living4him.

t.w.e.l.v.e

2012-02-17T09:46:00.020-05:00

At 8:05 this morning, she turned twelve! I have only lived two years of my life without her, and I can't imagine ever living without her again! :) Over the years, she has blessed me with her love, spunk, joy, and fun personality.

Some words to describe her are: beautiful, compassionate, fun, hilarious, joyful, photogenic, spunky, cheerful, loves to sleep (:D), and overall just a joy to be around!

She's the best friend to our younger brother.

She's the most artistic of us three girls.

She's the girl who can be the most tomboy. And the most girly-girl.

She's a blessing to me from God and we just keep growing closer! :)

Happy 12th Birthday, Rosy! I love you!

-s. olivia

For her 12th birthday, Dad and Mom allowed her to start a blog! Check it out here: http://1peterbeauty.blogspot.com/

See anything different?

2012-01-23T15:59:00.007-05:00

(If you think you figured it out, comment. :D)

-s. olivia

Nine Years Old.

2012-01-17T16:19:00.021-05:00

He's nine. I can hardly believe it! He is still as sweet and tenderhearted as ever, though. In honor of his ninth birthday, I would like to share some pictures of him that best describe his personality. Happy Birthday, Buddy!

He loved helping in the garden this year.

His collection of "weapons."

Soccer was one of the highlights of his year.

He got a BB gun for Christmas. So much fun! (But it makes some of his sisters a little uneasy. :D)

You can usually find him wearing either camouflage pants or a pair of yellow rain boots. As I'm typing this, he's sitting next to me watching "Tom and Jerry," and wearing camo pants. :)

Man, I love this boy. Thank You, Lord, for giving him to us!

-s. olivia

Hope.

2011-12-31T17:34:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone again. We're still waiting on that snow though... :)

This Christmas, I've realized that this time of year is all about hope. God sent hope to us through Jesus. He saw our filth and sin and knew we needed a Redeemer. Once we see our own filth and dirtiness and ask God to forgive us, we have freedom from sin because of Jesus! After that, we have that freedom and hope inside of us for all to see - but do they see it when they look at us? Do people ask us what gives us hope? Do we stand out from everyone else because we have the hope of Christ?

"Why don't people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably because we look as if we hope in the same things they do. Our lives don't look like they are on the Calvary road, stripped down for sacrificial love, serving others with the sweet assurance that we don't need to be rewarded in this life." John Piper

Let's resolve to let the hope of Christ shine brightly through us in the new year, 2012! It's too great to keep contained.

HaPpy nEw yEaR!

-s. olivia

42,708,963.

2011-11-24T14:58:00.006-05:00

Sweet Potato Pie and Green Bean Casserole are baking in the oven. I've just finished licking out the bowls for both of them. Yum! :)

I just read that 925 million people went hungry in 2010. I wonder how many people are going hungry today. And not just today, but have not eaten for a few days. Every 2 seconds, one person needlessly dies from starvation. There have been 42,708,963 deaths from lack of food already this year. The number continues to grow.

So today, as you sit down with family and friends, eating your turkey and potatoes, remember that number. 42,708,963. Say a prayer for those who have no food. Think of how much God has given you and how He's equipped you to bless others.

(I did not take this picture)

Happy Thanksgiving!

-s. olivia

Everyday Gifts. {seven}

2011-11-23T20:09:00.000-05:00

Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. How exciting! We had a discussion at the breakfast table about whether or not we should put up Christmas decorations today. Sometimes it seems like Thanksgiving almost gets skipped over, doesn't it? For example, I always secretly can't wait for the Thursday of Thanksgiving to end, so that we can go Black Friday shopping. Isn't that sad?

Thanksgiving was meant to be a day of rest and remembrance. A day out of the ordinary to enjoy good food and reflect on the many blessing that we have been given over the past year. Why have I tried to hurry through it so many times to get to the excitement of Christmas?

If you went into Wal-Mart today, you would probably not be able to find one fall decoration. Christmas trees, jingling bells, lights for stringing, and peppermint sticks cover the shelves. As exciting as all of that is, I think that we should be sure to take one day of reflection before jumping into it all.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. It's one of my favorite times of the year! I just want to be careful this week to let a thankful heart be my focus, instead of a full shopping cart. :)

------------------~~
Now, on to today's blessings. :)

pumpkin-pecan spice coffee creamer.

a new "fort" in the woods made by my younger siblings. (with a little help from Dad. :D)
helping Mom bake in the kitchen.
biscoff cookies dipped in milk.

washing dishes with Dad.
talks with my family at the dinner table.

-s. olivia

Everyday Gifts. {six}

2011-11-22T19:11:00.002-05:00

Things that made my day today:

my younger brother's ornery grin.
good books to read.
bright orange flowers swaying in the wind.

understanding, loving parents.
the sound of my sister typing on the keyboard.

spending hours in the woods with my siblings.
knowing that tomorrow is a new day- fresh, with no mistakes.

-s. olivia

Everyday Gifts. {five}

2011-11-21T21:11:00.001-05:00

Do you ever wonder if the small things you do each day make a difference? I do, so I was greatly encouraged today by reading that the most insignificant acts can be a blessing to others - if done in the right attitude.

If it falls your lot in life to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music... Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.
(Martin Luther King Jr.)

------------------------~~

These are the gifts I found today...

a peaceful morning thick with fog.
dew on the "berry" bush.

a Monday with no school. (yay!)
making pinecone flowers with my creative younger sister.
homemade iced coffee.
feeling the piano keys under my fingers.
tasting chocolate chip cookie dough.

-s. olivia

Everyday Gifts. {four}

2011-11-20T18:47:00.003-05:00

"Our walk with Christ is like a tree. If we're not growing, we're dying." (taken from the sermon today - I thought it was a convicting parallel.)

-------------~~

I can't believe that I am already on day four! It has been fun...I have enjoyed finding the little joys in each day. Here are the ones I found today:

being reminded of how great God's love is for me.
quiet Sunday mornings. (with the exception of siblings singing in the shower. :D)
laughing and talking with my Sunday School class.
free vanilla frosties from Wendy's.

the Christmas lights downtown. (It feels so much like winter!)

the excitement and anticipation of a new week without school.

-s. olivia

Everyday Gifts. {three}

2011-11-19T21:18:00.002-05:00

A sculptor was once asked "How do you make an elephant?"

"Oh. That's easy," he replied, "just get a block of marble and then chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant!"

Well, that's what God wants to do with us as His followers. Take us as we are, and chip away everything that doesn't look like Jesus.

----------------------~~

Here are the blessings that I've found in today:

being huddled up in a blanket and laughing with my sisters.
the effect "cross process" on picnik.
roasted, crunchy pumpkin seeds.

riding my favorite horse, Ollie, at the horse farm down the road.
smelling burning leaves. (and pine straw.)
the bookmark that my good friend made for me.

Good night! =)

-s. olivia

Everyday Gifts. {two}

2011-11-18T19:45:00.002-05:00

Here goes day two of noticing the little blessings in each day. (see post below.)

playing basketball with my two younger siblings.
warm chocolate chip pancakes on an unusually cold morning.
finishing school early. And knowing that Thanksgiving break is coming!
fuzzy socks.
a loving hug from Dad.
pumpkin pie baking in the oven.

Happy weekend! :)

-s. olivia

Everyday Gifts. {one}

2011-11-17T19:13:00.000-05:00

Recently, Mom has been sharing with us some things that she's learned about being thankful. She was reading a book about a lady who faced some very difficult things in life and was having a hard time being thankful and having a joyful spirit. So, this lady decided to start a book where she recorded the little blessings in her life.

Turns out that in one year, she had recorded one thousand gifts. While she was doing this, she realized that it changed her whole attitude and outlook on life! Instead of feeling depressed, she was feeling so blessed, because she was scribbling down the everyday gifts in her life!

So, this fall, I've been inspired to look for the gifts that God gives me each day! Since today is one week from Thanksgiving, maybe I'll post once a day until then and share some of the everyday blessings I find.

the sun streaming through my window when I wake up.
"turtle bars" melting in my mouth.
the imperfect red heart my brother lovingly drew on my hand. :)
rolling down the windows while driving down the road with my sisters and listening to good music.
steaming coffee at Starbucks.
laughing at everything with good friends.
numb toes and a red nose.

Have a blessed day!

-s. olivia

Turning wheels.

2011-10-11T19:16:00.004-04:00

Isn't it fun to be around people who are younger than you? It's so amusing to watch the wheels turn in their heads and you know exactly what they are thinking, because you thought that once too.

Tommy is going through a stage right now where his wheels are really turning. Yesterday, he said that we should turn off the flashlight because he wanted to conserve electricity for those who are still on earth after Jesus comes back. I don't know where he got the idea about conserving electricity, but you can tell that he is really thinking things through.

He has also been using some "big" words recently. Sometimes you will be carrying on a conversation with him, and then he throws one of his words out and you try not to laugh. :) Here are some examples:

"Livy, you are about to be blasphemed, 'cause this is amazing."

"Mom, you and Dad are welcome to come and live in my house when you begin your decaysion."

(as we passed by a football field) "Hmmm...looks like a very competitious place."

Laughing at the words Tommy says and the way he processes things makes me wonder how God views our thoughts. Even some of the things that seem the most important and complex to us are probably nothing more than trying to "turn off the flashlight to conserve energy for the future" - a worthless effort.

-s. olivia

Decisions, decisions.

2011-10-06T21:35:00.001-04:00

The boys in our family are always teasing us about when we go shopping for shoes. Shoes are such a big deal to us, that we choose which pair we want to buy very carefully and spend lots of time pondering before we purchase. :)

Well, today is Ricky's birthday. He loves good food (:D), so on his birthdays Dad and Mom usually take him out to eat somewhere nice. When he came downstairs this morning, after we had all congratulated him on turning 18, Mom asked with a smile, "So have you decided on where you want to eat yet?"

He said that he had been thinking about it for a few days, but had not yet decided. After hearing this, Rosy said, "A boy picking out where he wants to eat is like a girl picking out which shoes she wants to buy!"

Happy Birthday, Ricky! (He decided on Smokey Bones.)

Happy fall!

-s. olivia

Soccer adventures.

2011-09-26T08:48:00.014-04:00

Tommy has been dying to play soccer for about a year. Every once in a while he would ask, "Hey, Dad. When are you going to sign me up for soccer?"

Dad and Mom finally said that he could play and signed him up for Upwards (a Christian based organization). He has LOVED it! Sadly, he hasn't won either of the 2 games he's played, but he still loves it. Each of us 5 kids played soccer when we were about his age, so it is fun to watch him continue the "tradition." Sometimes he'll mention something about when he's a pro soccer player. It's funny to hear, because we know that will probably never happen, but I remember having those same thoughts when I was his age and playing soccer. :)

-s. olivia

A Real Christian.

2011-08-29T13:24:00.002-04:00

"A (real) Christian is an odd number anyway!

He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen,

talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see,

empties himself in order to be full,

admits he is wrong so he can be declared right,

goes down in order to get up,

is strongest when he is weakest,

richest when he is poorest,

and happiest when he feels worst!

He dies so he can live,

gives away so he can keep,

sees the invisible,

hears the inaudible,

and knows that which passes knowledge.

The man who has met God is not looking for something - he has found it!

He is not searching for light - upon him the Light has already shined!..."

-s. olivia

old-fashioned simplicity.

2011-07-15T10:09:00.012-04:00

:)

-s. olivia

Thought for the day.

2011-06-30T20:37:00.008-04:00

"Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." {1 Samuel 16:7}

-s. olivia

The Extreme Gift.

2011-05-30T10:43:00.009-04:00

"What is it?" Soviet captain Marco snarled at the young boy. "What do you want?"

The boy, only twelve, swallowed his fear as he stood before the Communist officer.

"Captain, you are the man who put my parents in prison. Today is my mother's birthday, and I always buy her a flower for her birthday."

"Since my mother taught me to love my enemies and to reward evil with good, I have brought the flower instead for the mother of your children. Please take it home to your wife tonight, and tell her about my love and the love of Christ."

Captain Marco, who had watched as unmoved Christians had been unmercifully beaten and tortured, was stunned at the act of love of this boy. His tears fell as he slowly walked around the desk and grabbed the boy in a fatherly embrace. Marco's heart was changed by the gift of Christ's love. He could no longer arrest and torture Christians, and soon he himself was arrested.

Only months after the boy's visit to his office, Marco slumped in a filthy prison cell surrounded by some of the same Christians he had previously arrested and tortured. He tearfully told his cell mates of the young boy and the simple gift of a flower. He considered it an honor to share a cell with those he had previously hunted and attacked. "

{taken from the devotional book "Extreme Devotion"}

Let's show the same love and forgiveness of this boy to all we come in contact with.

-s. olivia

Old shirt - new dress.

2011-05-03T12:12:00.001-04:00

It was two days before Easter. I was skimming over our closet to see what I should wear to the Easter program at church. I really wanted to wear something new, but felt like rather than shopping, I should try to take an old shirt that we never wear and try to transform it into something new! :)

So, I came across this shirt. My sisters and I never wore it and it just sat in our closet, but we never got up enough guts to just toss it.

I decided to look through our scrap material boxes and see if I could find anything that matched it. I did and a few stitches later, I came up with something that can be worn as a skirt...

or it can be worn as a dress...

I finished it the night before Easter and wore it to church. Who knew that an old shirt could be turned into a new dress? :)

-s. olivia

Run the race with patience.

2011-04-17T15:18:00.007-04:00

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed

about with so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which

doth so easily beset us, and let us run with

patience the race that is set before us, looking unto

Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for

the joy that was set before him endured the cross,

despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand

of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12: 1-2"

Blessings to you this Palm Sunday!

-s. olivia

j a m a i c a . 2 0 1 1 . t h r e e

2011-03-30T12:33:00.000-04:00

We've been home from Jamaica for 3 weeks. It was such a special time for all of us that went. We grew closer to each other as friends and family and closer to God. It was so uplifting and inspiring - yet at the same time, so sobering and thought-provoking. We each brought something different back with us...something learned...a favorite story...or even a thought. If you'd like to read more, you can visit my sisters blog: here.

In this post, I'll share some of the other pictures that turned out and a collage of the "lighter side" of our trip...yah, mon! {Jamaican slang...ha!} Trying on the unique headwear...yah, mon! Ionda and Marvin mimicking the pastor...=) {they are some of the deaf people who live at the village} No day was complete without a game of spoons, ultimate spoons, food spoons, or kemps. :) Great memories!

There is a big problem with theft in Jamaica...Don't worry, though! The village hired a nightguard who makes sure all is safe and sound as we sleep. :) Above is the place where he can stay while keeping watch.

If you can see the building in the backround, that is where the women slept...

The beauty of Jamaica.

Everyday, we would help on the worksite for a while, and then after lunch, we (the girls) did a VBS for the kids that live at the village...such fun! Yes, even the work was fun. =)

Tommy painting...

Sanding. The people in Jamaica do it a little differently than we do in the states. When sanding the concrete walls, you go outside, try to find a piece of concrete block that you can get a grip on, and sand away. It was fun to learn a new technique. =)

{vbs}

The sky was perfect.

{the Jamaican flag}

The Jamaica trip has made such a special mark in my life. A place that I can be reminded of how much God truly cares. How near He is. And how good He is.

I have such fun memories of Jamaica that I hope I will never forget. Hopefully, by posting about our time in Jamaica, I have explained it well enough that I can look back on it and be reminded of God's goodness to our family.

God bless Jamaica.

-s. olivia

j a m a i c a . 2 0 1 1 . t w o

2011-03-26T18:57:00.001-04:00

While in Jamaica, we visited two very sobering places. Places that didn't smell, look or feel pleasant. At all. Places that made me feel so spoiled. They made me realize how much I have - that I need to use to bless others.

How can I stand by and watch? How can I do nothing when I have a closet full of clothes, a pantry teeming with food, and a family that loves and cares about each other, while these people have none of these things?

Although they have next to nothing, they are happy. Happy to live the next day. Happy to have a bed to sleep on - if you can even call it a bed. The joy of the Lord fills their souls! Just like it should mine.

The Lord used these places to allow me to look at my life from the outside in. To look at my selfishness. To see how much I'm blessed. And to see how much I have failed to share my blessings. I have so much to learn!

These places {the orphanage and the infirmary} are really hard to get the feel of if you haven't been there. Nonetheless, I would like to share some pictures.

Meet the orphanage ---

It was so inspiring to hear that almost half of the 20 - 30 children at the orphanage were in the process of adoption! Praise the Lord! The kids were all so sweet. I loved them all.

The infirmary ---

How can I describe the infirmary? When we first arrived, I heard someone singing "Jesus Loves Me". I looked around, trying to see who was singing. I saw a lady. She lived at the infirmary. She had some type of mental problem - but was so happy. Singing about Jesus' love for her. God bless her.

The infirmary wasn't very well kept. The people there seemed like they didn't have any reason to be happy. Yet, they were. Many had disabilities. Many had mental problems. A few just didn't have anywhere else to go. I kept trying to figure out why they were happy. Then I looked closer.

Many had Bible verses above their beds. A few had scripture memorized. One lady had Bibles on her bed all around her. They had found true satisfaction! True hope. Peace. And true love. They had no earthly possessions. Almost nothing at all - but Jesus. After visiting them, I realized something very important that I will learn time and time again. Jesus is all I need.

I hope that I will never forget the things that I learned after going to these places and seeing these things. I hope that you learned something too, by reading of our experiences.

{Once again, more to come. =D}

-s. olivia

j a m a i c a . 2 0 1 1 . o n e

2011-03-23T19:46:00.003-04:00

"Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see." {Mark Twain}

---------------~~

I recently had the indescribable experience of revisiting Jamaica. The Jamaica Deaf Village is where we stayed while there. In Jamaica, there is a huge population of deaf people. To help the deaf learn the things that hearing Jamaicans learn (ie: reading, writing, math), CCCD was founded. Click on the link to read more.

After learning these basic things in life, where do the deaf go? Here are some words off of the JDV (Jamaica Deaf Village) site to explain:

"After 12 years at school, CCCD graduates leave behind their intellectual darkness and can read, write, solve math problems and perform vocational skills. Now what? No Church, No Shepherd, No Fellowship. They may attend a church, but with no interpreter and no real fellowship. The deaf go through difficult times. When they become depressed and discouraged they have no one with whom to pray and study God’s Word.

No Job & No Money. Employers do not know Sign Language and have no way to communicate with the deaf. No job means no money to buy food, clothes, or even soap. Without a job, living arrangements are often precarious. Many live at the mercy of others and are often abused.

No Friends. Usually, no one at home knows Sign Language, and while they may join a group of “friends”, they can never really become a part of the group. There is no realistic hope of finding a husband or wife.

God’s Answer: JAMAICA DEAF VILLAGE

The Lord has graciously provided 100 acres of land near the centre of the island on which
CCCD is building a village for the deaf, open to our graduates and other deaf throughout Jamaica.

Dreams are becoming reality at the Jamaica Deaf Village where, by the grace of God, there
exists today a church, housing and consistent employment. Plans for the Village include single family homes, apartments, places of employment, educational, medical & recreational facilities, a day care centre, a shopping centre and a retirement centre. "

God bless the Deaf Village. They are giving the deaf of Jamaica a hope for the future. Leading them to Christ, so that they might have not only an earthly place to fall back on, but also Jesus to carry them through. What a ministry.

----------~~

I love everything about Jamaica. Everything. I could just feel God working in the Deaf Village. I felt so much closer to God in Jamaica. Sometimes, I think all of us just need a break. A break from....life. School, work, materialism. Just a time to lean on the Lord instead of earthly possessions or even people. A time to put every care behind you and just trust. Lean. Grow. Refocus. A time to count your blessings. To submerge yourself in God's lavish love. And stay there. God is so good.

---------~~

The flowers in Jamaica are so stunning. Each one is so unique. There's just something about flowers...=)

------------~~

This is what I saw when I looked out my window as we were driving. Gorgeous.

About "Digicel" - I'm not sure why, but Digicel is some type of phone company that all of the Jamaicans LOVE and is advertised everywhere. It became kind of a joke among the girls on the trip, because there were so many advertisements! =)

None of these are edited. Jamaica truly is that beautiful!

Sorry for the blurriness. If you have ever been to Jamaica, you understand how cRaZY they drive and therefore understand why it is so hard to focus a picture while riding in a vehicle. =)

In town ~

I got plenty of pictures of the expensive houses in Jamaica, but sadly, I wasn't able to capture much of the poverty. Trust me, there was plenty. That is one thing that I regret about the trip: I wish that I would've taken more pictures. Oh well, I am very thankful for the ones that I do have. =)

Yes, they do drive on the opposite side of the road. At least, opposite of America. It was quite an experience and I actually thoroughly enjoyed riding in the "coasters". I'm glad to be back in the states where I feel safe on the road, though. ;)

------------~~

I miss Jamaica so much. The people there. The relationships made. The times shared. I thank God for this amazing opportunity!

{more to come...}

-s. olivia

Sweet Sixteen.

2011-03-18T08:27:00.027-04:00

My sweet sister, Nikki, is sixteen today.

Over the past few years, we have become much closer than we ever were before. I can honestly say that she and Rosy {my other sister} are my best friends. We share almost everything - from our ambitions to our clothes. Smile.

I have always looked up to Nikki. She has always been someone who understands me, will listen to me talk, and encourages me.

I respect her for her desire to reach out and longing for the whole world to know Jesus. She often tells me how much she wishes that she could find more ways to reach lost souls for God. I don't think she knows how much God works through her to impact people's lives. I don't think any of us realize how much God could be working through us.

Nikki is a girl of BIG ideas. Smile. She is always getting these "great ideas" for outreach to the community, but sadly, not many of them have worked out! But, hey! "Were there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18"

I love you, Nikki! Thank you for your example.

Above is Nikki and I in 2005.

You are a blessing. HaPpY BirThDay!

-s. olivia

Rosy Tosy.

2011-02-17T07:34:00.002-05:00

There once was a sweet baby girl named Rosy.

People thought that she was adopted from China, because she was so dark.

"Nope," my parents would assure them, "she's all ours!"

She had the sweetest smile and prettiest dark eyes. Ever.

One day that baby turned 11.

She is no longer a little girl, but still as sweet as she was then!

I used to (when I was 2) not be able to imagine life with her.

Now, I can't imagine it without her.

Happy Birthday, Rosy! I love you so much!

Here is a picture of us two a few years ago...

And her now...

I love you, Rosy Tosy!

-s. olivia

"Sisters touch your heart in ways no other could. Sisters share... their hopes, their fears, their love, everything they have. Real friendship springs from their special bonds."
- Carrie Bagwell

Amazing love.

2011-02-14T07:38:00.002-05:00

I'm forgiven, because you were forsaken.
I'm accepted, you were condemned.
I'm alive and well, you're spirit is within me,
Because you died and rose again!

Amazing love, how can it be?
That you my king would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true!
It's my joy to honor you.
In all I do, I (seek) to honor you.

("Amazing Love" lyrics)
---------------~~~

Happy Valentines Day!

Today let's focus on the fulfilling, amazing love of Jesus Christ - the One who was forsaken and condemned for us.

-s. olivia

For Mom.

2011-01-23T20:16:00.004-05:00

"Mothers reflect God's loving presence on the earth." - William R. Webb

Happy Birthday, Mom!! I love you so much!! Thank you for always reflecting God's love to me.

-s. olivia

January 17, 2003.

2011-01-17T09:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Tommy's birthday.

I'm sitting here at the keyboard with a lump in my throat. We looked through his scrapbook last night and it seems like the years were just seconds. It makes me realize how short life really is.

In honor of Tommy, I have created a little picture walk down memory lane.

Tommy has been looking forward to this day since February of LAST year. He has such a tender heart and never likes to see anyone angry or upset. He always has something to say to cheer you up! I love you to pieces, Tommy!!

He completes our family. Ricky is the top bun, us girls are the meat, tomato, and cheese, and Tommy is the bottom bun. :D

Such a cool dude. :P

He loves to explore. He spends hours in our woods and then comes in with a new collection of rocks or brings us all out to see a bird's nest. Gotta love it.

Tommy is one of those people who dresses in themes. One day, he's a cowboy:

The next, he's an Indian:

He lost his first tooth last year!!

Who's muscles are bigger?? :P

Always daddy's big helper.

My lil' buddy.

People say we're look-a-likes. I love this boy so much!!

Ahoy maties!!

He gets his fashion tastes from me.

Rockstars!! [instruments including mom's 30 year old, broken dulcimer and a lap harp. Haha!]

He loves to read with Ricky...

Ride 'em, cowboy!

Dad is such a good sport. Tommy wants to follow in his footsteps.

Turning 3!! Man, it seems like yesterday!!

Helping me "serve the tables". (aka: playing kitchen with mom and dad. :P)

We love our clown!

He was always the artistic one of the boys. :D I love it!

Aaaawwww.

Such a stud muffin! {Playing "wedding"}

He laughs in the face of danger.

He already loved to climb trees at age 2!!

He loves his big brother.

Holding his baby doll, affectionately named "Rachel." The poor boy, he never stood much of a chance against baby dolls with 3 older sisters. :)

turning 2!

Happy Birthday, Tommy!

You keep us smiling. We love you, eight year old!!

xoxoxo,

Your sisters

Poetry in Motion.

2011-01-14T18:57:00.000-05:00

Once a week, I go to a horse farm right down the road and help with the horses. I look forward to it every week, and this time, Nikki came along and snapped some pictures of the beautiful horses!

Meet Ollie, Elizabeth, Chief, and Dan~

-s. olivia

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"Horses are poetry in motion." -Unknown

A good day gone bad.

2010-12-29T16:42:00.001-05:00

The day started out perfect. No school. Sleep-over planned with a sweet friend. Helping at the horse farm. What could go wrong?! Apparently a lot more than I had thought.

Let's back up. This Christmas, my younger sister, Rosy, got a ripstick (more commonly known as a skateboard). She would hold me up as I got on it and I would ride it with my hands on her shoulders for support. Finally, I got up enough guts to try it on my own.

My excitement rose as I stepped up on it and then it went back down again with my body. Yes, I had fallen. I was numb. Rosy said that I had been in the air at least 2 feet from the ground.

I felt my hip bone throbbing and I couldn't get off the ground. I layed there for about 5 minutes, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Rosy was trying to be consoling, but was having a hard time containing her laughter. I have to admit, it looked hilarious!! ;)

When I tried to stand and my right leg fell from under me, I knew that something was not right. "Get Mom, Rosy!" I cried. Then I burst out in laughter again. She ran inside and moments later, my older brother came running out. Then, Nikki. Then, Rosy. Then, FINALLY Mom.

I was a sight. Laying on the concrete, unable to move, groaning from pain, and laughing. Mom and Nikki came over to me and asked me to try and stand. Once again, I groaned and fell into their arms. They managed to carry me inside somehow and dropped me on the couch.

As I lay there, it dawned on me: I would have to cancel my plans with my friend and at the horse farm!

I glanced at the clock, hoping I would be able to at least put weight on it by the time she came. To my dismay, she could show up any minute!

15 minutes later, she was dropped off. She opened the door and looked over at me. I looked pathetic. I hadn't gotten dressed for the day, because I planned to right before she got to my house. I had also planned to shower, but I didn't see how that was possible, seeing that I couldn't walk.

GREAT. Just great. This was supposed to be one of those perfect days. Instead, it turned out to be one of those "everything is going wrong" days.

Mom began to get scared that I couldn't walk. I didn't seem to be getting any better. So, she called the doctor.
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Mom knew that I am not someone who enjoys to sit and talk all day long - especially not when friends are over. So, she called my friend's mom and told her what had happened. She would meet us at the doctor's office. The sleep-over was called off. I felt horrible.

When we got to the doctor's office, I didn't want to even go in. The only way to get in was for Mom and Nikki to carry me. No way! What would people think of me? I guess this was one of those times when I would have to swallow my pride and just go get it done.

As soon as I walked in, it was as bad as I had thought. I look down at myself and realize once again that I am wearing what I slept in, I'm wearing muddy Crocs, I desperately need a shower, and I am being carried. As my mom and sister carry me awkwardly through the door, the people in the waiting room's eyes bulged clear out of their heads. (Not that bad, but it makes a good story. :D) Then, a nurse comes out with a wheel chair for me. Haha, joking right? NO.

Then, to make it even more awkward, I began to giggle and then laugh harder. The people in the waiting room are trying not to stare and the children began to point. One little girl tried to walk up and touch my wheel chair, but her mother pulled her back. Everyone is staring awkwardly at me and I stop laughing. Thankfully, the nurse called me in quickly.

She began to examine my hip and told mom the possibility of it being a broken hip. Mom asked what that would mean I had to wear. (How would you put a hip in a cast? :DD) The doctor replied that it would mean surgery. "SURGERY?!?!" Mom asked/exclaimed. "Yup." replied the doctor, like it wasn't a big deal. She told us to have it x-rayed.

So, Nikki wheels me out to the car and we began to ride down to the clinic. Boy, I was glad to be out of that waiting room!!! I'd had enough embarrassing moments for the day.

The clinic wasn't so bad, except for all the stares as I was wheeled through the lobby. We had the x-rays done and headed home. FINALLY!!

We ate Mickey D's and then I just lay there on the couch and played a game. Then, the dreaded phone call came. It was the doctor's office with the x-ray results. Would I have to have surgery? Was it just a bruised bone? So many questions were going through my head.

I listened with eager ears as mom said, "Yeah....mhm....okay. Thank you."

"Wh-what did she say?" I stammered.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

"NO BREAKS!!" She exclaimed. It was a pulled muscle!

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So, what did I learn through this whole "good day gone bad"??

It seemed so unfair. It seemed like God had planned all of this to happen, so that I couldn't have the sleep-over and couldn't go to the horse farm.

When I explained this to Mom, she said,"Honey, I think God did this to show you that you can make plans, but God still wants you to know that He can say whether you go or not. Sometimes He just does things so that we will be still and know that HE is God."

I happen to agree with her, no matter how embarrassing the whole experience was.

Now I'm gonna go be still for a while.... :D

-s. olivia

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He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” -Psalm 46:10

Baking up a storm.

2010-12-26T19:54:00.000-05:00

At our house, we've been baking up a storm. ~~

"If we did all the things we were capable of doing, We would literally astound ourselves."

-Thomas Alva Edison

~~~~~

-s. olivia

Don't count your blessings...

2010-11-25T14:28:00.000-05:00

This Thanksgiving, don't just count your blessings, but let them flow right through you. In doing this, you are blessing God in return. ~-----~

-s. olivia

Fashion, sparkles & coolness...NOT.

2010-11-13T20:42:00.000-05:00

Ever since I was little, the people with braces were the "big kids". Braces were a type of fashion statement to me. They made people's eyes sparkle. They made people's teeth look more white.

For all of these reasons, I dreamed of wearing braces. I would secretly take the twisties from the bread bag and stick it in the gap between my two front teeth. I would then spread the twisty out and try to make it look like braces. Of course, it didn't. But in my mind, I was fashionable. My eyes sparkled. My teeth looked more white. And I was a "cool" kid. Gazing into the mirror, I was in heaven.

One day, my brother got braces. He became a "cool" kid. His eyes sparkled, his teeth were more white, and he was quite in style. (This is all according to me, when I was 5. :D)

Then my older sister got braces. I was delighted to go anywhere with her, because then maybe people would think that I was cool too. (lol. :P) Her eyes sparkled, her teeth were more white, and, boy, was she fashionable!

One day, I got braces. My eyes do not sparkle. My teeth are not white. They do not make me any more fashionable or cool. And who would've thought: THEY HURT!!!

Braces are not all that they're cracked up to be.

-s. olivia

I'd Need a Saviour.

2010-10-01T16:55:00.000-04:00

How many names

Can I use to explain

The love of my Jesus

The life that HE gave

And so many times

Will I praise You today

I lift up my life

'Cause You're always the same

Your name is Jesus

You're the wonderful, Counselor, My Friend

You're what I hold on to

I know that You've brought me through

All the days of loss, and to the cross, You knew

That I'd need a Savior

How many songs

Can I sing to proclaim

Your wondrous love

Oh, and beauty so great

Oh, and what would I say

If You brought down the rain

And everyday I walk through the pain

My heart will still say......

.......Your name is Jesus

You're the wonderful, counselor, My Friend

you're what I hold on to

I know that You've brought me through

All the days of loss, and to the cross You knew

I'd need a Saviour!!

(Among the Thirsty)

-s. olivia

Bound no More...

2010-09-20T15:33:00.000-04:00

:D

Despite what you may think, the title actually means that.....I GOT MY EXPANDER OFF TODAY!!!! (I'm really excited. :D)

Here's a picture with my expander still in my mouth...(BTW, the picture is not pretty of me, so focus on the expander. ;D)

And here is my mouth with my expander gone!!

I'm still trying to get the taste of orthodontic cement out of my mouth, but other than that I love it!!!

Just thought I'd share my excitement!!

-s. olivia

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Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it. - Unknown

Love--

2010-09-19T14:57:00.000-04:00

"Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil...", read my Dad from the pulpit.

I have a lot of room for improvement here! Our family memorized this chapter - 1 Corinthians 13 - a couple months back. I always loved this chapter. I feel like I understand it more now, though...Maybe I should say, it means something different to me now.

Love envies not. I have been in so many situations where, for example, I have been wanting a new pair of high-heels, and then I show up at church and my friend is wearing a new pair. I get kind of angry, but don't let it show, and just try to avoid that person the rest of the day to "get even". I would never admit it, if she came up and asked me what was wrong, though. I would just act like she was reading into things. Can anyone say, "Totally a girl problem!?!?" :D

Dad confronted this exact feeling today. He talked about how we really need to learn to just be glad and encourage them, instead of envying. If we don't, we really don't have love. Sometimes I feel so vain and selfish!!

Love is not puffed up. I think mom is a great example of this. I don't think that I've ever seen her proud. Her love for us is very humbling. All day, she'll work hard - laundry, dishes, homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, and the list goes on. She never says, "Look at the work that I've done today! I'm so selfless."

I have done so many things to look good in front of my friends. I'm ashamed to say it, but I have. I've done so many things so that people will look at me and think, "My, what a mature, godly girl!" This is exactly what God is telling me not to do in this verse!!! Love is not puffed up!! God abhors the proud, but gives grace to the humble! I need to be reminded of this constantly. Pride is an ongoing battle for me!

Love does not behave unseemly. Dad encouraged us to look up the dictionary definition of unseemly.

Unseemly: inappropriate for time or place.

I automatically think of clothes here. If you're covered from head to foot, then you're drawing too much attention to yourself. Also, if you are not covered enough, you are drawing too much attention to yourself. It can go both ways here. :D If you are dressed out of place or inappropriately for the activities you are taking place in, you are drawing too much attention to yourself, and it is ungodly.

Love thinks no evil. I think evil all the time, not even realizing it. Coveting in my mind, putting off my devotions until "later" because I think I'm too busy, putting other things before God, and many other things. Even thinking meanly about some body's clothes, shoes, hair, and many other things about the outward appearance!! I'm very guilty of this. I didn't realize how much I think evil. I wouldn't think that I do, but the more I think about it, I think evil constantly!!

I think that I'm going to read these verses every day, just to keep my mind in check!! I struggle with all of this a lot, and I hope I'm not the only one who does...:D

I'm so thankful that God is love. He is forgiving and merciful, or else I would not have a chance!!

I know that this Sunday has given me enough to think about for a lifetime! You can never work enough on pride, envy, thinking evil, and love.

-s. olivia

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Following God has nothing to do with success as the world sees success. It has to do with love.
-Madeleine L'Engle

My Closet Crisis ~ :o)

2010-08-05T13:08:00.001-04:00

Rosy and I were recently invited to a "Banana Party" by a dear friend! You were supposed to wear as much yellow as you could!! We love stuff like this, but to our horror, we realized that we didn't have any yellow in our closet! (Besides 2 church skirts that had a little bit of yellow, some yellow high-heel shoes 3 sizes too big, and a scarf.) We were horrified!!

Now, clothes often mean waaay too much to me. I was stressing out and being way too touchy, just because I didn't have a yellow shirt!! :o) (Sounds really silly now...:D)

I was so aggravated, and I couldn't do anything about it, (I couldn't find anything yellow that fit me where we shopped) so I just told the Lord that I wasn't going to worry about it and leave it up to Him whether or not I wore yellow.

I did want it mustard yellow, but decided God probably didn't care what shade...:D

So, days passed. I wasn't worrying about it as much now, 'cause I knew it wasn't my problem. {I'm so thankful for a God who will listen when I tell Him something, no matter how small or silly it is. :D} Then, one of my friends came over (the day before the party) and handed me a bag, telling me that she had cleaned out her closet for the fall and these were the shirts that didn't fit.

When she left, I gingerly pulled out each shirt, examined it carefully, and put it aside. At the very bottom of the Wal-Mart bag was a short-sleeve mustard yellow shirt. I was thrilled. :D

Apparently, God really does care about what shade of yellow!!! AWESOME!!!

I guess miracles still do happen, eh?!

On our way off to the party~

It was an amazing time!! I am so blessed with such awesome friends!!

-s. olivia

I Scream, You Scream...

2010-08-02T10:39:00.000-04:00

...We all scream for ice cream!! (I know, kinda corny...:D)

On Sunday night, my dad apparently got a craving for Bruster's peach ice cream. Dad didn't tell any of us, though. Not even Mom!! He told us we were going to get gas with our Kroger plus card. :D We thought it was a bit strange that he wanted the whole family to load in our mini-van, just to get gas!!

At the gas station, my sweet little brother whispered in my ear: "I sure hope Dad has a surprise. If he doesn't, I'm gonna be mad!! Well, not really, but...you know."

Sure enough, shortly after the gas stop, Dad drove us over to the Bruster's. My little brother was thrilled!! (So was I ;D)

Here's Dad with his Peach ice cream: :D

Me and my sister ordered a Coffee Chocolate Chip ice cream cone. We both love coffee, so we adored that ice cream. :D

Rosy with her Birthday Cake cone:

And, of course, Tommy with his "Dino Sundae": (He especially liked the dinosaur cookie!!)

It was really fun. My dad is awesome. ;)

-s. olivia

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"Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us." -John Stott

Summer Accomplishment ~ 5

2010-07-28T18:42:00.001-04:00

-s. olivia

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"When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good and when we ourselves are consscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless Him that He is good. We must never tolerate an instant's unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same."

-C.H. Spurgeon

Ashes to Beauty

2010-07-26T20:20:00.000-04:00

At the foot of the cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me Your love
Through the judgment You received

And You've won my heart
Yes, You've won my heart
Now I can

Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross

At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death You bore for me

I'm laying every burden down
I'm laying every burden down

-Kathryn Scott
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These lyrics always mean a lot to me. They are a perfect reminder of Christ's suffering and love, so that I can experience the peaceful feeling of completeness in Christ. Completeness that only comes through Christ.

He has won my heart. Isn't it amazing how God has made it possible and finds joy in us trading our ashes into beauty? Our ashes are from our own sinful thoughts, desires and actions, that we brought on ourselves; yet Christ is willing to write His name, in His beautiful blood, over all of my sins, blotching out the imperfectness and calling me His own. To me, that is beyond beautiful.

I'm so blessed to serve a God who finds joy in me bringing my burdens to Him, laying them down at His feet of mercy.

Sometimes I just stand in awe. Almost shocked. Shocked that someone would actually die for me. He would've died for me if I was the only existing sinful creature. His love is that amazing.

-s. olivia

Summer Accomplishment ~ 4

2010-07-19T18:33:00.001-04:00

This week's accomplishment is painting/decorating some cork boards for my closet. I had been wanting to get this done for somewhere around 6 months, so it feels really good to get it done. Thanks to Dad, for helping me. :D

Here's some pictures of the finished product:

My push pins:

On the wall:

That's all for now. Sorry I don't have any better pictures. :/

-s. olivia

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"Faith is not believing that God can - It is knowing that He will."

The Starfish Story

2010-07-16T18:27:00.000-04:00

There once was a boy who was visiting the beach. It was low tide. There were a whole bunch of starfish, which came up at high tide, and were stuck on the sand when the tide went down. The boy was walking along the beach, throwing the starfish back into the water. He went along doing this for quite some time. Eventually, an older man came up to the boy and asked him what he was doing. The boy replied that he was throwing the starfish back in, so that they would live. The older man arrogantly retorted, "Well, that's dumb. This beach goes for miles and miles. There's thousands of starfish along the sand. Do you really think that you're making a difference by tossing in a few?"

The boy just kept walking, despite the older man's disapproving glare. After throwing in another starfish, the boy said, "Well, it made a difference to that one starfish."

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This story is very convicting to me. It shows me that, even when witnessing or being a "good Samaritan", it may seem worthless. People may tell me that, too. But even if I'm not changing the world, I am making a difference to one or two people. And that's what we're called to do.

Just thought I'd share.

-s. olivia

Summer Accomplishment ~ 3

2010-07-05T16:36:00.000-04:00

Wow! I can't believe that I'm only on the third accomplishment. :(

I kinda have a hard time staying focused on books, so they usually have to be very adventurous or mysterious to keep my attention. I rarely find a book that I can't put down after I've started.

One of my friends let me borrow a book called "Alone, Yet Not Alone". When I first started out (during the school year) I read a chapter, and it seemed all "flowers and butterflies", so I got extremely bored and decided that I did not like the book. I wanted to return it, but was scared that she would ask what my favorite part was, and I would have to tell her that I didn't actually read it (and that would be extremely embarrassing. :D) So, it became one of those things that I could do in the summer, when I had more time.

So...summer came. It was sunny out, and I decided that I would go outside to read the book. Okaaaay, I decided to go outside and try to get a tan. :D The only reason I took the book out was so that I could have something to do while "tanning".

Believe it or not, while I was "tanning" I somehow got sucked into the book!! What I thought to be "flowers and butterflies" became mysterious/adventurous!! I LOVED IT!!!

After reading the book, I came inside. I looked in the mirror and realized that I had not tanned at all, but instead got a sunburn. Aaaarrrgggghhhhh!!!!! At least I found a new top 10 favorite book!!

All this being said, I would highly recommend this book. :D

So, that's my 3rd summer accomplishment!

-s. olivia

Camp Butterfly---

2010-06-04T14:55:00.000-04:00

Aaaahhhhh......Where to start?? Okay, I just had one of the most amazing times of my life and I'm going to try to cram it into a tiny blog post. Behind each picture I have there is at least 1 story and about 50,000 words. These pictures do not nearly portray the awesome atmosphere.

We were sent an e-mail that informed us of one of the activities. It was called "pink night". We were all supposed to bring all our pink clothes, accesories, etc. We got super excited!!! When "pink night" finally came, it was a bit overwhelming. EVERTHING WAS PINK!!!!! You'll see what I mean in the next few pictures.....

Okay, now this is Sicily. She was one of those people who I knew the name of, knew she was nice, but didn't know her.....Until after the first few hours!! :D Now, I consider her one of my best friends. We were put in the same tent. We both LOVE to talk. No, love is an understatement. Okay, here's an example: Right before we went to bed, we were told that the quietest tent would get a prize. Sicily and I were determined to be the quietest, so we lay down quietly and mouth "good night" to each other. We lay there for about 10 minutes and then we slowly got up and looked at each other with these HUGE eyes. We could hardly stand it!! We were basically shaking because we wanted to talk so bad!!! We mouthed that we would try to be super quiet that night, and then the next night we could completely party and rock out. :P LOVE YOU, SICIL!!!!!

This is Madelyn, my Prince Alarming. Man, what can I say about her?? She's awesomely amazing. We made more inside jokes than anyone else at camp (I know this for a fact). I LOVE HER.......SO MUCH. Hee har, hee har........SLURP, SLURP!!!! :DDDD)

For one of our activities, we were given 6 pieces of duct tape, a pack of straws, and an egg. We needed to protect the egg with the duct tape and straws, so that when it was dropped it wouldn't break. The last one to break wins. You get the idea....We named ours "Johnny"......he. cracked.

*sniff, sniff*

This is Abby. She was our worship leader. She was/is......amazing. She is one of the only teen-agers I know of who would spend time to talk with me. Who wouldn't judge me by what I was wearing. Who wasn't scared of what other people would think if she talked to someone younger. That's hard for me to find and I appreciate that....A LOT. I want to be like that. It was this way with all of the older girls, but I especially noticed it with Abby. I love you, sister.

Developing servant hearts and washing our leader's feet. :D

I think this is my favorite picture of the entire camp.

This is the counselor skit. It was hilarious!!

Decorating flip-flops. This was super fun. It was so fun to see what everyone did!!

Playing a "water toss". It was really fun!! I got water dumped on my head...several times.

Signing t-shirts at the end. It was sad. :(

This camp was amazing. It had a mixture of all my best friends on earth. My sisters, my new friends, and my old friends. It was soo amazing. I have many new friends that I didn't talk about in this post. I also have many old friends that are just as close as my new ones. If you are one of these people, know that you are loved (even if I haven't talked about you . ;D). I loved having every single person at this camp. You are all so much closer to me now.

Thank you all for loving me and for making Camp Butterfly so fun and meaningful!!

-s. olivia

Fun Time With Friends!

2010-05-31T19:23:00.000-04:00

We have recently had some very good friends visit!! We try to keep our relationships up, though the miles separate us, but it's always good to re-connect...It didn't take us too long to start talking and giggling, though!! :D I wish we could have these times together more often...

Here's some pictures my sister managed to get, although most of the time we were moving too fast. :D Between jumping on the trampoline, swimming in the pool, walking the dog, and playing "slap jack" (and other games), we were constantly on the move! We walked the dog, swam, and jumped on the trampoline in the rain, so here's some pictures of us...dripping wet after feeding the dog. :D

Hahahaha......IT WAS FUN!!!!!!

Some of our other activities included staying up until 1:00 talking, playing "Apples to Apples", catching flies...while we were supposed to be in bed, eating popcorn, introducing iced coffee, and somewhere in this mess of goofiness (if that's even a word), we were able to have some good talks and get to know each other more.

Overall, it was an amazing time. :D

I miss you guys already. Can't wait till you visit again!!!

-s. olivia

Praying for B.O.B...

2010-05-25T20:16:00.000-04:00

I once heard that .1% of your life is spent on earth. In this small sliver of time, ones eternity is determined. You have .1% of your life to share with others the salvation that God has given to us and is willing to give to them. It is up to me to let God work through me and bring others to the knowledge that they need Christ, and then we can spend the other 99.9% of life together in eternal splendor!! This is very convicting to me.

Recently, I have been struggling with how I can reach out to others, spread the gospel, and be a witness for Christ. How much I should do, how involved I should get in service, and many other things. It has become very evident to me that this is really what I should pour my entire life into.

I do feel called to witness, as I believe all God's children are; however, I also feel I can't. Sometimes, I think it would be so much easier if I was actually eye-level with the one I am witnessing to. Yet, one day I will be as tall as them and it will be completely awkward, because I won't know where to start. That is why I need to start now and get in the habit of it. I will always find an excuse to wait longer! If I was pulled out of my .1% of life spent on earth right now, I would wish that I would have told others that there is hope for them.

There is hope for the hopeless, rest for the weary, strength for the weak, and salvation for the lost. I know this and there are people out there who are suffering great affliction, because I have failed to be a witness of His love and forgiveness.

My sister read in the Bible that one of the greatest sins is fear. It was listed among things like adultery, stealing, murder; sins that we would normally consider the greatest. This hit me like a rock. I know that fear is what is keeping me from sharing my faith with the hopeless. If I can't get over this fear of man, my life will pass me by and I will wish that I would have told more about God's saving grace.

I need to pray for victory over fear. Fear is holding me back from letting God's saving health be made known among the heathen.

I have given out a few tracts, but because of fear I have not been able to really engage. There is a fun tool that some friends have taught me: pray for B.O.B.

B= burden. Pray for a burden for the lost, that when you see someone, you automatically think of their soul. This will make you want to approach them more.

O= opportunity. Pray for opportunities to talk to people and engage in spiritual conversations.

B= boldness. Pray for boldness to confront someone about their salvation.

I believe that If you have a burden, opportunities, and boldness, God will take care of the rest. He will give you words to speak, and work through you. He knows what the person you're talking to needs to hear. You may not (actually, probably won't) see any impact that you're making on their lives, but God will use you. You are planting seeds in their hearts. You are making them really think.

These are just some thoughts that I've been tossing around. I think I'm getting ready to make a move on my thoughts.

Thank you all for reading my somewhat long post and I would appreciate your prayers, or even better, if you would join me in overcoming fear, and spreading the love of God!!

-s. olivia

{Something I didn't include in the message above, but also very important: If you are truly a changed, godly person in your heart, and you are striving to live for God, your entire life will be a witness. It will automatically shine through you. It is very good to give out tracts, but if you are a true Christian, your entire life is a tract.}

You Know it's Summer When...

2010-05-22T21:10:00.001-04:00

...You can start swimming everyday...

...You get a "farmer's tan" while mowing the lawn...(more like a burn. :D)...

...School is coming to a close...

...Flowers are starting to bloom...

...You can start wearing flip-flops everywhere...(yesssss!!)

...It's time to start finishing things you've put off 'till the summer...I am ashamed to say that I have not done a summer accomplishment this week. We had a choir program and some other time-consuming things going on lately.....

These are just some things that I've been getting excited about...Today I stopped and realized that the summer "activities" are finally coming into full swing. YAY!!! Summer is my favorite time of the year.

...Looking forward to what God has in store for us this summer!!!

-s. olivia

Summer Accomplishment ~ 2

2010-05-15T16:03:00.000-04:00

For this weeks summer accomplishment, I finally got around to sewing my purse. The most recent purse that I had was pink and did not match everything. And since I only have 1 or 2 pink shirts, it never matched!! The pink purse was also very small. All my stuff was crammed into it. {I hope I'm not the only girl out there with clutter issues. JK!! :D}

So, I started looking around in stores for a purse that matched everything, was big enough for my stuff, and had pockets. Apparently, that type of purse is impossible to buy. :D So, after getting annoyed with not finding the "perfect" purse, I decided to make one.

I bought jean for the outside (so that it will match everything) and pink plaid for the inside. ( I love plaid!!)

This purse took me approximately 3 hours to make.

My stuff fits!! YAY!!! :o)

I really like this purse, and I can't wait to wear it!! :D

-s. olivia

"The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life..." ~ Proverbs 14:27

Summer Accomplishment ~ 1

2010-05-10T10:05:00.000-04:00

For my sister Nikki's summer accomplishment challenge, I decided to make a cheesecake. Nothing big, but I had never tried it before, so I thought it would be fun ~

Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Chip Cheesecake:

Ingredients--

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa pwder

1/3 cup butter, melted

3 {8 ounce} packages cream cheese

1 {14 ounce} can sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

Directions--

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter and cocoa. Press into bottom of 9 inch springform pan. Set crust aside.

2. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk; beat well. Add vanilla and eggs, and beat on medium speed until smooth. toss 1/3 of the miniature chocolate chips with the 1 teaspoon flour to coat {this keeps them from sinking to the bottom}. Mix into cheese mixture. Pour into prepared crust. Sprinkle top with remaining chocolate chips.

3. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off oven {do not open oven door} and leave cake in the oven to cool for another hour. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate before removing sides of pan. Keep cake refrigerated until time to serve...And your done!!

Anyways, there's my accomplishment. :D

-s. olivia

P.S. Happy Mothers' Day!!! :) LOVE YOU, MOM!!!

Thoughts on Wheat and Weeds-

2010-04-26T15:38:00.000-04:00

Recently, my brother and sisters and I have been planting in the garden. It is so exciting to see the new little sunflowers start poking out of the ground. My little brother is thrilled. :) We've just started, and it is already hard to keep up with the weeds!! Man, I wish that I could turn the weeds into flowers......Haha, nice try. :)

This Sunday, one of the preachers was talking about the parable of the sower & the seeds. The preacher talked about how the harvesters wanted to pull the weeds, but the owner of the fields said to wait till harvest time. If the harvesters pulled the weeds now, they would pull up the wheat as well. The owner said to wait till harvest time, then they should gather them both at the same time, and cast away the weeds.

It got me thinking about how we are the wheat, and with God's help, we can transform the weeds (unbelievers) around us into wheat (believers). We can do this by sharing God's word and the plan of eternal salvation to the people around us, so that the harvest will be plentiful, when the time comes.

Recently, I've been trying to get up enough guts to witness. I'm so glad that I found God's forgiveness, and I know that there are people out there who need it, too. Maybe, they're just waiting for that push, by someone coming up and talking to them. Maybe, they can't even see that God's forgiving arms are stretched out to them. Maybe, they just need to be reminded of their need for Him. They just need to know that if they come boldly before God's throne, with a heart of repentance, they're sins will be cleansed and they can have a personal relationship with Him. But how can they know, unless they are told?? And how can they be told, except by us believers??? (Romans 10:14-15)

Soooo.....right now, I'm just trying to hand out tracts. I think they are a good way to start. :) It's easy to sit here and type about what I need to do, but it's reeeeally hard to do, when it actually comes down to it. I want everyone to be able to experience this victory in Christ, which I've won!! I want everyone to see His outstretched arms, and to run into them.

Psalm 96:3 "Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people."

Anyways, that is what I've been thinking about lately...

God continues to show His greatness!!

-s. olivia

Running into His Arms ~

2010-04-21T18:15:00.000-04:00

God has been working in my life a lot lately, and I would like to share the victories that He has helped me win with you ~

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I felt a barrier between God and myself, but I didn't know what it was or how to break it down. For a while, I had been struggling with this barrier. Mom and Dad would encourage me a lot to keep seeking God's will, and to keep praying and asking Him to show me what this barrier was. I am so thankful for my parents. They have played a big part in helping my spiritual life. As time went on, I felt this barrier growing bigger and bigger.

Then, this Friday (April 16th) I was reading Hebrews 3:12 ~ "Take heed, my brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God."

It was then that I felt God showing me that the barrier between us was my evil heart of unbelief. And He showed me that the only way to break it down is to take the step in faith and believe that He will give me eternal life. But how?? I just wished that there was something that I could physically grab on to, to ensure that I really was believing.

It was because of my heart that I couldn't get closer to Him. I wasn't believing with all my heart that He will give me eternal life, that He cares for me, and that He even exists. I talked to Mom and Dad about this. Through some things that Dad and Mom said, God opened my eyes to see that the only thing that can help me believe, is coming to God with a heart of repentance for my sin of an unbelieving heart.

We prayed but as soon as I got up, Satan brought back the thoughts of unbelief. What if God didn't really hear my prayer? What if I'm not really spiritually changed? What if God didn't forgive my heart of unbelief? These thoughts pestered my soul for the next few days. I felt like God's arms were stretched out to me and I was trying to run to Him, but something kept holding me back.

I kept reading God's word and praying, probably harder than I ever have. I journaled my thoughts and just kept seeking God. Then He gave me another verse ~

"And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." - Hebrews 5:9

He is offering me eternal salvation, and if I just obey Him, it'll be mine! I can obey Him by answering His call to come before His throne and ask forgiveness of the disbelief in my heart. At this point, I was determined to not let Satan's tempting thoughts of disbelief take over my mind again. I went downstairs and poured out my heart to Dad and Mom and God again. I prayed again to God, thanking Him for calling me, and forgiving my evil heart of unbelief.

This time, He helped me have faith!! And I was able to cover myself in God's love, so much that Satan could not take over my mind. It was such an amazing feeling!! Knowing that I had made Satan mad by growing closer to God, and that I refused to let Satan in. It was an amazing feeling, knowing that I had made God glad by shutting Satan's tempting evil thoughts out, and running into God's arms!!!
Satan's temptations are definitely still there, but now I feel more equipped to fight Satan off, because my Lord is with me, closer than ever. My God is amazing. He is mighty to save. He has offered me eternal salvation. He is indescribable.

I consider myself blessed beyond words that God has given me amazing parents, family, and friends. Each of which will help me grow closer to God, by encouraging me and just by being Godly examples. Most of all, I am thankful for my heavenly father, who has called me, and accepted me. And let me run into His outstretched arms, which I am so unworthy of doing.

So, that's what God's been up to!! I am so glad that He cares for me.

He has helped me win the gift of eternal salvation, which He is the author of.

Please pray for me, as I have made a commitment to the Lord to surrender my life wholly to Him and to pick up my cross daily and follow Him ~ In our church, this is called repentance.

Only because of Him,

s. olivia

Jamaica Part 2

2010-04-11T15:39:00.000-04:00

Sorry it took me forever to post this...Hope you enjoy ~
------------------------

Thursday -

Like the other days we woke up, ate breakfast, had a group devotion and started our jobs on the work site. It's hard to believe that the week is almost over already! It has been one of the best weeks of my life! Today was also sad, though, because back in Atlanta, the Maibach's are moving to Leo, Indiana. (We later found out they moved on Friday...)I prayed and thought of them a lot today!

Today is our last work day, because tomorrow we either go to the YS Falls and swim or we go to Kingston School for Deaf Children and have a tour and be with kids there. We have a sponsor child at Kingston, so our family chose to go there. Although Ricky went to the falls with some friends he had made on the trip. Anyways, back to today! After lunch, the VBS kids, the teachers, and Anna, Nikki, and I loaded the bus to go to the orphanage. The kids from the deaf village are very excited! Mr. Chad drove us.

When we got there we saw a pretty small building and a fence with a swing set/play set area (which was not in the best shape). We got out of the 15 passenger van and a lady welcomed us in. The children at the orphanage were SO excited to see us and quickly ran out to play on the play set with the kids from the village. They blended nicely and played together happily. the women who owned the orphanage told us that while the kids played, we were allowed to come and hold the babies. The babies were soooooo sweet. But it was also sad when we got inside. They had cribs lined along all the walls in a very small room, and they had couches too. Everything in there was lined up to look at the TV which was playing "The Wiggles". They had about 5 or 6 ladies working there.

We sang a few songs with them and gave the lady the pillowcases we had worked on. After a while, we went back outside and played with the kids on the play set. I found this little girl who looked like she had been crying. She looked about 3. I held out my hands as she looked up into my eyes with those BIG dark brown ones of hers. She quickly took my hands and wouldn't let go for anything. I didn't mind at all. <3

We gave out our pillowcases and pillows that we had made, then we sang a few songs with the kids. When it was time to go, the little girl was still holding on to me. She didn't say one thing to me the entire time I was with her. I walked away not knowing her name or exact age, or anything really about her. Except the fact that she was obviously thirsting for affection. Don't get me wrong, the lady who worked there was loving and affectionate toward the kids, but when there's 30 (or so) of them, it was probably hard for her to love on everyone.

After we all said our goodbyes, we went back to the deaf village, had dinner, and played games then went to bed. I was REALLY ready for some sleep....

-------------------------

Friday -

After we had breakfast, we all loaded one of two buses. Either the one to the YS Falls or the one to Kingston. It was kinda a long ride to Kingston. I slept on the way!! When we got there, the kids came running up to us and gave us some great big hugs, even though they didn't know us! It was cool!!! They LOVED the cameras, so we have many, many pictures of some one's hand or some one's eye, etc. Hehe...the pictures are fun to look at. :)

We got to meet our sponsor child (who is 18), which was neat. Sadly, we didn't get a picture with her. :( Shortly after we got there, the principle of the school gave us a tour. They had recently had a fire in one of their rooms.

I felt SO spoiled as I walked through their "dorms". They each had about 3 articles of clothing. (including their school uniform.) Every morning I wake up to a closet brimming with clothes. I worry about my clothes not matching perfectly, not having a shirt in every color and not having shoes to match the exact shade of brown. They're glad if they have even 1 shirt to wear for days in a row. I'm ready to ship half of my closet out to Jamaica, I don't know about you!!!

As we kept walking through, we found that they have a nice library here. Lots of good books!!!

The kids are deaf, but that does not stop them from coming up to you and trying to carry on a conversation!!! They would ask me a question and I would either make the "I have no idea what you're talking about" face, or try to respond with what little sign language I knew. It was quite the experience. I'm sure the people around me found it hilarious!!! :D

One little girl literally clung onto Dad. Unlike most children at the orphanage we visited yesterday, she was very outgoing. Dad figured out that her name was Kiera. She was SO concerned about the veins in my dad's arms. Dad was trying to assure her that he did not have an illness and that she had them too, you just couldn't see hers. :) She was adorable. She started crying when Dad left.

When it was lunchtime, we went to "Island Grill". The food there was pretty good!!! I had BBQ chicken and a "festival". A festival is a lot like the appetizer rolls at O' Charley's. They are SOOOOO good!!!!!!!

When we got back to the deaf school, the kids ran up to us again. This little boy LOVED my sunglasses. He put them on and then he ran off, I didn't think that I was gonna get them back!! (Thankfully they were from "Dollar General". ;D) Then right before we left, he sweetly handed them back over.

Today was very neat!! When we got back to the deaf village, we had supper, then we all went around and said what our favorite part of the trip was. I said that mine was either the church service on Sunday, the orphanage, or the deaf school. They were all so awesomely amazing. :)

I don't want to go to bed, because tomorrow we have to leave. :( Oh well, we can't stay here forever!! It will good to be with Rosy and Tommy, though. Anyways, gotta get some sleep....

---------------------------

Saturday-

This morning after breakfast, we took one last group picture. Then we all went our separate ways. As we were driving away from the village, to go to the airport, I'll admit it, I cried. After about 3 hours of driving, we arrived at the airport and waited in a few long lines. We would've missed our flight if the lady who worked there hadn't given us a shortcut. We barely made it on our flight, even with her help!!

We were in such a hurry that we didn't have time to stop and eat! We went a total of 12 hours from meal to meal. UGH!!! We were really hungry!!!

When we got back, Some friends picked us up and surprised us by bringing our younger siblings, too!!! It was good to be together again!!

We were ready for some American food, so we stopped at Partner's Pizza. It tasted SOOOO good!!!

We were exhausted when we got home, so we went straight to bed.

It's good to be home, but I already miss Jamaica. It was an indescribable trip.
-s. olivia

Spring tag!!!

2010-04-07T20:04:00.000-04:00

My sister, Nikki, passed this blog quiz along on to me. It looks like a lot of fun!!! Nikki's creative answers with pictures is kinda a hard act to follow (jk), but here goes...:)

-----------------~~~

High heels or Boots? high heels. Unless it's cowboy boots. :)

What time did you get up this morning? 8:24.

What do you usually have for breakfast? Cereal or Clementines on a week day, toaster strudels or cinnamon rolls on Sundays.

What food do you dislike? Not much. Occasionally eggs, depending on how they're made. I like creamed eggs, eggs on toast, sometimes scrambled, etc...

What is your favorite CD at the moment? Journey ~ {a CD made by our second cousin and her dad...}

Favorite clothing? Almost anything zebra striped, polka dotted, high heel, or plaid. :)

Are you an organized person? I wouldn't consider myself one, although if things are unorganized, I can't think. :)

What was your most recent memorable birthday? This year ~ Mom took me shopping and then reserved a hotel room for us. It was soooo fun!!! You can read more about it here.

What are you going to do after you finish this? Talk to mom...she just walked in the door!!!

Are you a morning person or a night person? night. My sisters and I "burn midnight oil". We play card games and just talk about our thoughts on things, how our days went, etc...It's such fun having sisters close to your age. ~ LOVE YOU GIRLS!!!!

What is your shoe size? Anywhere from 5 to 7. Depending on the shoe.

Do you own any pets? a dog. Her name is Kipper. :D

Any exciting news you want to share? NO SCHOOL FOR THE NEXT 2 DAYS!!!!! whooooo!!!!!!!

When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up? Dentist. I wanted to "wear matching outfits and investigate people". seriously. I even wrote a letter to my dentist telling her that! She was my role model. :P

What is a day on the calender you are looking forward to? Last day of school!!

If you were a crayon what color would you be? LIME GREEN.

How is the weather right now? Warm and pollen-ish. :) Yay for spring!!!

Last person you spoke to on the phone? A very sweet lady from church. I love her!!!

Favorite drink? Iced coffee all the way. {homemade}

Favorite Restaurant? Chick-fil-A and Olive Garden.

Hair color? blonde with brown highlights. Or rather brown with blonde highlights.

What was your favorite toy as a child? My pink doll stroller. It had a teddy bear pattern all over it, and I loved it half to death. :) i still have it, actually.

Summer or Winter? Totally summer. I can't wait to swim on a regular basis. :)

Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla.

Coffee or Tea? COFFEE!!!

Wish you were still young? Umm...I am. :D

What is under your bed? I have a loft bed, so book shelves.

What did you do last night? Went to a friends house.

Salty or Sweet? Well, I like sweet things like iced coffee, but then our family is addicted to popcorn. If you've been to our house, you know that! :0)

Favorite day of the week? Sunday. I enjoy going to church, and I enjoy family time afterwards. Mom always makes an amazing meal. :)

What friend will you tag? B. Renae, she is an amazing friend of mine. I'd really enjoy hearing her answers!! (Sorry for putting you on the spot, Britt!!! You don't have to, I just thought of you...Anyone else who wants to should feel free to do this also. :)

Well, there's my answers!!! Thanks for reading ~
-S. olivia

Friends: the flowers in the garden of life. :)

2010-04-02T16:09:00.000-04:00

Recently, a friend and I had tons of time on our hands and decided to have a photoshoot. We asked my amazing older sister, Nikki, to take them, since she has a talent for photography. (These were taken on a friends camera, just to let you know. :D) I'm also going to add some of my favorite sayings. Hope you enjoy!!!

90% of what you say, doesn't come from your mouth. - Unknown

What if heaven consisted of only those you reached for Christ? - Unknown

Be yourself, everyone else is taken. :D - Unknown

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers

Kind words may be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Theresa

Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains. - William Penn

Reputation is what men and women think of us, character is what God and angels know of us. - Thomas Paine

We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world. - Helen Keller

I asked Jesus..."how much do you love me?"...And Jesus said..."This much." Then He stretched out His arms and died. - Unknown

Spring header vote

2010-03-13T16:06:00.001-05:00

I meant to post about the 2nd part of Jamaica, and it is coming, but I wanted to have a header vote first. My back ground was getting dull...:)

Anyways, to vote on which header you like best and which pic you think I should use as my header, you comment on this post and just tell me!!! Here are the options:

Thanks for participating!!! I'm anxious to see which one wins. :)

The end day that you can vote is Tuesday, March 16.

-s. olivia

Jamaica part 1 (beware: massive post :D)

2010-03-08T15:04:00.000-05:00

Recently, my family has had the awesome opportunity to go to Jamaica on a mission trip!!! Dad and Mom took D, E, and I. (A and W stayed with some friends.) We went to a deaf village called JDV, where they keep families who have deaf parents, but the children can hear. If you want to hear a little bit more of our trip visit here.

While I was there, Mom encouraged me to journal my experience. I didn't really see the point of doing it, but I did. and I'm SO glad Mom encouraged me!!! It makes it SO much easier to remember everything!!! I thought that I would show you guys what I wrote in my journal. Although, I don't think that anyone could ever explain our time there well enough to do it justice. No words could ever describe how amazing it was to actually feel GOD's presence there with us. Whether we were having a group devotion or we were with the deaf. I especially felt GOD's presence when we were at the church. It was just so...IDK...powerful. I'm so glad that we could go and I don't think that I'll ever forget the time we had there. I hope that you enjoy what I managed to journal during our busy schedule there. Thanks for viewing!!!

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Saturday -

We woke up at about 5 o'clock and some friends came to take us to the airport. When we got to the airport, we spent about 2 hours waiting for our flight. Dad treated us to Burger King for breakfast. :) I wasn't very hungry, so I had some hash browns. They were really good!

After breakfast, we boarded our plane and were on our way to Montego Bay. Dad, Mom and I were on the same row on the airplane. They left me have the seat next to the window! It was really fun to watch out the window as the cars and houses get smaller and smaller as we grew higher and higher. When we flew above the ocean, it was fun to see how small the cruise ships were.

When we got to Jamaica, we met the people we were going to work with. They were from Indiana. After we all got our bags and such, we got on 2 big buses and headed to a Burger King for lunch. Pretty soon after we got to Jamaica, I started feeling alittle sick to my stomach, but it passed pretty quickly.

Here in Jamaica, the driver drives on the wrong side of the road. After Burger King, we kept on driving to JDV (Jamaican Deaf Village). It was a 3 hour drive and very twisty!

When we got there, we all picked a room and a bunk and got settled in, (which took a long time.) and then we ate. The food is very good! The missionaries here have hired some very good Jamaican chefs! After we ate, one of the missionaries gave us a little orientation and introduced us to some people. I am very tired, and need to get some sleep so I don't get sick again.

---------------------------------

Sunday -

We woke up and for breakfast we had eggs with bacon and peppers. It was good! After we ate, Dad gave us a group devotion. We sang a few songs and had a really good time. Shortly after that, we walked over to their deaf church. Our legs were all hurting us from the long walk over. It is very mountainous here in Jamaica. The service at church was very spirit-filled! You could just see GOD's love on their faces!

They sign songs with their hands. They follow the song leader Cresmore as best as they could. He can hear only a little bit, but enough to start them off on their signing, and keep them up with the music. Even thought they couldn't talk, it was their words and you could tell that it was coming from their hearts!

There were about 30 deaf Jamaicans who attend the church regularly. One of the missionaries said that there are 40,000 deaf Jamaicans, and only 3 deaf churches.

The pastor's name is Damian. His wife is Felicia and they have 3 adorable kids. We will have their kids at the VBS. This Sunday at the Jamaican church was probably one of the neatest experiences in my life. The preacher was so expressive when he signed. Watching them sign like that really makes me want to learn! All the deaf Jamaicans are so nice!!

After church, we went to the infirmary - a Jamaican nursing home.

It was very sad. They had beds lining the walls, inches apart. The smell was horrible and you felt so bad when you thought about them living there every day. We sang them a few up-lifting songs and reminded them that JESUS loves them.

When we finished at the infirmary, one of the missionaries took us back to the deaf village. There, he gave us a tour of the factory. The purpose of the factory is to give the deaf men who live at the village a job. Off of the factory, there is a sewing room where the deaf women who live there can work. They make these really cool purses in there that say "Jamaica" on them. They are REALLY neat!!! I want to buy one.

One thing that we have noticed already is that they have BEAUTIFUL sunsets here!!!

Today was our last day of fun before we start working!!!

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Monday -

Today, we start our work! We headed to the cafeteria to have some breakfast. After we had breakfast and done some other things, we started heading out to the work sight. We are working on a building that will eventually be a place where the people on a mission trip can stay. It should be pretty nice. I'd like to come back and see it when it's all done!!!

Anyways, everyone works really hard, and I would like to help as much as possible, but I'm not very strong. So, since I'm not very strong, I do the job that nobody wants - chinking. Chinking is when you take a hammer and you chink the ceiling. It gives the plaster for the ceiling something to grip on to. It is SUCH a boring job!!! Sometimes, I also help dad with the little things he's working on.

Later today, we get to do a VBS for the kids who live here. The kids themselves are not deaf, but their parents are. We do the VBS after lunch.

After we worked, (for what seemed like forever :D) we went to eat. When we finished eating, we went out and worked some more. Feeling nice and refreshed from lunch, the work seems easier and a little more fun!!!

We work for about another hour, then we go back in and shower (in cold water) to get ready for the VBS.

The theme for VBS is, "Be Strong and Courageous in the Power of HIS Might".

Today, the story was "Noah and the Ark". The little kids are SO cute!!! VBS went pretty smoothly. Some of the kids love you and do whatever you say and some of them - well - they have a mind of their own. :)

By the time we finished vacation bible school, it was almost time to eat supper. After we finish supper, we sing a few songs, and whoever wants to can share their testimony of how they came to CHRIST, how they were called to go on the mission field, or anything else. The testimonies are really neat to hear!!! After we finish that, we're free to do whatever we want! Everybody usually moves to the snack table (which was literally overflowing). Some people also play card games. It's pretty fun!!!

Well, I keep yawning, so I should go to bed. ;)

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Tuesday -

Yesterday (Monday) kinda set the routine for the rest of the work days.

One of the main jobs that E and I do, other than chink, is pulling nails out of boards so that the workers can re-use the boards.

Pulling nails out of the board is a very tiring job! But it isn't really that hard. I think that it might have something to do with being in the hot, hot sun for a long time, which gets you tired?!?!?

Anyways, VBS has been going really good with the kids. For the most part they are very sweet.

We split the kids up into 3 different classes, which each teaches in a different level of difficulty (if you know what I mean).

--The oldest class--

--The middle class--

--The youngest class--

I should probably go to bed soon, so good-night!!!

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Wednesday -

We kinda did the same as yesterday, today. Everyone is getting the hang of their jobs on the work site, so it's going a little smoother. (At least from what I saw.)

Once again, I chinked the ceiling and pulled nails out of the boards.

After lunch, we went to VBS, the teachers told the Jamaican kids that tomorrow, they need to be ready to ride the bus by 3:00. We are going to an orphanage tomorrow with the kids!!! We are gonna give the kids at the orphanage some pillowcases/pillows that the Jamaicans kids had been working on. They were excited!!!

Today, my family and I have "KP duty". We signed up for it at the beginning of the week. When we signed up for it, we didn't realize that today, the Jamaicans do the dishes as a thank-you to the work team for all that we did. Ooooopss!!

Tonight, the Jamaicans did a program for us after the dishes were done. It was really touching!!!

They signed a few songs and did a skit about "resisting temptation". They were both really good!!!

Right now, a few people are playing card games. They sound like they are having fun. :) They will be going to bed soon, since it's almost 11:00 ("lights-out" time).

I should probably get to sleep, too!!!

--------------------To be continued---------------------

A smile to your day. :)

2010-02-25T22:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a video to brighten your day. :)

(P.S. It is a joke. :D) Hope you enjoyed!!!

-s. olivia

Guess what?!?!

2010-02-12T16:11:00.000-05:00

Rosy, Tommy and I were inside doing art...

Then we realized that it was snowing outside!!! we were SO excited!!! I was surprised, because it wasn't really that cold. I went out there to get some pictures without a coat on and I didn't get cold!!! Anyways, here are the pics that I got.

I love the snow!!! It's so pretty. Thank you for viewing!

-s. olivia

Naomi and I

2010-01-26T19:42:00.001-05:00

My friend Naomi had me over the other day, and when we were together, we decided to take "cowgirl style" pics. :)

A lot of them turned out blurry, but i'm posting some of the best edited ones.

I hope you enjoy!!!

Thanks for viewing!!!

-s. olivia

(By the way, our friend, is doing pretty good. He was very lucky!!! Thank you all for your prayers!!!)

Please pray!!!

2010-01-21T16:53:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!!!

We just found out that a friend who is very close to our family(and a lot of families. He is VERY likeable. :) fell off of his roof. Right now he is being driven to a hospital in Atlanta by ambulance.

He is kinda like our grandpa. He is ALWAYS working or doing something for others!!!

We don't know much about it, but we would really appreciate your prayers!!!

-s. olivia

My awesome friends :-)

2009-12-31T12:21:00.000-05:00

I know that I said I was going to put pics of the performance on, but I didn't really feel like it, so if you want to see some pics go here. :-) I'm so sorry that I haven't up-dated in like forever. I've started a few posts and then accidentally deleted them (or something like that) a few times...and then I got discouraged and decided not to post for a while. :-)

But, here I am!!! me and my sister and my 2 AWESOME friends decided to take a photoshoot together. Some of the pics are like good enough to hang on my wall...and I think I will!!! I'm putting on a few of my favorites!!!

--favorite--

I think that's about it!!! Thanks for viewing!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

-s. olivia

sneak peek

2009-12-11T22:49:00.000-05:00

as i have posted about before, we are having our choir performance tomorrow!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! i'll post pics about it later, after the program, but here's a sneak peek:

i was editing this pic and i left it for a while. when i came back, i found that my "sweet" little brother added something to the picture. ahhh, brothers...:-) can you figure out what he added???

more pics about the performance coming soon!!!

-s. olivia

a little bit of everything...:-)

2009-12-08T21:41:00.000-05:00

this post is just going to, obviously, be about a little bit of everything. but, before i start my actual post, i would like to thank everyone who voted on my header. THANKS!!!!!

well, as i have already wrote at the bottom of my last post, this week will be (and already is) really busy. we have a lot of things going on with our choir because our performance is coming up. recently, i have been losing my 6 year old molars. i have lost 2 in 2 days. both of which i hardly even knew were loose!!! i only had 2 more to loose and i really wanted them to come out.

i had my piano recital this evening and it went okay. i enjoy playing the piano, but it is alot different playing in front of other people!!! while i was playing my awesome sister, e took a video of me playing. here it is: (be sure to go to the bottom of the page and turn off my music. )

i mess up in the movie, so just try to ignore that part...i hope that you don't take this the wrong way. i'm not trying to brag, so please don't take it like that. :-)

after the recital we had brought food to eat and have some fellowship after we played. while we were in the car on the way home, another one of my teeth started hurting and i thought it was just because i had too many sweet snacks. i realized it was hurting because it was loose. then, i told my sister about it and she told me to just keep wiggling it and maybe it would come out by the end of the week. well, guess what!?!?!? she had hardly finished saying that when my tooth literally popped out and landed on my other sisters lap and then fell onto the floor!!! i was SO surprised!!! now, i only had one more 6 year old molar to loose!!!

i realize that nobody really wants to hear about my loose teeth, but i just needed something to type about. :-) (hehehe)

gotta go to bed!!! BYE!!!

-s. olivia

(this post was originally going to be a really long post with a little bit of everything in it, but it's getting too late and my daddy is telling me to get to bed, so good-night y'all!!! :-)

CHRISTmas header vote--

2009-12-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

i'm sorry that it took me so long to get these on here.

please pick your favorite pic and comment to tell me which one you think i should put as my header.

#1

#2
#3

#4

s. olivia

p.s. this week is going to be really busy for me, so i probably won't put it up for a while...try to comment before wednesday. :)

welcome december!!!

2009-12-02T22:40:00.000-05:00

i know it's a little weird to have a welcome december post when we're already 2 days into december...but i found this really pretty horse pic that i wanted to share!!!

tell me if you like the pic!!! this is also a post to let y'all know that i'm going to be re-doing my look for winter again. it seems like i've just changed my look, but right now it doesn't look very winter-ish. i'll probably do another header vote and stuff, so just kinda wanted to let you know...:-) thanks for viewing!!!
-s. olivia

what we've been up to...

2009-11-30T15:24:00.000-05:00

we've been getting really excited about CHRISTmas around here!!! i'm sure some of you have already heard a little about our CHRISTmas decorating and such on the family/my sister's blog. since y'all would probably get kinda bored if i just re-told exactly what my sister wrote about (and since she wrote it SO much better than i ever could have!!!), i've decided to do a post about our CHRISTmas cookie decorating.

every year we make CHRISTmas sugar cookies and have a blast decorating them!!! they usually turn out kinda sloppy, so this year we went out and bought some nicer cookie cutters and decided to only use white and blue icing. they turned out fairly well for the most part. as we were making them we were thinking that they weren't looking very good, but after we got the sprinkles on and they were completely done, they looked a lot better than we had thought they would. here's a few pics of the cookies:

as you have most likely read on e's blog we have also put up and decorated our tree. the CHRISTmas tree has also been a bit too junky in the past years, so we sorta did the same thing as the cookies with it. we went out and bought some new stuff and decorated in the theme red and gold. we tried to do it a little simpler and just more tastefully. we also decided to try stringing popcorn and putting it on the tree. now, any of you who have ever been to our house before knows that our whole family is pretty much addicted to popcorn!!! so, it was kinda funny that we hadn't ever strung it for the tree before!!! i think ewe have a new tradition!!! here's a pic of the tree when it was finished:

just thought that i would share with y'all what we've been up to!!! thanks for viewing!!!

-s. olivia

ANOTHER blog award!!!

2009-11-28T10:07:00.001-05:00

yes, i got awarded again!!! this is the favorite blog award.

rules:

1. do a blog post about the person who awarded you, and their blog.

2. you were supposed to give the award to 5 of your blogging friends, tell about them and their blog, and leave a comment on their blog. but, once again, anyone who reads my blog and wants to fill this out is welcome to!!!

3. answer the 10 random questions.

katie is the one who awarded me and i would like to thank her for that, and thank her for having her beautiful blog that i can enjoy to read. thanks katie!!! :-)

so, now for the questions!!!

1. have you ever ridden an elephant? hehehe, no.

2. have you ever eaten squid? nope.

3. what is one of the craziest things you have done with your friends? oh goodness, there's so many...i can't believe it, but i can't think of one right now!!! :-)

4. have you ever held an alligator? no.

5. have you ever let a snake slither through your fingers? no, but i've held one. for 5 seconds. :-)

6. what is your first and foremost dream? i have so many!!! they're constantly changing, but 1 has always stayed the same. to bring GOD honor and glory through my life.

7. what is your dream vacation? to go on another cruise!!!

8. what is the funniest movie you have ever seen? i have NO idea!!!

9. what is your favorite song? it depends on if we're talking favorite praise song, country song, hymn, or contemporary christian. i have a favorite in each of those categories!!!

thanks again for awarding me, katie!!!

i hope that you all had a wonderful thanksgiving!!! how many of you went shopping on black friday??? we woke up at 3:30 to go!!! this was our first year of doing it, and we had a wonderful experience!!! the lines were r-e-a-l-l-y long, but i did get a super cute sweater!!!

-s. olivia

-thanksgiving day-

2009-11-26T12:06:00.000-05:00

so first, obviously, we wake up. :-) then i go out to feed my dog, named kipper. next my sister and i went down-stairs and started baking our family's traditional thanksgiving "pumpkin pancakes". they are really good (especially with chocolate chips)!!! we have them every thanksgiving morning. here's the recipe:

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice

2 T. brown sugar

1tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. evaporated milk

2 eggs

2 T. vegetable oil

1/2 c. canned pumpkin

mix dry ingredients. Then add vanilla, milk, eggs, oil and pumpkin. beat until smooth. fry, and serve with syrup or honey.

that's it!!! it is really easy...and really good!!!

after we ate, we started to bake some green bean casserole and pumpkin cheese cake to take to our friends house who invited us over for dinner. it's always more fun to bake while listening to music, so we turned on the radio to j93.3!!! they're playing CHRISTmas music now!!!

shortly after we got done baking it was time to go to our friends house. it was really fun there!!! i am completely stuffed!!! we had turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, crackers and dip, pink jello-ey stuff, corn, wonderful fluffy home-made biscuits, etc. then for dessert we had pumpkin pie, chocolate covered strawberries, pumpkin swirl cheese cake, a platter full of cookies, and lots of other good stuff. :-)

i just got home from our friends house, and i think that if ihad to eat 1 more thing, i would explode!!!

right now we're about to play a family game, so i better go!!!

overall, my thanksgiving went very well. except for the fact that my little brother started feeling sick at our friends house and is now laying on the couch groaning. :-/

i gotta go, it's my turn on the game!!!

-s. olivia

blog award

2009-11-24T21:34:00.000-05:00

hey everyone!!! a very good blogging friend of mine awarded me!!! i am so excited because this is my first award!!!

this is the "from me to you" blog award.

1. first you thank the person that awarded you.

2. copy the image.

3.post about it on your blog

4. tell us 7 things the readers don't know about you.

5. you're supposed to link 7 new recipients, but i've decided to award anyone who reads my blog and wants to fill it out.

6. notify the winners of their award by commenting on their blog.

7. and last keep on sharing the love of JESUS CHRIST with others!!!

now, for my 7 things!!! (some of you might know some of these things already, but here i go!!!)

1. i was born in GA!!! (although, i don't have a southern accent. like, at all!!! :-)

2. most people think that i am really quiet and shy, until they get to REALLY know me!!! then they wish i was quiet. ;-)

3. as far as school goes, i'm best at spelling.

4. my favorite types of books are mysteries.

5. it took me about 3 years to learn how to swallow a pill!!! :-)

6. my favorite season is summer. i honestly don't like wearing long-sleeves and jeans, i would much rather be wearing shorts and a t-shirt!!!

7. i really like country music. one of my favorite songs is "big green tractor". it's awesome!!!

thank you, ally for awarding me!!! this was tons of fun to fill out!!!

thank you for viewing.

-s. olivia

the new addition!!!

2009-11-24T20:07:00.001-05:00

since my older brother is about to get his license mom and dad have decided to invest into a new car!!! they decided on this AWESOME truck that i love!!! i didn't get very many good ones of the full truck, but here's some pics!!!

i really like the truck!!! these are pretty much the only good pics that i got of the truck. more posts coming soon!!!

ya'll have a wonderful thanksgiving!!!

-s. olivia

super-cala-fragil-istic-expi-ala-docious...

2009-11-23T16:51:00.000-05:00

...even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious!!! hahahahaha, i probably spelled it wrong, but you get the idea. :-) me and my friend miley (for those of you who know her better, that is just a fake name) got these matching ducks and named them "super-cala-fragil-istic" and "expi-ala-docious". we call them "cala" and "docious" for short. we took some pictures of us with them the last time we got together and i thought that i would share them with you.

miley and "cala"

hehehe...!!!

fun times...fun times. :-)

okay, the drink that we are holding are these super-addictive absolutely delicious iced coffee drinks. they are packed with sugar and coffee. both of which are known to make you very hyper...and they did!!! THEY ARE SO GOOD!!!!!!

this is me and miley with our ducks at a mickey d's.

i had a really fun time with you, miley, thank you for having me over!!!

i'll post again SOON about the new addition to our family!!! it's awesome!!! but, this is all for now.

-s. olivia

my birthday shopping spree

2009-11-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

this is a paper that mom asked me to write about when we went shopping for my 12th birthday. it was lots of fun!!! my sister was encouraging me to share it with ya'll, so here it is:
-------------------------------------------

I had a very fun and exciting 12th birthday! I decided not to have a party, but I wanted to go shopping with mom and get some stuff for my room, etc. I just wanted to stay home on my birthday, so we made plans to go on our little “shopping spree” the Friday after my birthday. So, Friday afternoon, I was getting changed and getting ready to go shopping when Mom surprised me and told me that I needed to pack pajamas, because she reserved a hotel room for just the two of us! At this point I was teeming with excitement!

When we got to Newnan, the place where we were going to shop, Mom asked me where I wanted to shop. I honestly had no idea, because I had been so excited, I hadn’t even thought that far! We decided to go to Kohl’s where we just browsed. They have some really cool stuff there! When we felt we had seen everything that we wanted to, we went out to eat dinner. Once again, Mom asked me where I wanted to go. Now, this was very hard to pick. It seemed like all of my favorite restaurants were in one place! After much consideration, I decided on “Olive Garden” because, although I had never been, I had heard very good things about it. I would have to admit, it was a good choice! First we were lead to our seats, and we sat down and looked at our menus. For our appetizer we ordered bread sticks. They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious! When we had finished that, we ordered a salad. It was so good! Mom and I ordered a meal to share when we had finished the salad. We ordered “Chicken Parmesiana”. We could have ordered a dessert, but I was too full!

When we had finished eating, we shopped some more. The next place we went was JC Penney. We were looking for some turquoise curtains to go in my room, which were surprisingly hard to find. When Mom and I got in the store, we found some turquoise curtains that were the perfect color, but they were too small for the size of window I had. The lady at JC Penney was very helpful and pointed us in the way of Anna’s Linens, and said that they might have what we’re looking for. After we looked for a little while we found exactly what we were looking for! They now hang in my bedroom, and I fall in love with them every time I see them! I also found some sheets that match very nicely. By this time it was getting pretty late. So, we headed to our hotel.

When we got there we changed into our pajamas. That night we had some very good talks. After we had prayed together and done some devotions, we flipped on the TV and watched a few “home decorating” shows as I slowly dozed off to sleep…:-)

The next morning, we decided to go to Wal-Mart to pick-up a few things. I had already gotten almost everything that I wanted, and I loved it all! There was just one thing that I was hoping to get that I couldn’t find which was an alarm clock to go in my room. While we were at Wal-Mart Mom suggested that we check one more time, and I found the perfect one!
I had an awesome time and will always remember it! I hope that Mom had as much fun as I did! I love you, Mom!

thanks!!!

2009-11-18T09:32:00.000-05:00

thank you, everyone for voting on my new header!!! i really like it!!! i don't know if the back-ground i chose is that fall-ish, but i like it anyways. :-) more posts coming soon!!!
-s. olivia

header vote!!!

2009-11-16T18:37:00.000-05:00

hey ya'll!!! i thought that it was 'bout time i re-did my header to more fall-ish. :-) i thought that last time when i did a header vote, it went really well, so i've decided to do it again!!! e took me out today and we got all dressed-up and took some pics. i edited some and really like the way they turned out (as usual)!!! so if you see this post PLEASE vote and tell me what you think. :-)

#1

#3

#4

okay, so there they are!!! i'm really excited about this!!! thanks for taking the time to comment!!!

-s. olivia

me and my sisters

2009-11-15T18:07:00.000-05:00

we have lots of fun together!!! they are my best friends (on earth) :-). we were just goofing off when we took these, so they're kinda pointless, but here they are!!!

--all of us--

me and a

me and e

more posts coming soon...BTW, have any of you found out what the next sherwood movie is yet?!?!? please comment if you have.

:-)

-s. olivia

november thoughts...:-)

2009-11-09T16:42:00.001-05:00

i've decided to do a post about my thoughts about what i'm learning in school, what i'm learning in bible, what i think that i need to work on, etc...i hope that i don't bore you out of your heads...:-)

i'll start with school. some days are better than others...let's just say that!!! for those of you who don't know, i am in the 6th grade. my 2 main subjects are math and history. *most* of the time my school goes fairly smoothly, but i also have really hard days. i've learned that whatever my attitude is in the morning, that is how the rest of my day will go. sometimes i try to have a good attitude, though, and my day is still goes bad...oh well, enough about school, i don't think that anyone is really interested in how my school goes bad some days. :-)

moving on...

now, i'll talk about what i'm learning in bible. right now i'm reading in the book of john. i hope that this does not come across the wrong way and ya'll think that i'm trying to be sooooo good, by telling you about how i'm such a good little girl and read my bible. so please don't think anything bad of me. :-) anyways, right now i'm reading about the crucifixion of CHRIST. i noticed last night that it seems like everywhere i go they're reading about the crucifixion. we read about it in sunday school, i'm reading about it by myself, and if i remember right we read it in family devotions, etc. :-) it's even funnier because we're getting close to the BIRTH of JESUS and not HIS death!!!
sometimes, as i read the bible, it is so amazing to me when i really think about what he went through for ME!!! when i was little and i learned the story of JESUS and how HE died for me, i don't think i really understood what it really meant. i mean, i probably appreciated it, and i'm not saying that i am so much wiser now, but if you know what i mean it just didn't really click. i've always known the story of JESUS, but when i read the bible now, it seems like there is SO much more in it than what i had always thought. and not only about the crucifixion, but about HIS whole life!!! i could type forever about this, but i'm going to move on to what i need to work on. :-)

i know that i have tons of stuff to work on, and i keep praying that GOD will show me more of what to work on, continually. another thing about when i read about JESUS life is that when it tells us to try to be more like HIM after it tells us all that HE did, it seems impossible to me because of how perfect HE is!!! and sometimes i feel like i am SO blessed to have such an awesome example and then i look back and see how instructive the bible is when it tells me of everything that HE did and how detailed. so basically, i need to work on being more like CHRIST!!!

i'm runnin' out of time and i need to go get ready to shop!!!

i bet that someday, i'm gonna look back on this post and laugh about how dumb and immature it is like i have on my first few post's, so feel free to laugh!!! ;-) hehehehe!!!

thanks for viewing this post!!!

-s. olivia

mom and dad

2009-11-05T18:41:00.000-05:00

we also got some great pics of mom and dad at the beach!!! e thought up the ideas and took all of these pics. personally, i think that she has a great eye!!!

it seems so weird that i'm posting pics about the beach as i sit here all cuddled up and warm in my hoodie!!! fall is in the air...:-)

i apologize, as once again the pics are blurry. it was really rainy that day.

i hope that you enjoyed these pics!!! i'm sorry that i have not posted in a long time!!! now, i just have to figure out what my next post will be about. :-)

thanks for viewing my post!!!

-s. olivia

--brothers--

2009-11-01T16:21:00.000-05:00

my brothers are so much fun to be around!!! (well, most of the time. :-) i absolutely LOVE the way that their pics turned out!!! our computer is being really stupid, so i could only post a few pics...*sigh* the ones that i could post are probably the best ones, though. anyway, i hope that y'all like the ones i could post as much as i do!!! here are a few of them:

i will try to post more later, but this is all for now. i'm sorry that it took me so long to post again. i had been working on this post for a while, but never got around to publishing it!!! GTG get ready for a bonfire with my family. :-) bye!!!

-s. olivia

sisters--<3

2009-10-26T20:01:00.001-04:00

I LOVE MY SISTERS!!! we got a lot of good pics of us girls on vacation, so i decided to post some of them. i especially like the sky in the first one!!! i'm so thankful for my sisters. i hope you enjoy these pics:

thank you for viewing this post!!! i will try to post more soon (i say that everytime!!!).

-s. olivia

beach smilebox

2009-10-22T11:08:00.000-04:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

(go to the bottom of the page and turn off the music down there, so you can hear the music on the smilebox!!! thank you!!!)

-s.olivia

family pics

2009-10-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

hey everyone!!! okay, here are some pics that we took at the beach trying to get a CHRISTmas picture and to hang up around the house, etc. it was REALLY windy the 2 days that we took pictures, so in these pics us girls' hair is going crazy if you look closely. :-) Some of the pics we took turned out really well and some of the other ones didn't at all. i hope you enjoy these pics!!!

in my last post i actually wasn't home yet, so we have done even more on our trip than i had said in my previous post!!! another thing that we did is that we visited some awesome friends of ours. i will post about the good time at their house later...this is all for now!!! i'll try to post more later!!!

-s. olivia

--beach fun--

2009-10-16T17:44:00.000-04:00

hey everyone!!! i have had an awesome time at the beach and church retreat!!! right now, i'm just going to post a few pics about the beach. it was BEAUTIFUL there!!! the waves were awesome. i will post more later...

so, like i said, i'll post more later. i hope you enjoyed this post!!!

i'm lovin' the beach!!!

-s. olivia

vacation...

2009-10-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

hello everyone!!! i'm sorry that i haven't posted in a long time!!! i say that, like, every post. :-) you can kinda tell what i'm going to say in this post by the title, but i couldn't think of anything else to title it!!! so, yeah, we are going on a vacation!!! i'm so sorry that i haven't posted in such a long time!!! a couple posts back i said that we weren't going on a vacation for a long time and now we're going on one!!! so, i will be sure to take a lot of pics (or have e take them :-) and post them as soon as possible!!! we are going to a beach and a church retreat, called "lakewood". We will be gone for 9 days, i think. i'm really looking forward to it!!! the beach especially. so, i should probably start helping dad pack up the van!!! just wanted to let ya'll know!!! pics soon to come!!!
-s. olivia

carpeting is here!!!

2009-09-28T16:33:00.001-04:00

OUR CARPETING IS HERE!!! i'm sorry that i didn't post about them until now. when they finished installing the carpeting, e was gone, so i couldn't take any pics!!! so, here are some pics!!! here, they aren't done installing yet, so that's why the carpet doesn't look done...i'll post pics of the carpet completely finished after we get the room decorated!!!

thank you for viewing, and i'm sorry that it took me so long to post!!! everyone in our family is very satisfied with the way the carpet turned out, especially mom!!! i really like it!!! more posts later!!!

-s. olivia

finishing touches!!!

2009-09-24T22:05:00.000-04:00

okay, so we are finishing up alot of the little things left in our house...and GUESS WHAT IS COMING TOMORROW?!?!?!?!? the last room that needs carpeted is getting carpeting tomorrow morning!!! i can't wait to see how it will look!!! earlier today, we emptied out the room so that it doesn't have anything in it when the carpet installers come, and now if you go in their and talk, it completely echoes!!! i'm SO excited!!! our house will feel done!!! i better get some sleep now so that i'm not falling asleep watching them install the carpeting!!! just wanted to let everyone know what is happening!!! i'll post about it tomorrow after it is done!!! so, until then, good-bye!!!
-s. olivia

the love of GOD

2009-09-18T11:35:00.000-04:00

we don't have another vacation until mid-october, so i won't have any trips to post about until then!!! so i've decided that until something happens to post about, i'm going to try to write the words to one of the songs on my playlist!!! today i'm gonna post about "the love of GOD".

(first verse)

the love of GOD is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell!!! it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell!!! the guilty pair bowed down with care GOD gave HIS son to win!!! HIS erring child HE reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

(chorus)

oh, love of GOD, how rich and pure!!!! how measureless and strong!!! it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song!!!

(second verse)

could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, were every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of GOD above would drain the ocean dry. nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky!!!

this song is so amazing, i think!!! we sing it in church and it is beautiful!!! to me the first verse means that GOD's love is so amazing that we can't even imagine how wonderful it is!!! it also talks about how the guilty pair bowed down with care, which is truly amazing how GOD loves us enough to forgive a man of his sins, if he is repentant, and sent his son to die that it might happen!!! WOW!!! i am so blessed to serve a GOD like this!!! the second verse is just as amazing as the first!!! when i hear the song or read the words it is incredible to me as i realize that GOD's love is so great that we can't even imagine how wonderful and powerful it is!!! as hard as i might try, there is really no words capable of describing how amazing GOD's love truly is!!!

well, thank you for viewing this post!!! more to come later (hopefully)!!! GOD bless!!!

-s. olivia

giveaway!!!

2009-09-15T15:18:00.000-04:00

this bag looks SO cute!!! go check it out and enter to win!!!

-s. olivia

--amish wedding--

2009-09-14T20:28:00.000-04:00

so...back to our trip!!! thanks for giving me input on the header thing!!! anyways, a couple weeks ago we had the "once in a lifetime" chance to go to an amish wedding. YAY!!! so in case you haven't already heard the story from the family blog, i'll tell it again. :-) when my mom was a little girl, she had very bad asthma and went to live with her grandparents over the summer. while she lived there, her grandparents took her to a doctor where she met a little amish girl in the waiting room. they had both brought their dolls, so they played together in the waiting room. the amish girl's mom and my mom's grandma decided to schedule all their appointments at the same time so that they could play. when my mom had to go back home at the end of the summer they decided to become pen-pals to keep in touch.

they kept in touch all the way up until my mom got married and then she invited her amish friend to the wedding. and then about 5 years ago, the amish lady invited us to come and see her and her family!!! we had a really good time!!! so now, her daughter got married, she invited us to the wedding!!! when we got to our hotel there, we got this phone call from mom's friend and she told us that she wanted us to come and pick her up and take her to her daughters wedding the next morning!!! in the morning we were running late, so we were like freaking out because we were going to make the mother of the bride late to her daughters wedding!!!

when we finally got to the mother of the bride's house there was amish people EVERYWHERE!!! my mom didn't know how she was supposed to know which one was her friend because they hadn't seen each other in a LONG time!!! so mom finally went up and asked an amish person where she was and the person told mom she was in the basement. when mom got down into the basement there was all these amish ladies working frantically over a counter. mom had NO idea whatsoever which one was her friend!!! so she just kinda stood there feeling VERY awkward!!!they only knew each other by their voices, so they wouldn't really know each other even if they saw each other!!! there was this lady with her back turned who was talking to a man and mom recognized her voice, so she went up and tapped her on the shoulder!!! as soon as the mother of the bride saw mom she was all excited!!! she informed mom that her pie filling was too runny and this pie filling had to be just right so she would have to be late to the wedding!!! she also told mom that it was not a disgrace to show up late at the wedding, so we could either wait for her to get done with her filling, or we could leave without her and she would get a different ride. at this point mom was very shocked as she realized that the food was basically the most important part of the wedding and everything else didn't really matter!!!

we decided to leave because we kind of felt in the way at her house...when we got to the wedding they were singing songs. so we come in and sit down on these wooden benches and open the songbooks laying in front of us. they give off the number (in german so a different lady translated the number for us!!!)and then they started off singing. there is a main guy for every song who starts off the first word in each line of the song ( this "note" lasts for about 20 sec. in german; VERY off tune.) by the end of this song that seemed about a half an hour our bottoms were about killing us because we were sitting on the wooden benches for so long!!! it felt like the song lasted for half of an hour!!! then i looked at dad and said it felt like a half an hour and he was like "honey, i timed it and it was half an hour!!!" WOWWW!!! this "wedding ceremony" lasted up to like 3 to 4 hours all together!!!

when we got off those VERY uncomfortable benches we could hardly walk!!! then we went back to the mother of the bride's house to have the meal!!! IT TASTED SO GOOD!!! i was stuffed, and i'm pretty sure everyone else was too!!!

then mom's friend said that there was another meal and she wanted us to stay for everything which would have gone VERY late!!! mom told her that we were going to go back to the hotel and relax until the next meal. so, we did and before we knew it it was time to go back to the wedding!!! so, we watched the bride unwrap presents (which, by the way, were wrapped in towels!!!) and then we ate the next meal!!! which was just as good or better than the first meal!!!
after we got done eating, we were about to leave, but mom's friend said that we have to go shake the bride and grooms hand, or else we would be a huge disgrace. so of course we did!!!

sitting in the van on the way back from the wedding, i just had to thank GOD that i am NOT amish!!!

although, it was a VERY neat experience, i mean it's not every day that you get invited to come to an amish wedding. :-)

anyways, so that's the story of the amish wedding!!! i did enjoy it even though my bottom was sore for about 2 days afterward from sitting on those wooden benches!!! i hope ya'll enjoyed this post!!! i think that's actually all from this trip!!! more post coming soon!!!(hopefully)

-s. olivia

new header

2009-09-13T19:59:00.000-04:00

e said that after i turned 12 we would go and take some pics for my b-day. so earlier e and i went out and took pics in an open field, and i really, really like the way they turned out. so i decided to edit some of my favs and put 1 of them as the header on my blog. but when we got done editing them, i couldn't decide which one to put as my header!!! so i decided to get some input. everyone who sees this post PLEASE comment and tell me which 1 you think i should use!!! here they are!!!

1.
2.

3.

so, please comment and tell me what you think!!! i think that i might even have to change my background to match the header!!! thank you for giving me your opinion!!!

-s. olivia

new background!!!

2009-09-10T12:44:00.000-04:00

today my age changed, so i thought it was about time to change the background on my blog 2!!! PLEASE comment and give me your opinions on it!!!
-s. olivia

--construction pics--

2009-09-10T11:19:00.000-04:00

yes, we went on ANOTHER trip!!! this time we went up to see some amish friends who were having a wedding in indiana and then we went to a reunion of my dad's in illinois. these pics are at the reunion. we went to a park and there was this construction stuff there, so while the boys played frisbee golf, we went and took pics by the constrction stuff. ;-)

e looking through the tunnel.

most of the shots we took were candid, but the ones posted mainly aren't.

--me---

this is k. she came and took pics with us!!!

~a~

i REALLY like this one of a!!!

this is the only candid shot posted, i really like it!!!

e posed me for this one!!! i like it!!!

--e--

so, this is all for now!!! i'll post about a different part of this trip soon!!! i hope you enjoyed these pics!!!
-s. olivia

misc. :-)

2009-09-09T17:01:00.000-04:00

in this post i'm gonna put together all of the remaining pics from our trip. i hope you enjoy!!!

L was always wanting to hold her little sister and it was SO cute!!!
these little boys played so hard and were exhausted by the end of the day!!!

--w--

this family was so cute and we had loads of fun!!! thanks!!!

while we were in illinois we decided to get together with some good friends that we hadn't seen for a LONG time!!!

we decided to meet at a pool.

a and g had SO much fun together!!!

i think that's all from this trip!!! we did some other stuff, but this is all we had pics of!!! now to post about our most recent trip...:-)

-s. olivia

more of our trip...

2009-08-31T12:23:00.000-04:00

sorry it's been so long!!! here's some more pics about our trip. when we drove to the art museum we passed this waterfall. we thought it was really pretty, so after we finished the art museum we needed to kill some time, so we went and took some pics!!! e took most of them, but mom took some too!!! anyways, here they are!!! possible christmas pic!!!

everyone in front of the waterfall

we were also trying to get some possible school pics.

these are some of d's

mom's feet :-)

e and me just felt like taking pics of mom!!!

~~e~~

i like the way e's eyes look in this pic!!!

--me--

i like the waterfall in the back-ground.

--w--

he is such a boy. :-) the whole time we were there i don't think he posed for 1 pic.

~~a~~

i think this pic is SO cute!!! i love you a!!!

-s. olivia

art museum

2009-08-25T19:01:00.000-04:00

sorry that i haven't posted in a while. i've been kinda busy. a week ago we started doing school, but it wasn't all of our subjects. this week we started doing EVERYTHING. so, i have a lot of new stuff and i'm still trying to get back into a routine. anyways, back to posting about our trip. in some of our spare time we decided to go to a free art museum in st. louis. it was o.k. i mean kinda your typical art museum. :/

when e saw this pillar outside of the art museum she said that it would be perfect for a pic. i was NOT in the pic. mood, but i gave in and it ended up this is 1 of my favorite pics!!! it is actually my profile pic. :-) thanks, e!!!

modern art

this chair was actually pink!!! e wanted to take it home and put it in her room SO bad!!!

no comment. :)

relaxing in a chair

--w and his favorite--

--e's favorite painting--

this was a's favorite part of the museum. we have a video about degas, and this dancer statue thingy is in the video, so it was kinda neat to see it.

well, i have to go. i'll try to post about a different section of our trip pretty soon!!! thanks for viewing!!!

-s. olivia

kitten pic.

2009-08-23T19:50:00.000-04:00

o.k. e's camera FINALLY started working!!! we found out that we will only have the kittens for 1 more day. :-( you can't see their faces very good in the pic. below, but it is the only pic. with all of the kittens. so, here's the kitten pic!!!

INTRODUCING OUR KITTENS!!!

i love them so much!!! i can't believe that they are gonna be gone tomorrow. :-( all for now!!!

-s. olivia

guess what?!?!

2009-08-20T17:38:00.000-04:00

OUR CAT HAD KITTENS!!! they are SO cute!!! their eyes are just opened!!! i would post some pics. but our camera is acting really weird!!! we have a calico, a white one with gray splotches, an orange one, and an all black one!!! i'll post pics. as soon as possible!!! just wanted to let ya'll know!!!
-s. olivia

the creation museum

2009-08-20T08:27:00.000-04:00

on our trip we decided to go to the creation museum!!! it was fun!!! we had gone before, but it was still SO interesting!!! everyone who comes out of that building has something new to think about!!!

they had a section of the museum about the ark...

and in that section they had a couple miniature arks showing you how it might have been built!!!

and then they had a little window showing you how it might have been in the flood.

this is a picture of some little wax people trying to find dry land when the flood was happening!!! :)

--after the flood--

in front of the creation museum there was this random car!!!

i'm sure it was there for a reason, i just don't know it!!! :)

the snake

adam and eve in the garden of eden

there was a LOT more there than what i posted, but we didn't get pics. of everything. i'll post more later!!! thanks for viewing!!!

-s. olivia

we're back!!!

2009-08-18T13:34:00.001-04:00

overall the trip went pretty well, other than a messed up tire an hour into the trip, a toilet overflowing in the middle of the night, my flip-flops that i bought ON THE TRIP falling apart ON THE TRIP, etc. but it wasn't all bad. one of the high-lights of the trip is that i got a new lamp for my room that is lime-green!!! i LOVE it!!! when we got up there we realized that my dad's work project had gotten delayed, so we were there 2 extra days. although the trip was fun it feels SO good to be back home!!! i'll post a few pictures!!!

these are pictures in the waiting room at the tire place.

-the waiting room-

this is the first tire sign we saw when we realized that we had tire problems.

bored out of our heads...:(

e and me goofing off in the waiting room!!!

the waiting room was tiny, and there was already another family in there...

...so, i was sitting on e's lap!!! :)

a little glimpse of the waiting room. :/

i'm just gonna post little bits of our trip at a time, because if i did all the pictures at one time it would take forever. so, here is the first part of our trip!!! i'm sure that e is already WAY ahead in blog posts about our trip on our family blog!!! so, there's more to come!!!

-s. olivia

we're leaving!!!

2009-08-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

today we leave on our week and a half long trip!!! so, there probably will not be a blog update for a week and a half!!! i'll try to take lots of pictures and post them when we get back!!! just wanted to let ya'll know!!!
-s. olivia