Amazing & Amusing

Amazing

- A rental group that wants to use our dock bad enough to come out and help us put it in!

- This sign greeting me at the entrance to a shop full of beautiful, high-quality clothing:

OK, they were mainly hunting clothes, but still! - I love Alberta!

- Having a neighbour remember my name (my first name) when she saw me in the camp's parade float!

- Bringing one of my dearest friends out to  meet my horse for the first time!

- Watching my brother peel an apple in "the most effecient, waste-free way".

- Getting 94% on my first ever government-marked school assignment - in my worst subject!

Amusing

- Blowing up approximately 200 blue and white balloons for the float by mouth.

- Answering the questions in my excessively tree-hugging Chem 30 course.  Do I give them the answer I know they want and that will likely give me a good grade, or do I give them the answer I now to be true?

- Finding out on a down-hill halfway through the parade that the go-kart doesn't have brakes.  Thankfully my brothers can move faster than a run-away go-kart!

- Finding out my beautiful horse is afraid of her own bug-spray.  She certainly can move fast!
- Did you know that if you drop a 4L milk jug, the shere force of hitting the ground can blow the cap (seal and all) off of the jug?
- Buying the wrong size heads for our mop and not realizing my mistake until there was 1L of milk all over my feet, my skirt and the kitchen floor.

Puddle Jumping

I like clear umbrellas!  They're so cool.  I don't really know why - I guess just because they're different.  Anyways, I found this one at the dollar store for $1.25!  Much better than the $25 I've been able to find them for elsewhere!

It's been raining here in Alberta.  Not the torential rains that we got last spring, but rain none the less.  I love the rain, but tomorrow we have a float in the local parade - tomorrow I will detest rain.

I went out and spent a couple of hours with Jazz again.  I convinced her that she wouldn't die if she walked through a puddle with me.  Yay!  She still thinks the pond will kill her though - but I'll accept a small victory for the moment.

I'm wearing: clear umbrella ($store!), flannel shirt (Walmart $5), Jamaica T-shirt (gift), distressed denim maxi skirt (thrift store), Rubber boots (hand-me-downs)

All told, I got a lot wetter than she did!  But it was fun. 

Mrs. R came by and dropped off the tack on Tuesday.  We've been too busy so far to actually get out there and saddle her up, and I doubt I'll get a chance now before Monday. 

We have our first rental group of the season coming this afternoon, so until they get here we need to be working on making sure the facility is ready for them.  So what am I doing blogging?  Being lazy.

Then we have to prepare the float for the parade tomorrow morning.  And all of tomorrow is be full of the parade and fair.

So I will go riding on Monday.  Well, I'll try to.  I'm learning not so say I will do something at a certain time.  It doesn't happen.  Especially this close to summer!

What's your weekend filled with?

Amazing & Amusing

I've really been enjoying Olivia's "Awkward & Awesome" posts, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I've also been liking Ashley at Bramblewood Fashion's "I Love Thursday" posts.  So I thought I'd combine the two and see what I come up with.

This week, I'm loving...

My new horse!!!

Splashing in the rain...

Going to sleep to the song of the wood frogs...

High-low skirts.   But my brother says "You're kidding, right?"...

Dirndls, I'm trying to make one now.  I don't have a pattern though, so it's taking forever!

AMAZING

Joining up with my horse for the first time.

My first sun burn of the year!  (a.k.a We have enough sun out to actually get one!)

Five week old babies to cuddle!  So tiny and sweet!

Rain.  Not only does the ground really need it, but it is so much fun to dance in!  I can't wait for our first real rain storm!

Being legally authorized to blow off fireworks up to 6" in diameter.

AMUSING

Trying to corral a dozen 3-7 year olds and get them to do chores for our camp work day.

Having one of the three year olds tell their mother "Mommy, don't ever run away from Miss Laurel!  She will tie you to the table!"

Poorly written math courses!

Snow Flea rash, on top of a sun burn, on top of mosquito bites, on top of scratches from a wild rose bush - on my calfs.

Trying out roller blading for the first time in skates two sizes too big.  Yay for skinned knees.

Looking at the clock at 8:30 AM and realizing that I was supposed to be at a ERD course an hour and a bit away at 8:30.   Um, I was a little late. 

Mulit-Purpose fashion! ;)

My little sister, Kristin, turned 10 on Saturday.  This birthday is a big deal for two reasons.  1) In our house, you get to invite one guest per year of age up until your 10th birthday.  2) When you turn ten you are judged old enough to own your own pocket knife.

For her birthday, she invited her best friend to sleep over Friday night and then they went to the farmer's market Saturday morning.  It is amazing to me what a group of little girls can find at a farmer's market!  I mean, aren't you supposed to get produce, baking and canned goods there?  Nope, they all came home with fashion accessories!  One of them picked up this "very functional", multi-use item.

 Like this, it can be worn as a fashion scarf over just about any outfit. (Except don't try it with anything red!)

 When you find yourself in need of a handbag in the middle of the day, simply find the zipper tab and start pulling.

 It takes a bit of a tug to get it started.

 This is the fun part where you get to decide the balance between how much scarf you want and how much handbag you want.

 And then you have a purse at the other end of the zipper! 

 It works both ways, too.  If you just know that there is a chapstick in your purse somewhere but you can't seem to find it... Just start unzipping and it has to fall out eventually!

What will they come up with next?!

You know those ruffley skirts that are all the rage right now?  My Daddy thinks they should make them this way too.  One skirt for any occasion!  Wear it all zipped up for a floor-length skirt, or start zipping it off for a mid-calf-, a tea-, or even a knee-length skirt!  Obviously, you would have to get to a point where the zipper stops so as to avoid unfortunate accidents.  And then you just wear whatever portion you've zipped off as a ruffley scarf! 

I think I'll let him try to market that! :)

Stable Jazz

 It's amazing (even awesome) to me how God seems to delight in taking the things that we deem utterly impossible (yet very desirable) and giving them to us!

  I've wanted a horse pretty much since I knew what they were.  Realistically though, I knew there wasn't any chance of my getting one before I was Oh, say, 36 or so.  So I made friends with as many horse owners as I could, got a seasonal job on a ranch and enjoyed riding when I could.

A couple of months ago, a lady whose horse I exercised for her for a while called me up.  She decided that with three children under the age of six she didn't really have time for her horse any more.  She told me that she had been praying and looking for a teenage girl to bless the way that she wished she had been blessed when she was a teen.  And did I want a horse?  For free?  Oh, and, she'll lend me all the tack I could need until I'm in a position to buy my own or she gets another horse!  Was I interested?

Um, duh!!

We have bylaws in our jurisdiction which won't allow us keep horses on our property, so I started looking for a place to board her.  The stables down the highway charges $10-$20 PER DAY!  Yikes!  I'm trying to save money for college and there is no way that I can afford to spend $3,600-$7,300 a year on a non-essential!  So I kept looking.  A farmer friend across the highway said that while they don't have a pasture set up for a horse (they keep cattle), their neighbour used to have a small breeding farm and might be willing to let me keep a horse in her pasture.

Well, I didn't really want to call up some lady I only knew because her grandson came to camp here years ago, and ask to board my horse for me.  So I called other people.  And I called, and called and called.  And I got all "no"s.  So finally I gave up and called Mrs. T.  We went to look at her pasture and it was absolutely ideal!  Twenty acres of fenced pasture land, with more grass than five horse could eat, a creek running down the middle of it, and riding trails all around!  She even has a bale feeder and an automatic, heated waterer for the winter!

 To top it all off, she refuses to take any money for keeping Jazz there!  She even got mildly upset with me for buying the boards I needed to mend the fence instead of having her buy them!  She wouldn't even have needed to fix the fence if I wasn't boarding Jazz there.

God even arranged a trailer for us - free of charge - from another lady I'd never met.  The family who lent it to us lives on the same road as we do, so it didn't even take any extra gas to pick it up!
So late Saturday night (actually it was early Sunday morning, but that's beside the point) I became the proud owner of one fine paint mare!!!!!

 I was a little worried that she would be hard to catch - she has a little over twenty acres to run from me on, after all!  So I went out Monday to work with her a little bit (read: shake oats and then feed them to her - repeat) to try to teach her to come when called.  I wanted to leave her in the small paddock for a couple more days, but there wasn't really enough grass for that to be practicable.  So I let her out into the pasture and prayed for the best.

This afternoon when I went to work with her again, and she surprised and thrilled me by coming when I called her!  I hung out with her for about 30 minutes, just sitting there talking and singing while she grazed around me.  And when I got up to leave, she follow me!!  It is so amazing joining up with your horse!  I think she might have even followed me into the pond if I'd tried!  

Isn't God awesome?!?  I can't get over how He orchestrates things so perfectly.  He didn't need to.  There was absolutely nothing that said He even should.  But He did!  But when I think about how I don't deserve this, I wonder why I don't feel the same awe amazement and joy when I think about my salvation.  I mean, if I don't deserve a horse - I definitely don't deserve a free pass to heaven!  But I have it...

 Soli Deo gloria!!

Hot Pink Swim Wear

Have you ever tried to describe your swim suit with only words?  I think they're right, a picture is worth, Oh, at least a couple hundred words anyways.  One of my penpals and I are currently discussing modesty and swimming.  So I'm trying describe to her my swimsuit.  With pen and paper no less, I can't grab some of the photos of modest swimsuits like mine off of the web and paste them in for her - all I have is words.  So I eventually got fed up with trying and decided to just send her some pictures!  

 So I grabbed the camera and my little sister and headed outside.  We wanted to take some pictures that looked summery, because they're of a swimsuit.  But our timing was pretty bad for that purpose.  The sun was setting, the temperature was dropping pretty quickly (I kept shivering just as she was about to take a picture) and it was starting to rain!  But - Kristin says I have nothing to complain about because when I took pictures of her swimsuit, it was below freezing and snow was falling.  I guess she has a point. ;)

 I figured though, that I may as well show you guys my swimsuit since I have pictures now anyways.  I want to to start by saying that I didn't have a choice in the fabric!  (Though it has kind of grown on me since I first made it.)  

I had a t-shirt and shorts that I was wearing swimming, and white it worked, I really wanted a dress-type suit instead.  But, I couldn't justify the expense of either a pre-made suit or even just the lycra to sew it myself.  So I prayed about it and pretty much wrote it off as one of those "never going to happen" wishes.

But, God hears even (maybe especially) those wishes that we think are utterly impossible.  So, shortly after I decided that I just couldn't justify buying myself a new swimsuit, a seamstress near by died and when her family was going through her things, they decided to give me all her sewing notions and her fabric stash!  The funny thing is, this is the second or third time that that's happened to me.  And I never met any of the ladies whose fabric I now have!  I just came home one day and there were four big boxes of fabric, patterns and notions with a note sitting on our doorstep!

And, sitting right on top of the first box was a metre and a half of hot-pink-zebra-stripe lyrca!!

 Then, on sale at Wal-Mart I found these lyrca work-out leggings!  And they're skirted for one more layer of coverage!  That awkward lump across the the front in the picture is my swim dress tucked inside quickly for the picture.  I didn't realize until I opened it on the computer how totally awkward it looks!  

 And a quick picture of the tie in the back.  Just because I didn't want to end the post with the awkward picture of my leggings!

To share a smile...

I want to start this by saying that I personally, we as a family, and we as a church, are conservative Christians and we do not believe that it is appropriate for men to dress as women or women to dress as men.

However, we started attending a new church plant about a year ago, and are still getting to know the pastor's theology somewhat. There have been some things along the way that we completely agree with, and some things that surprised us.  Nothing sacrilegious thus far, just not quite what we were necessarily expecting.

So when I came home from evening service a few weeks ago discussing the skirts the pastor hired me to sew for him, my family was surprised...to say the least. ;P 

The thing is, he's the pastor.  He's the one who has years of seminary training - not me.  And if he wants two, shiny black, full circle skirts, who am I to argue with him?  At least...that's what I told my family as I was enjoying their scandalized expressions.  (tee hee!)

See, we have these two tri-pod speaker stands up at the front of the church, and a whole bunch of cords running up to the speakers and the microphones.  It's kind of generally ugly and disjointed looking.  So our pastor thought it would be a good idea to get some kind of skirts to put on the speaker stands that we can throw all the extra length of the wire under.  So, of course, they have to be shiny black to match the stands.  And full circle so that they hang nicely, and no matter what height setting the stands are at, the skirts will still cover them nicely. 

And so, our pastor hired me to sew two, shiny black, full-circle skirts for him. ;)

I was quite apprehensive about drafting a pattern for a full-circle skirt because most of my patterns don't work out and for some reason full-circle just sounded really hard.  But circles are a lot easier than I had expected!  Plus, the fabric I found in the bargain bin for $3/metre was this nice, heavy knit that doesn't need to be hemmed!  YAY!  I'm not very good at keeping circular hems smooth.

These are some pictures that my father put in our prayer letter this week.

One of my brothers was making chicken for supper, and since they were so little we needed two.  But two roasting hens don't fit in the slow cooker very well.  Unless you're a boy and come up with something like this.  Do all boys' minds work this way, or is it just my brothers?  Knowing my family, it's probably just my brothers.

It is pretty funny though.  With their wings out like that and everything, they look like they're really enjoying that hot tub!

These next ones weren't in the prayer letter.  I was looking through all of our old photo files for pictures to use for some ministry promotional items and found these.

 That is me on the far right.  I don't remember why we were staying with my best friend (who is in the middle of the back seat), but we were.  On the way back to our house, Kaitlin (my older sister) and Celeste (my best friend) were comparing hair colours by braiding their hair together.  And then it just kind of escalated.  A good example of why you should not let seven girls drive home together!  Or why you should - depending on how you look at it.  Mr. & Mrs. St.L were in the front seats shaking their heads if I remember correctly.  :D

Other than it being mighty difficult for seven girls to exit a 15-passenger van while attached by the hair - it was a lot of fun!!  Not to mention getting our shoes off to go inside - that HURT.  

Oh the things we do when we're young and foolish.

But is it a good thing or a bad thing to be "too old" to do stuff like this anymore?  Is it wrong to tease your family about your pastor wearing a skirt?  The Bible talks about not being fools.  But Paul had a strong sense of humour and was very sarcastic.  At what point does have a sense of homour turn into being a fool?  

I don't know - do you?