Canada! It was pretty amazing...

Two weeks ago today I had no idea that I was starting one of the most amazing weeks of my life. The phrase "The time of my life" took on a whole new meaning.
Okay, back story. I turned the big 3-0 on December 23rd. My sweet baby brother had, much earlier in the year, begun work on a huge surprise. He put into play a plan to send me to Canada to meet my friend of 11 years, Jackie. Jackie and I actually met online and became the modern day version of pen pals (which did actually include some snail mail too!) and over the years, sharing many of life's ups and downs, we became fast friends. I tell people all of the time that I truly believe the Lord gave her to me. Well we've talked for years about meeting "someday" but that someday continued to elude us. Until January 12, 2015. Aside from the amazingness of actually, finally meeting her it was a crazy adventure in and of itself. I hadn't flown since a very young child, virtually no memory of it, so it was essentially my first time flying. And I was doing it alone! lol I told one of my piano students at one point when discussing his overseas trip with his dad that at least he had his dad with him, I had to pretend to be an adult! Haha The anticipation and foreignness of it really was what was killing. Turns out I love flying 😋 I just told a friend last night (when discussing my trip for about the 100th time) that I don't understand how someone can come away from a flight not believing in the Lord. The whole experience is so amazing. It's secluding in a way like few other experiences so that it's really just you and Him up there. And even if you love it there's still a little bit of fear lol Which leads to more communication with the Lord. At one point too, the first time we took off, I was just in awe of how much of the world you could see at a glance. I was so, so far above everything that was going on below. And it occurred to me that that's the way it is with the Lord. Everything feels so big in our world. Interactions with people. Life moments. Incidents. And there are times when I fear that the Lord maybe can't see it all, can't keep up on everything, doesn't really know everything that's going on, and then I start trying to help Him 😕 I know. I'm crazy. But I was very strongly reminded from my window seat as I saw a lot more below me than just my own small part of the world that that's how it is with the Lord. He sees the whole picture. He sees two people who are about to collide worlds. He sees the before and after of each little incident. He sees it all. And I need to remember that. So yeah, I got off the plane closer to the Lord than when I got on. It was pretty amazing.
Okay, I will try to speed this up instead of going day by day ... since I was gone for 6 days ... lol
Meeting Jackie and her lovely family was amazing. It was like meeting your best friend for the first time but you are already best friends 😊 I'd told my sister for years that I felt that Jackie and I was as close as we could be without meeting. So we filled each moment with all of the little bits of us that we'd never talked about or shared or asked. We filled in as many of the holes that we could. And I think we did a pretty good job too lol We stayed up late each night without fail. Tired or not! Haha We were limited on time and we felt it. But, it was still amazing 😊
We saw the sites, Lynde Shores, downtown Toronto, the Eaton Center, Ardenes (which I love!!!), country stores, dollar stores, Tim Hortons, and of course we had to go to Starbucks once. 😊 Something else we'd always talked about "someday". And it was amazing too. We sat and talked for over an hour and it was great. Filled in a few more of those little holes. Then there was Niagara Falls. Wow. Awesome doesn't describe it. To be completely honest, when I was younger I felt it was very cliché and I didn't care about seeing it. But the older I've gotten the greater the desire to see it. And those who had been already and tried to describe it to me could not have prepared me for the awesome beauty. The roar you can hear long before you even get to the observation deck. The mist that fills the sky above the falls. The dark, emerald green of the water. The size of it! It was so beautiful. And then I would take two steps to my right or left and it was like seeing a whole new falls! haha Needless to say I took ... a bunch of pictures.
All of the sites were amazing but the people were the best part. Of course meeting Jackie for real finally. And she still liked me! Ha! Yes, I actually had a moment of fear where I thought maybe she wouldn't like me in person. 😋 I got over it quickly. 😉 Her adorable, sweet, so cute (oops, handsome. Sorry, Jedi 😉 ) children. They were each so special and I didn't have half enough time to get to know them the way I would have loved to. I got to meet a good friend of Jackie's at church which was so exciting. I had heard so much about her and had such respect for her already that we hit it off instantly and I think maybe we could have talked an afternoon away had you given us a chance. I also got to me Jackie's family. Love her mama. She reminded me so much of my mama. Still a mama, even to her grown children 😊 Oh and when she talked about the light switches at church I knew I'd found a fellow servant 😉 Had a great time hanging out with Jackie's sister one afternoon. It was so much fun to see the kids mess around with her. And I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow pianist/piano teacher! Might not seem like much but in my small part of the world I don't get to do that very often. The two hours we had weren't enough to fully explore styles and techniques like I'd hoped.
The whole trip ... oops! I left out Scott. Dear. Ornery. Scott. Haha He, just like everyone else, exceeded my expectations. His love for the Lord and His work and His people is exciting to see and his whole family was like that.
As I was saying, the whole trip was a perfect balance of sights and fellowship. It was an experience that I couldn't have prepared for. That I had no way of imagining how amazing it would be. My home-body trepidations were quickly scattered into the wind and I was only constantly mesmerized by the whole experience each moment of each day. I am beyond thankful to my family and friends who made it all possible. I was unbelievably, undeservedly blessed. And even with saying all of that I feel like it's just a drop in the bucket! But, if I continue I'll just have to write a book. 😊 So I'll just leave you there. 😊

 

I'll post more amazing pics on Facebook ☺️

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You can always tell around here when the weather is warming and Spring is starting to show it's face because suddenly, half of the people in the house seem to forget how to shut the screen door. lol 

The last three days have been positively luscious! The temperature currently sits at 75 degrees and I couldn't be happier. :-) And that's the way it's been since Sunday! I feel like I've been rejuvenated! lol 

Can I say just one more time that I'm loving, basking, drinking in this weather???? :-)  

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These are the lovely flowers that my Dad bought my my Mom to start of their evening of romancing. :-) 

There's nothing quite like watching your Dad romance your Mom. :-) Makes a daughter's heart smile. :-)

I don't know if you noticed, but that is a photo of them on their wedding day by the flowers. :-)

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Didn't take much today. Our soldier at church came back for a few days from his training then will head out for deputation. I had to take a couple of photos of him in his fatigues for the church and caught this cute moment. 

Our prayers go with you, Joel!

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Tonight we had our second game night of the week with our good friends, the Eptings (and the Hoovers ;-) ), and it was so much fun! Both nights we played a new game, Pictionary Man. Been talking about playing it forever and finally getting around to it. lol I've always enjoyed regular Pictionary but I think I like this version even more. It's just positively hilarious! Lots of laughter and good hearted teasing going on, that's for sure! Tonight we played girls vs guys (aka men vs cooties lol) and the girls won both games! WOOT! :-) 

Mr. Pictionary Man

Whether winning our losing though, you're sure to have a good time when your with good friends.

If you haven't played this game yet, you should try it out. :-) You just might run into a rock lobster... ;-)

Just Poppin' in for a Second!

Hi! Remember me? I'm the one that invited you here not too long ago and then abandonded you! lol Still computerless at my house so I'm harking back to the old days when I would make the treck to the library once a week to use their free internet. :-) Ah...the good old days. lol Maybe, maybe not. I have to repeat though that I am actually really enjoying not being on the computer all of the time. lol It's a little hard to keep yourself off of it when it's right there to jump on every few minutes. I miss being in daily contact with some of my friends but that's about it. And most of the really important ones I'm still in contact with through other means. :-)

I have to say that as I continually type out a sentence or a paragraph and then delete it because sending it into cyber space might send anyone who reads it into major boredom...I'm realizing again that the blogging juices just aren't flowing the way they used to. lol So I guess I'll go ahead and close this...yet another failed attempt at a blog. Oh well. At least I succeeded in telling you that I'm still here, life has it's downs but also many ups (such as late night phone calls from far away friends...walks with my walking buddy in the cool of the moring...quiet time with my Lord....a good book...learning that I'm going to be an Aunty...and more :-) )....and that I'll probably be back again one of these days, hopefully with a more interesting post. :-) Until then! Praying life is well and blessed with all of you my readers (if there are any anymore :-P)!

PS Was going to add a photo to this blog to liven it up because, as a friend once said, "blogs are more fun with pictures..." but...I don't have my camera with me and blah blah blah...so I'm not going to. Maybe next time I'll be better orginized!

HA! :-P

I Greatly Dislike My Brother

This...

was my brother's lunch today. If you haven't yet realized the point of my irritation, I will point it out to you. There are three sandwiches here. For one meal. Let me also point out that my brother is of the ... slender body type. Even though he regularly eats three sandwiches for one meal. I guess I need to get over it. To realize that it is a fact of life that I can only enjoy one sandwich per meal ... lest I become the size of King Kong. 

Oh, for the record, he also had a Yoo-hoo. 

Kitchen Counters.......Couches...... ...Same thing

"Family Portrait Session Takes it all out of Men in the Family"

Can't you just see the headlines? lol I can't put up the family photo for various reasons but I had to share this one of my brothers and dad. You would think they had just worked 12 hours or something and not had their picture taken. And! It was taken on Thanksgiving weekend so it's not like they had done much of anything but eat and sit anyway! :-P

 I hope neither of the boys read this...I might have to publish a retraction...

Hello, my name is Sarah.

It's been so long I wasn't sure if you'd remember who I was so I thought I'd start by introducing myself. My name is Sarah, I "own" this blog, I love photography (among many other things), and I blog from time to time. We have met before but it's been quite awhile. You'll remember me soon....hopefully. 

Anyway, as I've done my best by way of a short a sweet introduction I'll get on with my blog as if everything was normal. :-) It has been forever since I blogged last! I've been watching the months pass and with each one I thought, "There's goes another blogless month." Then tonight I spent a wonderful hour and a half chatting on the phone with a good friend and she even mentioned that it had been awhile. Then (that's a lot of "thens"...) I discovered tonight that our wireless connection was back up! So, here I am! :-) By way of a "quickie blog" I'm just going to share with you a few of the "ornamental" photographs I took on Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day of just us. Cooked, and bantered, and teased all day then had our big dinner just before 8 PM. It was a very pleasant day all around. :-)

This is the tablecloth that my sister bought Mama and the center piece that I put together. It was the first year we had a centerpiece and it was a lot of fun. Hey, it's the little things that count, right? :-)

Here's the table just set before we piled it with food. 

An "artistic" shot of the table. 

And the table laden with our bounty. Not all of it though. We also had a side table full of goodies. 

So, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and loved ones and I hope this is the first of many more frequent blogs. :-)

Bar-B-QUE!!!!

Every Memorial Day we have a tradition. My dad has, for many years now, had that day off and as few and far between as his days off are it's always really exciting when one rolls around. So since we can always count on Memorial Day we've set that day aside as one of our few family days. We usually have some friends over, BBQ, hang out all day together, play games (usually at least one game of croquet), and sometimes end the night with a movie. This year was no differant except for the fact that this year we had some new friends to add to the festivities. :-) Our house was hopping this year! Some friends stayed all day, then there were others that popped in and out. Just when some would leave, a new batch would show up. As special as this family tradition is, we also always remember what the day itself is a memorial of and we are so greatful. Thankful for the men and women who, through the years, and with or without the support of the people of their nation, have sacrificed so much for my, our, freedom. I am of the belief that America hasn't made very many wise decisions here in the last few years, but that doesn't change the fact that I am proud and thankful to be an American.