conversations

sitton time.

                           

                                               

lynne & ella came for a visit this weekend. its amazing that lynne drove over 5 hours with a 1 year old, just to see us! ella has really grown up- she is great. she & clark have become good friends. ella was so great to garage sale with us for 2 days!  and she became good friends with little sam.  we loved getting to know her better.  she is such a little entertainer & so expressive!  lynne tried her first freezer paper stencil and it turned out so cute!    here is a great garage sale find- just $1 for this beautiful vintage table cloth!  i also found more vintage sheets & another table cloth.  lynne & i were excited to find some brand new tins that said "flour", "sugar", & "coffee" only to find, when we got home, the sugar had no lid!  luckily, katrina found several tins that she bought all for $1 and donated a few with mushrooms on them to me.  overall, it was a successful weekend on "the circuit" (garage sale circuit) and so refreshing to spend time with a good friend.

                                                           

dad.

many of you know that my dad is a chaplain in the air force reserves.  he feels a deep calling to go and help the soldiers who are over in iraq.  he is leaving today to train in the u.s. for a month, then, at the beginning of june, he will go to iraq.  i think that God will use him to bring His life to people who are in a really dark place.  if you think of it, pray for his safety and for God's strength as he begins his work.  and pray for my mom too, it would be pretty hard to not see your husband for the rest of the year and to trust God with his life.  it is encouraging to see dad taking risks and listening to God.  it would be so much easier and more comfortable to stay at home, but he is trusting God and going across the world to a very "unsafe" place.  although, corrie ten boom says that no place is safer than another within God's will. 

this picture of dad & ben is stolen from my sister's blog, thanks heidi!  it was taken last weekend at dad's peace gathering service.

oh no.

this is especially for any of my male readers.

maybe everyone has already seen this painful, but funny, video.

clark & i just saw it for the first time last night.

if clark had a blog, i'm sure he'd post this.

i think chris and john will especially enjoy this.

good old altima.

sometimes the stars align & something happens that you never could have planned.  this happened on sunday on our way home from wichita.  the altima reached its 100,000th mile at the 100 mile marker on I-70.  i thought toby would be particularly excited about this happening.

quilt monday.

                  

i LOVE this pattern ("any way you slice it") from the denyse schmidt quilts book and thought it would be perfect for my mom's 60th birthday (6 rows of 6).  it was really fun to tie a quilt, however, after i washed it the ties really frayed.  does anyone know what kind of ties would hold up better?  special thanks to sarah for helping me cut out all the pieces, and to hannah for moral support, and to katrina for helping me tie and to clark who hasn't had a home cooked meal in a few weeks and has been so patient with me!  its fun to work on projects with other people (especially when they are so helpful for me!), anyone up for starting our own quilter's guild?

mom.

today is my mom's birthday. 
this is one of my favorite pictures of her, taken in alaska with cakes some ladies from church made for her birthday.  she says that she is entering into the best decade of life, 60-70, and she can't wait. 
i am so thankful for such an amazing mother.
i'm hoping to be more like her some day.

dc.

it was so great to see the crabbs in dc.  we were able to stay in a luxurious hotel right across from the crabb's apartment (which is only 1 bedroom & julie has worked wonders to make it feel welcoming and not too cramped!).  we loved re-connecting with mike & julie & ethan.  ethan is really out of control.  he is so cute that i hardly even knew what to do with myself most of the time.  he is beautiful.  and has such a great personality.  mike & julie make great parents.  we saw some sights and were lucky enough to see guy penrod in concert ("you know what his life is like") as we watched the sun rise over the washington monument on easter morning.  it was the perfect mix between being in the city (h&m, ikea, jefferson memorial, white house...) and in nature (the falls were beautiful & so much fun to just sit outside & throw the disc) and just hanging out at the apartment (sorry, a delicious easter dinner, watching ethan...).  one of the coolest things we were able to do was join mike at ijm for the daily prayer meeting yesterday.  mike is famous there, by the way.  it was obvious that the people who work there really desire to work with God to bring justice to the oppressed.  and how cool that they stop every day to pray together for 30 minutes.  we are already missing mike & julie & can't stop thinking about ethan.

 

africa skirt.

this is the first article of clothing i've ever attempted, a skirt for sarah to wear in africa.  its nice that it was basically just 4 panels to sew together.  there is even a hidden little bag to carry important things like chapstick & hand sanitizer.  it turned out better than i expected, the africans will love it.  maybe i'll attempt another skirt for myself some time soon... 

special thanks to the model.  i can't wait to hear all about the trip.

find of the day.

saturday was my first "die hard" garage sale day.  i met up with katrina at 7:30ish and we hit the sales.  columbia loves its garage sales.  i heard people talking about being excited about "the season" (which is garage sale season).  and one lady was so excited that she ran out of her car & didn't even shut the door!  so, the find of the day, was definitely the quilter's guild sale at st. andrew's church.  it was so crazy.  you could fill up the gallon bags with fabric for $1 and the smaller bags with notions for $.25.  i got a pillow for $.10 & a yard & a half of batting for $.25.  i was so excited that i was shaking!  and i even got invited to the quilter's guild.  so i might be attending a few meetings.  i found this cute little guy at another church sale for $1.  overall it was a very successful day!

                                                        

quad's kid.

                                       

yesterday i found this little guy knocking on our door.

i hear that he comes over during the day to see if we're home too.

sam is a great kid and he loves his habitat shoes.