Amazing Weekend

Saturday was October Fest at our old church.  We came home with so many goodies!  Come to find out, most of the stuff we brought home belonged to an old friend!  His wife's grandmother had an old room heater made by Fireside.  It's an old tin thing with a gas valve.  It's totally covered in rust, but I'm gonna fix it up and who knows, maybe turn it into art.

Then, Saturday night, I got to meet Christy Tomlinson!  She's awesome.  She and her husband are so laid back, and everyone is a friend.  I wish I could look at people that way.  Hey, I'm trying! Christy is one of those people you would want to have as a friend.  I love people who have that type of personality.

Church was awesome.  People were getting touched by God.  My husband asked for ministry from the pastor and God just touched him there.  Then we got in touch with a long lost friend.  My husband asked him if he had seen the movie "Courageous", he said 'no'.  So both guys went to go see the movie.  They talked for hours afterward.  It was good.  Male bonding time is always good.  It's good to see my husband hang out with other guys.

If you have not seen this movie yet, I highly encourage you to go see it.  It's about the calling of men to be husbands, fathers, leaders of their home and active participants in their church.  It's all done in a non-condemning way.

Sequoias Part 3

I really wanted to send this video out, but for some reason, my video player won't play the sound.  My husband found out it doesn't transfer online, so I'm gonna go ahead and post this.  I want you to see my fear of heights in action, verbally.  Don't worry, it's not bad or scary.  Looking back on it, it's a hoot!  I just laughed and laughed.  Sorry for all the rear end shots.  My hubby was taking the shots and he was in the back.

So, there WAS more!  We were only 1/2 way there.  Oh, the agony!  (^o^)  So "I was feeling it in my scaredness." I was even crawling and making vows of not doing this again.  But in the end, I had fun.  You can see how far down it is, based on the view going down.  But take what you saw there and add the same amount going up!  Then add the elevation level (7000 ft.)/lower oxygen levels and you got yourself a workout on a 400 step staircase.

Sequoia Pics part 2

There's a rock up in the Sequoias called Moro Rock.  Now days they have large rocks and a metal railing on the path to keep you safe, but it didn't used to be that way.  There was a guy in the late 1800's who, with the help of his step-sons, built a wooden staircase STRAIGHT UP the face of the rock!

This is the side view of the rock, from a road nearby.

This is another view from a road much closer to the rock.

The sun and the mountains in the distance were so....This view is from the bottom of the rock.

We had to climb 300-400ft in elevation.  At the top it's somewhere in the 7000 ft.  When you are that high already, you get short of breath very easily and have to take breaks.

 You can see at the top of this rock the white metal railing. Can you see any trees?  That's how high we are.  A forest video said something like, "Trees can't live above 7000ft"

These are to show you how steep the rock sides are.  We were constantly climbing the stairs.  

 View from the top!

 ...and my girls leaning over the railing!

This takes you all the way to the very point of the rock.

See the trees?  And these guys are tall!  

Here's the crazy part.  I have a fear of heights.  Shhhhh!  Actually, my family knows.  They witnessed my attitude and of course my husband video taped it.  It's hilarious, actually.  But here's what went through my head:  "I don't want to do this."  "This is a family thing."  "I have to conquer this."  "Other people have been up here and they are safe."  So, when I got to the top, I scooped up some dirt and said, "I did this!"  Now I gotta find a glass bottle to put it in.

The closer you get to the top, the narrower the walk-way.  At one point, I'm crawling on my hands and knees up the steps because #1 it was really steep and #2 we're REALLY HIGH!  It was torture for me, but as  5 year old Olivia from the Cosby Show says, "I'm still alive."

Sequoia Pics-part 1

We spent a week and a half at the Sequoias.  The weather was perfect and NOBODY'S there!  The skies were clear and BLUE and clean smelling.  The water was cold and drinkable (snow!) And the trees....  The trees are awe-some.  This one isn't event the largest.  It's just one you can climb in.  It had little 'caves' you can climb in and even sleep in!  Swiss-family-Robinson style.

Sequoias prequel

The Sequoias are so beautiful!  I will post later about our experience.

Cafe Music

Julie Nutting said she loves to create art when she listens to French music.  I have a Pandora account and I typed in French Cafe.  OH WOW!  It definitely opens up another avenue of art!  It reminds me of sitting at Starbucks with a friend and chatting.  I wish I knew how to make some of that yummy goodness so I can listen, smell, taste, touch and experience it ALL!!!

Brave Girls Club

I sent one of my pieces of art to www.bravegirlsclub.com and they posted it on their daily truths page today.  Wanna see?  Click here  It says "She chose to live outside others' opinions of her"

Camping

Going camping for a week and a half.  (Thank God for housesitters.)  Can't wait to get away from computers and phones and touch things that are real!  Pray that it stays warm.  My hubby says I'm miserable to be around when I'm cold.  (O, poo)

This butterfly is flying

It's been several months since God has really done a big change in me and it's still here.  Yay!  I am not afraid of people's opinions of me.  I am what I am.  Only God can change me, truly.  I can make new habits.  I can make New Year's Resolutions any time of the year and try so hard to "keep up the good work" but none of that really sticks.  (I know, I've tried.  It lasted a week.)  When God reveals to you the "lightbulb" moment, things CHANGE and they change permanently.  YAY!!!

Example:  When my pastor would ask how I'm doing (by the way he's about the same age I am).  I would tell him ALL the things that were going wrong in my life.  WHY?  It would drive me nuts that he had that "power" over me.  I asked myself that question.  Why do I respond this way?  Well, our culture has taught us that this man is closer to God than we are and we treat him as such.  We either tell him all the things good or ...bad.  I resulted to bad.  The reality is that we can have the same relationship with God that our pastors do.  God did everything he could to have communication with everyone.  He didn't do more for the pastors/priests than he did for us.  They don't have special privileges.  The only reason we feel this way is because we don't spend time in the Word.  We don't spend time with God.  It's guilt!  God showed me He LOVES me!

I have value.    I have value enough for Him to die on the cross for me!  When I searched my heart, I really felt that I wasn't worth enough for Him to even die for me.  My heart really believed that!  My head knew the truth, but my heart didn't agree with it.  That's where unworthiness comes from.  We have SOME kind of value.  Otherwise, God wouldn't spend time even THINKING about us.  But He does.  I am not scum.  You aren't either.

You know there are many things that our head agrees/disagrees on.  But our hearts differ; sometimes greatly! I had to do some soul searching to understand me.  I had to ask myself if I really believed certain things.  I had to allow myself to disagree with friends.  I had to search things out.  And now, I know ME!  Of course, I'm constantly changing, and growing.  :) finally....

Art Journaling, Dinner with Friends

I found a book at the library on art journaling.  For years I've been journaling on lined paper.  I just finished my journal so I went out and bought one without lines.  NO BOUNDARIES.  What will come out?  Hmmmm.  I'm thinking some colors, swirly lines of text, lots of faces, photos...

Having friends over for dinner is fun.  It's gets you to clean your house, for one.  And  you laugh more than you usually do around the family you're with all the time.  I had forgotten what fun it is to be with others.  We used to have people over weekly.  We call it home group.  It's kinda like "mid-week church".  But we got too big, around 30-35 people.  So we split up into 3 groups.  We'd hang out at other people's homes.  But there's something about having it at yours.  (You don't have to drive home and put kids to bed!)

Art and Courageous

I made some progress in my She Art book.  I altered a large "romance novel" to make art.  It's cheaper than buying those art journals as craft stores.  Wanna see?

These were actually in an old art journal I've been working in for years.  I just decided to put them all in the same place, considering it's a She Art book and these are shes!

Here's more.

THIS is a house I'm actually making for an idea in Brave Girls' Club Soul Restoration class.  Melody talks about your house and how you need to clean it out and sometimes there are people in your house that need to be out of your house because they are harmful.  I am making a model of that idea.  Because I need to 'physically' be able to do that as well as conceptually.  

And it's in it's yard with a picket fence.  And  a street.  I'm still working on the stripes and I'm going to put something on the other side of the street, you'll see it.  I'm just waiting for the 'ah-ha' moments.  Those are the the best. They make the best ideas.

These are my ideas inspired by Julie Nutting.  She put out a book called Collage Culture.  Totally fun!

My family saw the movie Courageous yesterday.  It's an awesome movie about men standing up and being dads/fathers/leaders.  My husband is so inspired by it and the book Resolutions for Men, he's actually taking initiative in his life in the area of relationships.

I have this thought in my head, and I'm gonna make art out of it.  Just 2 words.  "Be intentional"  What that looks like right now, I don't know.  But it's in there and it will have a look all it's own when it is birthed.