin whom I just had to put three photos of because she is just too adorable ;D ) 

~ Megan ~

This post is taken over by all girls photos. haha, I am glad I found this one photo of my dear cousin, Andrew!  ( Katey, note to self..get more guy models ;P )

~ Me  w/ my oh so many freckles~

~ Alyse ~

~ Alyse again ~

~ Kayla ~

~ Emily ~

~ Alyse for the last time ;) ~

I can't help but see how beautiful each and every person's eyes are. They tell so much about someone too! So. . . That would have to be my favourite physical feature! 

Day 26: A Childhood Memory

When I think of my childhood, I don''t just think of one memory. When I think of just one little childhood memory, it spreads to so many others. So many others that I would love to relive. I would love to go back in time and watch my family and me. Relive those memories that are so dear to me.


 Relive the day that my dear baby sister,  Emily was born. Getting to hold those little pink hands and then mom and dad called me a big sister for the first time. Feeling like the proudest sister, that I had this little pink baby to help daddy and mommy raise. . .


 The times when Katey and I would go pick up pine cones in our front and back yard for a penny each. ( we were pretty young so we thought we were going to make a fortune. ha! ). And boy were we workers! 


  Those special weekday nights where daddy would let Katey and me stay up late to watch the animated Story of Moses or Joseph. He would sit on our recliner, me on one side of him, Katey on the other. snuggled up with his arms around each of us. I'm sure we he was suffocated between us girls but he didn't mind a bit. All that mattered to me was that I had my place by daddy. :) 


When my mom would hold me in her arms and persist on saying that I would "always" be her baby girl. Of coarse I would say "No mommy, I'm a big girl.." we would go back and forth until she let me win. :)


I'll never forget when daddy would tuck Katey and me in bed, praying with us, singing a song and then tell us a bible story. We had all sorts of questions and he would know how to answer them in the perfect way for out little minds. Making everything so clear for us to imagine. And as he walked out our bedroom he would say "I love you girls" and we would say we loved him more and then there was a endless battle of who loved who more.


Oh, the times where my big brother, Jonathan would babysit us girls. He was sure to make our lives miserable and non stop fun at the same time. He would go around scaring the life out of us children, as he acted as a cereal killer. I know it sounds horrible, I thought I was actually going to die ( keeping in mind that we were all so young). We would go around the house running for our lives as he had a (butter) knife to scare us with. The times where he would scream as if he were hurt, and while Katey and I would run to see if he was ok, he'd just smash whipped cream all over our faces. Good times. ;) 


And then there was those memories when everyone would go run errands and it was just Daddy and me at home. We would play jacks, go fish, and talk heart to heart talks ( me begin only about six ). Then he would put our ( all of his daughters ) song on, Butterfly kisses. As it played, he would sing it to me and we would do "butterfly kisses". I remember this as if it were yesterday. And whenever I recollect theses times, I get all teary eyed because I know I will never be that young again. But then at the same time, I am so happy that I have these memories. 


Thinking back on these memories only makes me realize how fast time flies and that we need to live as if each day is our last. Always loving, caring, and living our life for Christ. Living our life to the fullest. Each day is a day gone bye. One that we wont get back, so lets cherish every moment we have with our family and friends. Try not to have regrets. Lord only knows how many I have and I wish I hadn't. But there is time to fix that. 


I just had to post this song. Lord willing, I will dance with my Daddy at my wedding to this song. It has too many memories attached. I tear up every time I hear this song. 

~If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.~

Day 25: A Recipe

I'm going to share a recipe that we use a lot in the summer. Our Zucchini bread. . Don't let the name of it discourage you. It is quite tasty. In the summer, we get tons of zucchinis and didn't know what to do with all of them at first. We tried freezing them but it wasn't the same when you went to cook it . . so why not make breads and freeze them! So here ya go!

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup water
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, apple sauce, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. 

I got this recipe from somewhere but I sort of made it my own by adding some ingredients and taking some away. Like the original recipe had way more sugar than what I typed here and how I make it. I was like "there is no way I am putting that much sugar" Lol.. and it called for more oil but I cut it in half and substituted it with apple sauce. works like a charm and is way healthier.  =) Next time I make some, I may experiment with a different all-natural sweetener instead of sugar. And I might try to use all applesauce instead of oil, but I haven't got a clue what it will come out like. So if you try this recipe, I would just make it like I typed it. haha ;)

Day 24: A movie no one would expect you to love

Hey y'all!! I was sitting down today and a thought hit me; "I never finished doing the 30 day challenge."  Now and then it would come to my mind but then when I would see what day it was, I hadn't had a clue what to put as my answer so I kept pushing it off. :P I know, I'm horrible about things like these...but I AM going to finish it! :) so here we go. . .

A movie no one would expect me to like. hmm...What's so hard about this one is that it really depends on the type of movie. I know there are plenty of movies that y'all wouldn't expect me to like but they are all so different.  So how's this... I'll put a couple but in different categories. :)


Animation - I'm not too much of a "Animation" movie kind of gal, but there are a couple that has been "favorites" since I was young or other movies that have caught my eye. ;) One in particular I have always liked watching...even now. Call me weird and immature but I still love watching "A Bug's Life".  Something about that show reminds me so much of being young and little. .  being so amazed at what these bugs could do... Lol. . . Hey, I'm just "young" at heart. ( not that I'm old ) . . .

Romance/Action - I really can't think of any that y'all couldn't expect me to like. Ha! y'all all know that I'm a "Jane Austen" fan and that I love romance movies. So this one will be a little tough. So tough, that I had to put Romance and Action in one. haha. So I can't think of a single thing so I'm just gonna shoot one out that Y'all might not have known I liked. The "Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy" . .  I say trilogy because I never watched the fourth one they made. Only the first three. Somehow those shows amuse me.. :0) And for some odd reason, I look back and I mostly watch them whenever I'm sick or not feeling well. ( Examples: Chicken pox, Flu, healing from having my wisdom teeth out). . .Weird, yes, I know.

SIFI (sorta) - If you didn't know this about me, I like sifi shows! Well, it really depends on what happens in the movie. . .One ( that I'm not going to tell a lot about because it would take too long...you could wikipedia it) is called " I am Legend".   There are some parts that scare me and I just have to put a pillow over my face or it'll give me nightmares ( and yes, I still get nightmares ) . . But it is a neat show with a good main actor ( Will Smith ). It's pretty clean as in not having any inappropriate material and I don't remember any cursing. 

So there ya go! You might not have expected me to like those movies!! But then again, you may know me better than I thought you did. :) . . . I will definitely try to post more. . Lately, I just haven't had the time nor the thought of what to post about. This past weekend I was thrilled to have gone to the MHEA conference that I look forward to all year round. Most of you who follow my blog know that already ( mainly because you were there)  Lol. It was so nice seeing all my friends that I wait to long to see. Love y'all so much and plan on visiting up in Starkville this summer ( yes, I'm super stoked about that ). . .

Pray y'all are all doing well and have a great weekend coming up!! It's crazy really, I thought it was Tuesday today. I'm all discombobulated this week. haha 

God Bless!!

Day 21: Something you know you do differently than most people

Hmm. . .Well I'm a very unique girl ( as I've been told )...And have lot's of things that I probably do differently that most people (don't we all?) so I'll name a few just to let you get the picture. . 

1 -  I like to clean - Cleaning is a time where I get to think all my thought through, anything that's in my head are probably being thought through when I''m cleaning. And the outcome is a clean house! :)

2 -  I talk to my two dogs as if they are my little siblings. ( call me strange ) ;)  but hey, they listen, even if they think I'm crazy. :D

3 - I fall asleep with pandora radio being played on my iPod...I'll wake up at four in the morning to find one of my favorite songs being played through my headphones close to me. Then I get mad that they had to wait till I was seeping to play that song!

4 - I have this thing where I will use a fork in place of a spoon..odd, yes but it's just one of my things. :) It's a little hard to use a fork to eat cheerios, so I stick with a spoon for that, but other than cereal, forks are my thing. :)

5 - Usually, two out of my three meals a day are either a fruit/veggie juice or meal replacement drink. You can say I'm not much for chewing ;) but I have heard that eating less meat and more fruits and veggies are a lot better for you, so I stick with my liquids as much as I can. . .Unless there are Oreos around. 

I'm sure I can think of lots more things that I do differently than most people but I'll stop at five. If you've noticed anything that I do that's different that most, I'd love to hear your thoughts! :D 

Love to all!!

Day 20: A hobby of yours

There are many things I enjoy doing and would call my hobby, so instead of just one, I thought I'd put a couple. :)

. Taking pictures

I love taking photographs ( more like, I love using Katey's camera with all of her awesome equipment. hehe) right now I'm nothing close to what Katey is right now. of coarse, because she's worked hard for a while to get to what she does, but I do hope that she'll be able to help me out and become better at taking pictures. It's something I enjoy doing very much. . 

.Exercising

I'd call it one of my biggest hobbies. I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy ( like many people have told me ) but I love the feeling after you work out really hard, feeling you accomplished something big. I love the sore, achy feeling you get from working out the day before. If you read my last post, you'd agree that this is a pretty good hobby to get into :)  haha... I do it mainly to feel good and stay healthy. But I do love doing it. Pilates, cardio, strength, resistance, stretch..you name it, I've probably done it. except body building or heavy weight lifting. That's not something I ever want to do. I do exercising for 3 reasons: I love to do it, for health, and to feel good. :) 

. Gardening

I got into gardening  a couple years ago. Before then, I hated to get into the dirt and stay outside to just get dirty. After we started our own garden to grow our own produce, I realized that I really enjoy doing it! I know it contains getting dirty and sometimes sunburned, but I realized how fun it could be and fascinating how much you get back from doing it. I think my favorite part is planting everything, then harvest time. Getting to pick all the stuff you've waited so long for. So I'd probably put that on my list of hobbies. :)  

I could put more ( like cooking, reading, help teach younger children ) but I think I'll close it for now! I just couldn't pick one, I hope y'all understand. ;) 

God bless to all my dear friends!

Day 19: A talent of yours

I don't like this post very much. . . I'm not for picking out stuff that makes me sound high on myself. I don't want people to think I'm stuck on myself. And for talents, I am talentless. trust me. I don't think I have one talent ( and I am not exaggerating ). Like I can say my sister Katey's talent is photography, some of my friends have some talents such as impersonating actors/actresses very well, always being able to make me laugh, and reading books in such a short period of time (yes, I call that a talent ;-) ). . .I had such a hard time on this one, I went to Katey and asked her if I had any talents she could think of . haha...Yes, I was desperate. So she said I should put "baking" as my talent. I don't think it's a talent to follow recipes ( and when I mean follow, I follow it by the "T". ) I do like to bake, but it's not something you want to do all the time. When you bake, of coarse you wanna eat it. haha..But yes, I do like to bake. :) 

Here are a few things I like to bake..just a few

I will first start out by saying that our Kitchen-aid mixer makes baking "So Fun"

Chocolate cake  :D

Thumb print cookies (raspberry's my favorite)

Oatmeal chocolate chip, raisin cookies. . . 

Italian fig cookies

Red velvet. yum

So those are a few of a lot I like to bake. :) It's not the best thing to be good at though, all the time. haha

Day 18: A time when you felt passionate and alive

When I read the title of this post, I thought back. Thought back throughout my whole life. I came up with plenty :) but I'll tell you which is probably the one I kept going back to. . .

~ ~ ~

When I was five years old, something happened to me. Something very great!. . .I became an older sister! My mother had an adorable baby girl! (although I won't lie, I did ask God for a baby brother when my mom was still pregnant), but I wouldn't change having Emily as my little sister for the world! She is that little sister I always wanted. I remember seeing Katey as my big sister and I was thrilled that I could do the same for Emily..I don't remember ever being jealous that I wasn't going to be the baby of the family. I do remember before she was born, being the center of mommy's attention. Her always calling me her "baby girl". But I was just so excited to be having another baby sister or brother in the house. The day Emily was born is crystal clear in my mind to this day. Seeing her for the first time, touching her tiny pink little fingers and remembering that I couldn't wait for her to get home so we can have her all to ourselves. :) I'll never forget that day! 

~ ~ ~

I love you Emily and am so proud of you. You've grown up to be a wonderful sister than I can always trust and hope you put God first in all that you do and think! He blessed me with the most wonderful little sister! I love you!

...( I wanted to put some pictures of my baby sister but I'll apologize before hand that they are really not clear..at all. :-)  )

Haha, my little diva! ;) even then. . 

Big smiles. :-D

Daddy's little helper!

And. . She starts to grow up. :( she's so beautiful!

I know I used this photo others times on my blog but she is just gorgeous! And I love this picture of her! :D

~ ~ ~

So. . a time I felt passionate and alive was when I became an older sister!

Day 17: An art piece

I'm not someone who really loves paintings or art pieces. I get into photography more than checking out someones old paintings ( sorry all you art lovers ;)  ) but some I think are pretty and would look good on my wall...My mother has this painting above her awesome Jacuzzi bath tub.. It looks very good with all of her decor..It's by Nydia Lozano. it's just a peaceful painting with soft colors. I like that! Tell me what you think? I know the picture is really blurry. This is a real quick post and I just got this photo from bing images. hehe..so do excuse the quality of the photo. :) Thanks!

Day 16: A song that makes you cry

A song that makes me cry..hmm. Well, I can think of a lot of songs that make me cry..cry both sad and happy tears. But you would probably rather know what song that makes me cry happy tears! so I chose "You're Not Alone" by Meredith Andrews. This song always brings tears in my eyes. :) 

..I'm a pretty emotional gal. (ask someone who knows me well enough) ;) but the lyrics in this song are so beautiful and inspiring. I listened to this song when I went through hard times in my life and it always helped me through it  :) 


Love to all my friends!


God bless. . .

Day 15: A person you admire

Alright! This was going to be a little tough for me. :)  there are plenty of people that I admire and for different reasons. I would really love to say something about each and every one of them but I don't think that's the point of this post. but this is also going to be easy in another way. When I first saw the name of this post, I thought of my dear, older sister Katey!

Here, let me exemplify what I mean when I say I admire my older sister! First of all, she has a heart to serve her Lord! She tries to always put Him first in what she does. I love her passion to want to go out and tell people about Him. . . When ever there's something wrong with me, (I don't know how she does it) but she'll know, and try to get it out of me. and if she succeeds (ha), she tries to make everything better and help me go through it. . . Sometimes, I'm not sure if she's trying or if it just comes natural to her, but she has a distinctive sense of humor! No matter where we are or what we are doing, she has gotta make me laugh in every situation! hands down! :) She is an amazing photographer..I love her work and would love for her to teach me some of her "ways" she takes beautiful pictures. God has blessed her with a wonderful talent! . . .When we were two tiny little kiddies, we were, as my mother called us, siamese or identical twins. :) we were always there, side by side. We went everywhere together, did everything together..everything she had or wanted, I wanted the same. That's how I know I admired her even when we were young. Now that we're older, I'm admiring her from a different way in some aspects. I still don't want to dress exactly like her and eat everything she does, but in a lot of the same ways, I would like to be like her. :D She's a beautiful, encouraging older sister, and I'm glad that we shared each others lives so far with each other..

Love you Katey!!! 

And some pictures to sum it all up!

Isn't she so beautiful?! . . the rest of the pictures are ones from Katey's camera. you probably saw them already on her blog but they're the only ones that I thought Katey wouldn't mind me putting up! :)  

Well that ought to sum it up for today! Hope y'all enjoyed visiting my blog and seeing Katey as an adorable little kid and beautiful woman! Oh, and I just realized that I'm half way done the 30 Day Challenge! :D yay! Hope everyone has a great week! 

God Bless!!