Apple Picking

It was such a GORGEOUS day for apple picking :) Sarah and I had a GREAT TIME :D Here are some photos of our adventure!

You caught me on the way down

Another week gone, and another week colder. The weather has been SO beautiful lately! A little windy here and there and we had some rain on Friday. Other then that its been beautiful! Today the sun is especially shiny! Sarah and I are going to venture out into a rather non windy, but airy apple orchard and choose only the best for some yummy apple crisp (Photos to come)! This is what it looks like from our home this morning :)

Nothing but blue skies, and sunshine!

This week I finished up working for Elly, a rather unfortunate thing, but I definitely won't be missing the drive there! I had an interview this past Monday for another long term-full time nanny position with some pretty awesome benefits! I won't know about that for another couple of weeks though, meanwhile I am still hunting for anything that may look interesting! Sarah and I went on our second shopping trip of living together yesterday! :D So fun, and interesting to see the patterns we are getting into with our schedules. We have started watching The Office together, I have seen all the seasons, and Sarah hadn't seen them yet so I am soooo excited to watch them with her :D It's even more fun then watching them alone so it is a new experience for me as well. It's interesting to see the things I missed the first time through as well!

This week has brought along another couple of new things as well! I got some super soft yarn to make another afghan with :) It's pretty crazy how far along I've gotten it in about an hour + 4 Office episodes :D I only got 2 skeins of yarn to start so I'll need to take another trip to Michaels and get some more :)

This is about the length of a full size bed.

Another new thing that has come into my life are some new Van "wannabe Converse" shoes :) I almost got these sweet purple converse, but in the end the Van's won my heart over.

Grey shoes yet again, but they are oh so pretty, and on clearance! :)

I have a rather large list of things I need to be getting done this week, and I won't bore everybody with the details, but its a lot! Plenty of free time to do it in this week, but that just makes me feel guilty haha.

I am going to check out FCBC in Loudon today. This is a church Sarah has been attending and loves, so I am really looking forward to going! After that we are going to visit with her family (which I am super pumped about! :), and then head to Meadowledge Farm to pick us some apples, and hopefully find good pumpkins for carving, I am in the process of creating a sweeeeet TNBC (The Nightmare Before Christmas) stencil for my pumpkin! YES! Sarah and I are hoping lots of little children come to our door this year so we can give out lots of candy, but I don't know how busy it actually gets around here, though there are a TON of houses! Time will tell :)

There is not really anything else interesting to report! I am super pumped for my birthday and the trip that is being taken to Mass to hitup Six Flags! (if anybody wants to go let me know!).

 "My Utmost for His Highest" (the book I am reading for devotions) was pretty awesome this morning. It was on prayer, which is great. I have been trying to work on my prayer life since the beginning of this summer, being more intentional about praying for my brothers, and sisters, but not just asking for things to happen in their lives or just asking for something to happen in my life. I really want to strive to have great communication with my Father. I know that I have all the ability in the world to communicate with people. I am doing it right now through this blog, I do it all the time with my roommate Sarah, and all my other friends, I am pretty open about myself with friends & family, there isn't to much that I don't share with people. It brings me to think what do I share with God. Yes he knows what goes on in my life, my inner most thoughts, my deepest desires to strive to be a better daughter, friend, sister, aunt. However, do I take the time to listen? Truly listen? I'm not so sure of this. Do I view prayer as if IT is the greater work or do I view it as something to prepare me for greater works? How should it be viewed? Anywho, I am going to post the whole devotional here because I think it could spark an interesting conversation, and I love to share things that have been meaningful to me, even if it isn't meaningful to you guys right now ;) hehe....

"And greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father." John 14:12

Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a common-sense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God's work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.
Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought - "I am of no use where I am;" because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances pray, ejaculate to Him all the time. "Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do." We won't pray unless we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labour along the line of God's direction, and He says pray. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest."
There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

Okey doke :) That is about all for today folks! I'll post photos from apple picking sometime later today :D

Much Lovin
~R

You know exactly what we’ve done wrong and what we need to do...

Crazy weekend? Yupp, for some reason they never cease to leave! Not always a bad thing but very very tiring. Regardless, I have learned some new things this weekend:

1: Never EVER go to work with an empty tank of gas (leaving purse at home) expecting a check that you can cash nearby to fill up your tank. Chances are you'll have to run out of gas OR go in and get a different check that you can cash.

2: Never EVER go jogging with your mouth open when you can help it (which is not that often)... You never know what might happen, having a bee fly into your mouth and getting stung INSIDE the back of your throat is high on the list of risks you will be taking.

3: Never try and cash personal checks at Walmart when you are in a hurry. The lines are long, and once you get to the register you will find that they only cash payroll and government checks.

4: Never believe that families you babysit for will be home on time. When you are staring at the clock and it gets to be an hour past when they said they'd be home, and they haven't called, you know you shouldn't have been "watching the pot boil."

5:  Never try calling realtors on the weekend, they never pick up.

Those are some of the important things I have learned. Gotta love life experiences :D haha... However, through those things come some rewards as well. You find out you don't have to work Saturday evening after all so you do have enough time to go with your AMAZING sister in law to the ER. Oh, and you also don't have to work Monday because of Columbus Day! So you can spend Monday evening having a "dinner interview" with a family that lives only 25 minutes from you, and has a one year old cute baby girl. Saturday mornings are a great way to spend time with your roommate and sister grocery shopping. You may just stumble upon some funny looking gourds, or begin a new way to "go green" by starting to use those blue resuable bags!

Sarah, and I "planned" our meals for the week! Tacos are on the menu for this evening, and Tuesday evening we are going to make Ian's Potato Vegetable Soup ( The recipe & a photo can be found by clicking Here ). The rest of the week we are kind of in and out so nothing toooo big is planned. I did get some chicken to make chicken salad sandwiches which I have been craving for awhile now :D yea yea... I also got some brownie mix and andie's mint chips which brings me back to my stay in Arizona this past summer! I'll toss the mint chips on top of the brownies & it does make for a delicious snack for the week :)

Other then that it has been a relaxing weekend thus far! I got to read outside on the hammock in this glorious weather today :D I love it when its Fall & the sun is shining! Tomorrow is apple picking with Anna & co. so that should be great :D

I hope you all have a grand weekend!

Gianna Jessen

Part One:



One thing that she say's that really hits home for me is this: "Ladies and gentleman there are things that you will only be able to learn by the weakest among us, and when you snuff them out YOU are the one that loses." How true is that? Not just with abortion, but any given situation. In America and yet, not just in America, but all over the WORLD. Think about that as we go into Part Two:

Tim Burton Fall Journey

Yupp so I have decided that I am going to watch every single movie Tim Burton has ever worked on (Created, Directed, & Produced). Starting with James & The Giant Peach and Ending with The Nightmare Before Christmas to be watched on Christmas Eve Eve (if anybody wants to join me on Thursday night December 23rd do let me know)....

I am putting a list on the right side, and it will get checked off as I complete the movies :)

Complete

Pretty much done with my new layout :D I edited the header and links section in photoshop :)

The Sphere of Humiliation

Some of you know that I've been enjoying reading My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. A book that my roommate Bethany let me borrow one day for a devotional that I was to do in my Outdoor Leadership Training class. Since then I have been continuing to read it as a devotional book, and wanted to share todays "devo"/thoughts with you guys :D

October 2nd.


"If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." Mark 9:22

After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our tru worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab commonplace pitch, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship to Him. Peter thought it would be a fine thing for them to remain on the mount, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mount into the valley, the place where the meaning of the vision is explained.

"If Thou canst do any thing. . ." It takes the valley of humiliation to root the scepticism out of us. Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learnded Who Jesus was, you were a cunning sceptic about His power. When you were on the mount, you could believe anything, but what about the time when you were up against facts in the valley? You may be able to give a testimony to sanctification, but what about the thing that is humiliation to you just now? The last time you were on the mount with God, you saw that all power in heaven and in earth belonged to Jesus - will you be sceptical now in the valley of humiliation?

Some pretty crazy stuff in there. I think it is so true though. When I am "up on the mountain" it is so much easier to "see God" or to "live for His glory." I want to do work harder at doing those things fully when I am "in the valley." It can be just as if not MORE beautiful there then it is on that mountaintop.

Anywho, I thought some of you would appreciate this. I appreciate my roomie for sharing this book with me :)

You've poisoned me for the last time, you wretched girl! - Dr. Finkelstein

As most of you know I have a slight obsession with all things Tim Burton. More so his animation projects like Nightmare Before Christmas/Corpse Bride. He's genious. All that to say that most people don't realize he's got smaller projects out there too that are just as awesome! They are his shorts. These are the things that make me excited when talking about him. It was so nice before the new generation got into this new Nightmare before Christmas faze! Now, while I am excited that other people like Nightmare before Christmas, I do not like how over rated its now become. It is unappreciated as an art. It is loved now because it is a great "emo" movie for "emo" kids to watch, and perfect as a setting to dress "emo"... Yes I am stereotyping now. I used to be one of those kids. However, I am talking about really appreciating Tim Burton as an artist, not just being part of the "in" crowd.

Anywho all this excitement is stemming because I finally just watched 9 (the movie is already about a year old and didn't get a lot of mention). This is a movie that he PRODUCED (there is a big difference between, producing vs directing fyi)... His produced movies hold so much more Tim Burton essence which makes me happy. A lot of his original drawings were used to create characters for the movie, which I was excited to see. Anywho enough about this. I'm not really into blogging reviews or thoughts on movies and that whole rotton tomatos deal, but the only thing that excites me about Halloween really is an excuse to carve a pumpkin into Jack Skellington. He is the Pumpkin King after all :D I don't know. This time of year makes me go a little Tim Burton crazy. So I've decided to share with you all one of his first original animation shorts. Vincent Malloy :)




OH OH OH - Just as a sidenote. My car is fixed! WOOHOO! The o2 sensor blew through my muffler and that is why my muffler was broken as well... So SWEET... Killed 2 birds with one stone and now my car is as silent as can be :)