Huzzah!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a Renaissance Festival in our area with Joe and his family. We had quite the time! It was my first time going to a Renaissance Festival, though I've wanted to attend one since I was in juinor high.

I must say, I think I saw more cleavage than I ever want to see again! But aside from that, we had a jolly good time. :) We even got to see some jousting and a glass blower! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of either of those...silly me.

Joe was checked out a coin booth while we were there, but secretly I think he was just trying to avoid looking at the well-endowed woman in the background!

By far, the best part of everything we did was the food. Yummmmm....fanTAStic! And my father-in-law got it all half-off due to a discount through his work -- nothing's better than delicious food at half the over-priced price!

As you can see, Al reeeeaaally enjoyed his turkey leg! Yum!

Sawyer isn't sure what to think of this turkey leg business!


Did you know we had a princess in our midst? :)


Check it out Dad -- Joe was drumming! On a djembe type thing! Awesome!


Sawyer didn't know what to think about this large tortoise waddling about!


At the petting zoo, we saw a grouchy looking ox.
We think he was grouchy because one of his horns was growing into the middle of his head...ouch!


One of my favorite pictures of the day...Laina singing and clapping with Uncle Joe :)

A Review...in snapshots

Because my posting has been so sparse over the summer, and now we're already into the autumn months, I thought I'd post a brief overview of major events and happenings from this summer. A brief explanation will appear by each photo. :)

My baby sister graduated from high school!
Man...I feel old, but I'm so very proud of her!
Love you Buggeroo!!

Joe had the privilege of being a groomsman in his dear cousin's wedding. As you can see, they had a little too much fun with the bride!











We took our youth group (with my brother in tow) to visit Valley Fair up in the Twin Cities.
We loved our first water ride!
[note how James, on the far left, is completely dry...he wimped out on the ride!!]








We have an annual girls camping weekend with my SIL's and other girls. On this particular night, they were all a little hyper in the pool!
Lookin' lovely, ladies!!

I was blessed by a visit from my dear friend, Charissa early in the summer. She and I tackled a seemingly simple handywoman task, and were left befuddled, exhausted and amazed at how inept we are at assembling products! but we survived it somehow -- I couldn't have done it without you, Triska!! :)






Another annual summer trip is Sonshine Music Fest in Wilmar, MN. Here, you can see the girls demonstrating the actions to our "Taste and See that the Lord is Good" song.
The boys are obviously amazed... ;)

We said goodbye (temporarily) to our dear friend and amazing matchmaker, Corrie, as she left for the Dominican Republic to teach music. We know she'll be an AMAZING teacher, but we sure do miss her!
We love you and are praying for you, Corr!!











This was a sweet bonding moment with my father-in-law, Alibabba, at a youth rally
with our youth group.
How I love him.









Speaking of fathers....it's amazing mine didn't kill himself while playing with my cousin's Ripstick, here!
Way to go, Dad!

And here, father and son ride in tandem...do they rock or what?!

There are no words for this picture.

All I can say, is that it was an AMAZING moment with my soul-mate, Meg.
Don't we look hot??

The above picture, later inspired this ----->
moment. Too bad it had to include my belly!

OnLabor Day, I had the privilege and honor of meeting my cousin's newest addition: Teagan!
What a beautiful gift from God...

I also got to go to my first Twins game EVER!!

It was fabulous!
But one of the best parts was witnessing Joe and our little nephews sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as we waited to enter the stadium.
Precious.

And this? This my friends, is what happens when you and your husband just "happen" to color-coordinate your clothing for church. Something just makes you go all crazy inside... :)

Follow up...

Well...since my infamous "Launch Day", I have seen a little progress! I've gained 1 guitar student and 1 piano student. Not too shabby. Not super swell, but not too shabby nontheless. We shall see what the future holds....

Thanks for all your support!! :)

Good?

I hear a lot of excuses at the bank. You name it and I've probably heard it. But the most common one is, "But I'm not a bad person! I mean.....I'm not bad! I'm a good person!"

Ha.

Following along that note, today on my igoogle home page, my Wikihow feed had an article entitled "How to Be Good". (You can check it out here if you like. ) What amazes me is that the term "good" is never defined. How can you be "good" if you don't know what that means? And if it really depends on your own code of ethics, then how can you ever know for sure that what you're doing is actually "good" or not? And how can I tell someone else that they are being "bad"?

Fortunately, these thoughts don't keep me awake at night. I have a life manual that defines good and bad for me, and when in doubt, I can ask the One who is the epitome of goodness itself, Jesus Christ, the only perfect One.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8

Launch Day

Hi. Remember me? I used to post on here every once in a while. And then summer happened. :) Anywho, I'm back now...and I'll try to be more vigilant from now on!!

Most of you already know this, but I have started my part-time working hours this week -- yay for me!! It will be so refreshing to have more time at home and to also have more time to fit in piano and guitar students. Yes, you read that right, guitar students. Yikes!! I'm not really sure how I'm going to actually teach guitar, but I'm going to give it my best shot. And expect payment for it. ;) But seriously, I am hoping to gain many more students, specifically piano, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I might be getting more than my fair share of beginning guitarists as well! It should be exciting!!

So tomorrow is my second big launch day. Earlier in the summer I went about putting up flyers EVERYWHERE that held my newly created business cards and placed ads in the weekly paper. (Click on the picture to see an enlarged version.) Now I'm about to have my second launch day. I'm going to replenish all my business cards and flyers, as well as talk to the music teachers at the local schools and give my business card to local churches. I'm praying that the Lord blesses my efforts and provides me with a collection of students to pour my heart into. :)

I'll keep ya posted!