The Past Few Weeks...

WOW! I've been so busy lately,
I haven't found time to get on the computer!
I'm terribly sorry!

I thought I'd post some pictures from the past few
weeks to fill you in some ;)
So feel free to grab a snack and sit back and relax:)

2 Fridays ago, we and our friends went to the beach.
It's actually getting too hot, but we're getting some nice breezes.
That day was one of those days...


My friend, Stephani, my lil' sister, Carolynne, and I


Everyone enjoying the water


My deere friend and I


While we were there, some guys came out to surf!
It was really neat to watch!


Me enjoying watching in the sand


My precious siblings and I

Afterwards, we went to my house.
Stephani and I worked on our schoolwork together...


Sometime last week, my brother and I
enjoyed watching the birds together...


And deere Beth is learning how to read.
I had the pleasure of her reading a BOB book to me ;)


The whole week 2 weeks ago, Stephani and I
worked on a cd of us singing.
We used her sister's cd player to record our singing onto a tape.
Then our pastor was so kind to put the tape to a cd for us!
Though the recording wasn't the best,
it's just fun for us to listen to... ;)

Here we were remembering the words to
"Keep On The Firing Line", which we had lost the music to.
(It's now found again, thankfully;)

Also, I've picked up a new instrument...

It's always fun on park day when my friend and I sing
with the guitar together.
But now we can sing with the banjo!
My pastor is letting me borrow his banjo for a while.
I hope to get one of my own sometime in the future!

Also, I've been busy with photography.
Here are a couple of photos I've taken and edited.
I also ordered them as prints...


My puffy dove! I love these guys!








This one is my personal favorite!
I plan to get a bigger print to frame and hang on my wall.


:0)

Well, that's all for now.
I'll soon be posting some photos that I organized for my friend and I.
They're one photo from each year.
(Only from '05, though... we've been kindred spirits since about '01!)
Have a great weekend!

A Day With Friends...

I am really not the most consistent poster in the blog world.
Mom and I were jesting about how
I should get a 'Bad Blogger Award'. lol

It's been very busy around here.
Yesterday I ended up doing 54 pages
in my Advanced Chemistry!!!!
Oh, I couldn't put it down!
Now that I've learned, as Dr.Wile says,
'all there is to know about equilibrium'(sigh of relief!),
I've finally started enjoying more of my favorite fields:
kinetics and organic chemistry.
(I didn't know I'd like organic chemistry,
but it's pretty much physical chemistry with a lot of 'twists' to it!!!!)

Anyway, today was a nice day
so we decided to go to the beach!
I love the beach and it's been a while since we had gone.
I absolutely adore the cute seagulls and pelicans...


But unfortunately, it was a little crowded,
so we didn't stay long.
But here are 2 of my favorite shots of the moms...



My mama...



Mrs.C...

Notice how similar their face expressions are? LOL
Just goes to show that when you've been best friends
with someone for 7 years, you pick up the others' traits.
Hee hee. I love you guys ;)

We, then, ventured home.
We spent time singing, playing instruments,
relaxing, and having fun with the camera.
Here are a few photos I thought I'd share:
Playing my guitar in a unique way, as we've done before...



(We had done this years ago
and decided to update the pose in our photos ;)

And my 'Mad Scientist' look, as she says...
(since I like to study so much and relate
almost any situation to Chemistry;)


After a while, we made the Friday night pizza...

We had a great time of fellowship (and singing!) in the kitchen.

The children were enjoying their time
dressing up and showing us their costumes...


Cute Carolynne



Butterfly Beth



Roman Will and who knows what his friend is!?!
(some kind of a morphed cow/elephant/cowgirl/queen)

They also had fun on the trampoline in their outfits...


Today was definately a great day of fellowship!
Here are 2 more photos we took...



I hope to post again soon!
Have a great weekend!

He Gives Me What I Need...

Oh, the Lord is so precious to me!
I've been struggling for quite some time
with a particular situation
(which tends to be more pressing at church).
I woke up in the middle of the night last night
and had a whole hour pouring my heart out before the Lord.
I told Him that I was determined that
I was going to do what I knew I needed to do,
and will trust that He'll work everthing out to His will.
I felt such peace after that time with Him!

And this morning when I was having my quiet time,
I flipped my Bible open right to Ecclesiastes.
I saw a couple yellow marks that I made in the past
and decided to look over the verses.
And, oh, did the Lord ever know just what I needed!
The Lord completely guided the pages
so that I could read just what He wanted me to read!
It was so precious and it felt as though
He were talking audibly to me!
(though it really wasn't audible)

Here is what He gave me:

" Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,
and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools:
for they consider not that they do evil.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart
be hasty to utter any thing before God:
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:
therefore let thy words be few.
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business;
and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it;
for he hath no pleasure in fools:
pay that which thou hast vowed.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow,
than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;
neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error:
wherefore should God be angry at thy voice,
and destroy the work of thine hands?
For in the multitude of dreams and many words
there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God."
Ephesians 5:1-7
(emphasis by me)

This was exactly what I needed!
What a wonderful encouragement!
He was so specific, so personal, so perfect!
I just thought I'd share that.
It meant so much to me, that what I'm going through,
the Lord knows ALL about and cares about it,
and He will help me through it.
Oh, how I love Jesus!

Pardon the "Dust"...

I'll be playing around with Blogger's
new templates/features for a little while,
as well as playing around with the sidebar and such...
I, also, hope to get back to posting soon! ;o)

Bearing Fruit...

(Below is from my notes when listening to sermons by Clarance Sexton)

Fruit is a very important thing mentioned in the Bible.
We as Christians are suppose to have fruit in our lives.
Fruit gives evidence of something deeper.
Barrenness gives evidence of something deeper as well.

In Isaiah 5, we see that the Lord has a vineyard...
"My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof,
and planted it with the choicest vine,
and built a tower in the midst of it,
and also made a winepress therein:
and he looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it brought forth wild grapes..."

When he saw that it didn't bring forth
what He expected of it, He said...

"What could have been done more to my vineyard,
that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked
that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard:
I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up;
and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down..."

That tree that didn't give fruit was taking the place
of ground where other fruit could grow, so he hewed it down.
As Christians, the Lord has given us everything we
need to bear the fruit He wants from us.
He has been so good to us and has blessed us so greatly
and He has a right to expect us to be fruitful!

There is evidence of life when fruit shows.
We need to be fruit-bearing Christians.
If there is no fruit in a person's life, 1 of 2 things is evident.
As a Christian, they're not abiding in Christ.
Or they are not born-again.
But we so many times place the emphasis on the fruit,
but we need to be focused on the root.

1. We must be right with God.
If we try to produce fruit, we busy ourselves with
things we shouldn't be busied with.
We just need to make sure we're abiding in Christ
and He'll produce the fruit in our lives!
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman...
Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine;
no more can ye, except ye abide in me." John 15:1-5

Unfortunately, it is our natural, sinful human desire
to not want spiritual things.
But Christ separates us to the Lord from the world.
(Ex. 33:12-16)
The struggles we have in this world are not between
us and things, people, etc... it's between us and God.

There's a fruit-bearing work the Holy Spirit does.
The same Holy Spirit that produces fruit,
produces death and withering. (John 15:6)
And He will wither the things that don't belong in our lives.
There are so many things that steal our time that
we should be using for Christ and abiding in Him.

He says right back in Isaiah 5:4,
"What could have been done more to my vineyard,
that I have not done for it...?"
Is there anything more Christ could have done for us? No!
He expects a thing and when He goes
to get it and if it isn't there,
then all He did to care for it He'll remove.
He doesn't forget, but He sets aside.

2. The fruit.
There are many places that talk about the fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23 for example.
And please, do read 2 Peter 1:1-10.
These things are all produced by the Holy Spirit.
We need to be right in order to do right.
If we're not the Christians we're suppose to be,
there will be fruit there that's not suppose to be.
The biggest failures on our lives are when we
succeed in areas that aren't God's will.
We need to spend more time in the Word of God.
We must determine to strengthen ourselves.
We need to die daily.

Now, dying is not supressing.
When we die to ourselves, it brings forth much fruit.
But of course, nothing wants to die, so there's a struggle.
We must not supress our sinful desires,
but rather put those away and use all that energy for the Lord.

3. Bringing glory.
It is all the Lord's victory.
He is glorified through our fruit.
Our biggest goal should be to bring glory to God.
Our desire should be for people to see us not saying,
"What a great person", but rather "What a great Savior".
As long as we desire to glorify Him, then He will bless us
and will give us what we need to bear fruit.


photo courtesy of allposters

I'M FINISHED!!!!

After 10 page (at least) long lessons,
lots of numbers, letters, figures, graphing,
laws of trigonometry, and lots more...
I'm finally done with my Pre-Calculus!!!!
WOO HOO!

I finished up the last 4 lessons today!
At a rate of doing about 7 a day the past week ;o)
Now I'm free from the task I gave myself
for math in this 11th grade year!

Now I'm extremely glad to say that
I get to relax and am able to enjoy, appreciate,
and focus more on my Advanced Chemistry(!!!!),
which I'm a little more than halfway finished with.
And that's bitter-sweet, of course. lol
I'd also like share a poem for this "wonderful thought"
that my mom and I found online some time ago...

A Chemistry Poem

I'm reading a book by Jay Wile
That feels 'bout as thick as a mile
It's a chemistry course,
And reliable source,
I sure am enjoying his style.

The characteristics we see
Of chemicals in chemistry
Are works of God's hand,
And part of His plan,
For the earth to function for me.

The way atoms all seem to dance
In molecules inside of plants
Is one of the ways,
God meant to amaze,
That couldn't have happened by chance.

Experiment with metals like chrome
Experiment with mixtures like foam
Please try to have fun,
Clean up when you're done,
I hope you don't blow up your home!

by Bailey Gillespie


Your friend and chemist~ Alexandra
LOL!

God On The Mountain...

The song below has been a real blessing to me.
I always need the reminder that God is God
no matter what situation I'm in.
When life is going good,
its easy to say 'we have faith'.
But when the troubles and trials come (and they will);
if we have faith and trust Him all the way through,
then He'll work everything out for good.


God On The Mountain



Life is easy when you’re up on the mountain
And you’ve got peace like you’ve never known.
But then things change and you’re down in the valley;
Don’t loose faith, for you’re never alone.

(Chorus)
And the God on the mountain is still God in the valley.
When things go wrong, He’ll make them right.
And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times.
The God of the day is still God in the night.







We talk of faith when we’re up on the mountain
But talk comes so easy when life’s at its best.
But it’s down in the valley of trials and temptations,
That’s when faith is really put to the test.

(Chorus)
And the God on the mountain is still God in the valley.
When things go wrong, He’ll make them right.
And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times.
The God of the day is still God in the night.


I was unable to find a sample of the song online
but it's the words that are good. ;o)


For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand,
saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."
Isaiah 41:13

My Birthday...

My birthday this year was a good one ;)
(Of course, I've never really had a bad one!)
My mom took me out to my 'favorite of all favorites'
restaurant... as my sisters call it, "Red Lawnspur"!



YUM! I got my favorite dish of lobster, scallops, and shrimp!
And mom thought it would be funny to get me a 'lawnspur' bib...



I only wore it for the photo, of course!
Afterwards, we went shopping.
I couldn't resist buying one of these
little 'chick heads' that I found
with the money I got from my gramma...



Also, at church, the assistant pastor
and his wife gave me a very cute purse.
It was very sweet and thoughtful!
Then we came home
and everyone gathered around to sing 'Happy Birthday'.



I made my cake and I think it's really good.
It's a double layer mocha chocolate cheesecake!
And since I can't eat ice cream,
I got multi-flavored sherbert!
And then I received my gifts.
It was a Jane Austin piano book! And lots of Sweettarts. ;)
I've really enjoyed playing the pieces...
and eating the pieces ;) lol

Today I received a gift from my uncle, aunt, and cousins...



My dear aunt made it for me.
They knew that I needed a real guitar strap,
since I used a rope untill now!
I really like the color of it as well!
Also, attached were some really nice picks!



It's actually much more comfortable to play with a real strap!

Today I cleaned my room from the 'vacation mess'
and did a few lessons in Calculus.
I should be done with it by next week.
I hope you all have a great week!


"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not
when the master of the house cometh, at even,
or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."
Mark 13:35-37

Our Family Trip...

I'm baaack!
Terribly sorry I didn't inform you I was leaving.
My Great-Grandfather went to be in the presence of the Lord
and we had to pack up and leave quickly for the funeral.
I didn't get time to say I was going away but now I'm back!

Oh, how I've missed being up north!
It got to 4 degrees while we were there!!
Oh yes, the weather was definately lovely!
I loved the scenes as we drove through the mountains...


And the Lord blessed us by letting it snow on the way...


When we arrived, Dad started shoveling the snow
and I was unloading the van;
and, of course, we couldn't resist enjoying the snow :)


I was more than glad to be asked to
play my violin at my granpa's funeral.
It was also nice being reunited with family.
I, particularly, liked this photo of my aunt and I
with my uncle in the background...

;o)

The weirdness you see from my immediate family:
well, it is in the whole family!
Speaking of weird,
here's my mom and sisters in the hotel room...


The younger children also enjoyed the snow,
since they'd never really seen it...


I, too, enjoyed the long missed snow,
but in my own way ;0)

My uncle and I also made snow cream,
but I've always liked it just plain!

It snowed so much one evening,
the roads were completly covered...




Also, we drove to the shore where we could see Canada...


The younger ones have never been to Canada,
so Will was really excited to see the shore of it!
I went there quite a few years ago, when I was younger.

One afternoon, my great-grandmother heard me singing
in her room and wanted me to sing to her on my guitar.
It was a blessing being able to minister to her heart
through songs that glorify the Lord...


Also, my grandma wanted to celebrate my birthday together,
so she asked me to play my guitar for my birthday song!
She also gave me a slice of carrot cake
with a sucker sticking in it for a candle!


(I'll post about my birthday hopefully tomorrow:)
Then the time finally came for us to come home.
I couldn't resist having my picture taken
in front of the adorable Virginia sign!


I'm glad the Lord gave us safety on the road.

We also had a funeral today for a loved one at church
who went on to be with the Lord.
He was known as 'Grandpa' to everyone
and was an amazing, faithful soulwinner.
He left behind a wonderful example to us all.
Please pray for the pastor's family as they go through this.
I hope to post again soon and respond to comments.


"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints."
Psalm 116:15

We Interupt This Bloggie Silence To Bring An Update...

Where have the past 2 weeks gone?
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.
Things have seemed to be so busy!
As I'm finishing up 11th grade,
I can hardly find time to do anything else
but schoolwork (and music)!
My Calculus, especially,
is taking up a LOT of time and studying!
Oh well, I plan to be done by next month
and then hope to get back to posting a little more.

The above is pretty much what's been going on...
Lots and lots of schoolwork.
I was excited this past week when I got to talk
to Dr. Jay Wile twice over the phone. ;o)
(For those who don't know, Dr. Wile is the author
of the Apologia cirriculum... the science I use.)

I was struggling on an Advanced Chemistry equation
and decided to call, as he says you can do in the book.
Dr. Wile is as funny on the phone as he is in his books!



And he also indirectly helped me with my calculus ;)
I LOVE Chemistry, but anytime I try to explain
things to the people I know they're like "HUH?"
So it was REALLY neat to be able to speak
"Chemistry language" with someone else!

I am also very thankful that the Lord
provided a specific graphing calculator for me.
I needed it for my calculus but they cost over $100!
The local base high school was kind enough to lend me
their TI-84 graphing calculator until I was finished with Calculus.
Praise the Lord!

Today was our homeschool group park day.
It felt so good, being mid 40s!
While I waited for my friend to show up,
I read some books I borrowed from the liabrary:

"Mathematical Preparation for Laboratory Technicians"
and an SAT Chemistry subject test preparation book.
I'm not planning on taking the SAT or anything
but I wanted to quiz myself on the questions for fun ;)
(Dr.Wile said that after I've completed my Advanced Chemistry,
that it's equivalent to a 1st year college course Chemistry,
so I wanted to see how much I knew :)

When my friend arrived, we took pictures of everyone:
The little girls were burying their toy horses...


The older ones were playing tag, I think...


My friend and I were having fun with the camera...




The moms also were enjoying their time together...
(My favorite one is marked with an arrow!)


Hee hee, I LOVE YOU, MOM!

My friend and I loved watching the dozens of robins.
We tried feeding some with molded bread (kind of us, huh?)...

but red-winged blackbirds came and scared them off.

Then we ventured home and my friend and I
practiced a song we'll be singing soon for church.
Then all of my violin 'students' gathered
into my room for the lesson...



About an hour ago, my dear 5 yo sister, Beth,
came upstairs and said, "I want to play my violin wits you!"
So I got out my violin, tuned hers,
and gave her her first lesson...



She learned E and A string.
We played counting 4 Es, then 4 As.
It was so cute watching her getting use to
holding it and playing it...



Oh how I thank the Lord for my family!
My siblings are so sweet and my parents are so wonderful!
He has given me so much!
I hope you all have a great weekend!

By the way, the picture in my last post
was a CROCHETED HAT that I turned inside out. :)


"I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies,
and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant..."
Genesis 32:10