Loving the scanner

Herm got an Epson scanner for his birthday so that we could change our hundreds (probably a thousand, actually) of slides over to digital format. I chose these four for my first try at it, and it was pretty much trouble free and FAST!

Just hanging out on the swingset in the backyard of our house on Chappell in Moline, MI where Herm was the youth pastor for several years. Lots of good memories for me there and where I met my friend, Marjo.

Taken at Luther, MI where my parents owned property. It's Cyndi walking barefoot. The hat may have belonged to my brother, Gary.

Taken at Mt. Hood after we moved to Portland in 1983.

Taken at the house on Bel-Red Rd. Note the suit Herm is wearing is the one I made him after taking the Stretch & Sew class. While this house was probably one of the smallest and even what I would now call a "fixer upper", our kids remember it fondly.

What I knew is true...

I have been attending a small group on Tuesday evenings, and it has forced me to look at myself, my marriage, my faith and a whole lot more.

Here's what I know to be true:

1) God loves me -- really and truly loves me. I have heard those words in the past, but I was unable to take them in. That is sometimes described as "having no place to hang" words of love. It's like a broken pitcher that can't hold water.

2) I am not the same woman as the day I got married. It's obvious I've grown in all areas of my life, but due to the nature of this group, I have been able to examine many of the things I was taught to be true and to make up my mind as to whether they were really true or not. It was not easy, since I had been taught to believe them by my parents, previous churches and a host of other sources.

3) The most rewarding part of this study was that my faith in God and His Word has remained solid -- rock solid. A healing continues in me, but the words of love that I find in the Bible, are more easily finding a home in me. This verse comforts me:

"The Lord your God is with you and is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with His love.

He will rejoice over you with singing."

(Zeph. 3:17)

I recall the poem "Footprints" and the section that reads: "...He whispered, 'My precious child, I love you and will never leave you...ever...during your trials and testings, when you saw only one set of footprints...it was then I carried you'." That is so, so true. I can't make it on my own strength. I can't find my own way.

Here's a paragraph from my study guide: "It may be very difficult to imagine God so full of joy over you. This image is especially difficult for people who have been abandoned physically or emotionally. You may have been unwanted. You may have been criticized and rejected. You may have been abused at the hands of the people you needed most to comfort you. But we are not unwanted by God. We will not be rejected or abused by God. God delights in us. God longs to quiet our agitation and anxiety with love. God is so glad we are alive. God sings for joy! The Creator of the Universe takes delight in us and sings for joy!"

So I'm beginning to think different thoughts -- healthier thoughts -- and truthful thoughts. And I am the servant of a singing God.

Crafting

I have begun to make this room into a craft/sewing room.

The beginning of remodeling my sewing room. (It's the room downstairs where the furnace is.) I painted the peg board, and Herm hung it (with my help - it's HEAVY). You can see the turquoise colored clock, and that's two shelves (from Ikea) underneath the clock that still have to be put up on that wall.
I made this coat hanger for kids to use in our house. It's right by our front door. The sign was half price after Christmas. I turned it over since it says "Noel", spray painted it brown, glued on the three wooden shapes (3/$1) and put misc. drawer pulls on it. Sorry about the quality of the picture - the dog does have eyes.

This will probably be my preschool kids project for their moms for Mother's Day. I punched the daisy shape out of colored wrapping paper and mod podged it on the glass votives.

I got a Cricut Expression with some gift money, so I've been having lots of fun with it. The remaining pics show some projects I've done with the Cricut.

These plastic pots were from Dollar Tree (10 for $1). I glued them to the board, then I cut out the words with my Cricut. I used the paper that was left after cutting the letters and mod podged that to the pots (so that's the brown color of the pots showing through). I'm going to use these in my preschool classroom to store the extra crayons that I always have available. So when I hear someone saying they don't have a red crayon, for instance, rather than going through every single color, I can find one so much more easily.

This sign was also a discounted Christmas sign that said "Noel". I sanded off the word, painted the flat part with off-white paint and then antiqued it with a walnut stain. I painted the edges a dark brown, cut out the lettering with my Cricut which I then mod podged to the sign. I am working on three signs to hang under this sign, and when I get that part done, I'll post it.

This sign was one I got at Dollar Tree for 50 cents (half price after Christmas). Since it said Noel on it, I covered it with scrapbook paper. Then I used one of the letter cartridges to do the words plus a diffferent cartridge to do the designs on the sides. I glued small clothespins at the bottom of the sign to hold my socks til I find their mate.

Chocolate is good!

On Wednesday, I made brownies. When they were still warm, we put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, followed by whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup. What more can I say then YUM!

Chase enjoyed licking the spoon after I got the brownies mixed.

43rd anniv. in Sisters, OR

From Sisters, many of the majestic mountains located in the Cascade Mountain Range are visible. This is Mt. Jefferson looking west. All the photos I take from our deck of Mt. Jefferson are looking east.

The three mountain peaks behind me are the Three Sisters.

This is a close-up of middle and north Sister.

Here's the house we rented. We really enjoyed the wood heating stove located in the great room. It was quite cold but nice and sunny while we were there for three days celebrating our 43 anniversary in January.

Salem Christmas, 2010

Christmas baking started on Tuesday with Megan, Chase and Jennifer coming over. Since I have two ovens now, it meant baking everything much faster. We made 9 different types of candy, cookies and bars (not all shown).

The following pictures show family members with their gifts.

Warrenton for the weekend

The gang that spent the weekend together.

Practicing glider skills before climbing the column.

We climbed to the top of the Astoria Column (169 steps) and dropped the balsa gliders we had purchased at the gift store. Great fun to see where they might end up.

We celebrated Andrew's 30th birthday.

Chase sees a bird.

I hope everytime we go to the beach that we'll see a beautiful sunset.