Sunday, October 24, 2010

Leaving a Legacy

Today in church a girl sang As the Deer during our offering. As I sat in my seat listening to the song I closed my eyes and the familiar song took me back to my grandparents house sitting around their piano. I remember that song being played and sung many times during my childhood. Grandma and Grandpa singing the words as the cousins surrounded the piano. I opened my eyes to tears rolling down my cheeks. I was blessed with such wonderful grandparents on both sides of my family, but this song will forever take me back to the Olaen's house in Springfield, OR. If you've never heard this song, the following link is to a youtube video of the song being played.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70&feature=related

After the song was over I got to thinking about what a legacy my grandparents have. They raised their children in a Christian home, instilled wonderful values in them, and had an incredible influence on their children, grandchildren, and great granchildren. I wish that I had a chance to know my grandparents longer while they were on this earth. They had so much wisdom to give and I feel that as an adult I could appreciate that wisdom so much more. I only pray that I would leave such a legacy in the lives of my family and friends. Here are a few photos just for sentimental sake (I don't have many old pics on my computer to share but I was able to find a couple).

Baby Megan with mom Teresa and grandparents Lowell and Nellie    
Some of the blessed cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6


Blessing: Greg and I are feeling more "at home" in our new church family.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Fall is Here and I'm Feeling Crafty

I know it's been a while since my last blog, but I haven't had a whole lot to write about. I had planned to sit down this weekend and reflect on the past couple of weeks as I blog, but suddenly today I found inspiration! Crafts :)

I have always been a "scrapbooker." I love pictures and enhancing photographs to tell a story in my scrapbooks. Unfortunately, I have been feeling burnt out with scrapbooking lately and discouraged with the fact that so much can be digitally done now; I will probably give in to the digital photo albums in the near future.

Greg and I made a Michael's stop today for me to buy some ribbon and pins to decorate pumpkins.... you heard me correctly. It was my first time decorating pumpkins in this way and here is how they turned out. I'm excited because the colors I chose are all fall like and I think I can get away with leaving them out through Thanksgiving time.


We also made another purchase at Michael's that I hadn't planned on. I bought a Cricut machine. It's essentially a paper cutter with a stencil built in. You can change out different letters, phrases, and shapes and decide on what size you want. As a teacher I am VERY excited to use it, and I'm also excited to get creative in my greeting cards, home decorations, and creative gifts. As soon as I get  a chance to play around with it I will post some pictures on a blog. For now, here is what I'm talking about:
I plan to take it out of the box tomorrow and play around with it all afternoon. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. 
Proverbs 31:30

Blessing: Our house is staying warm enough while we continue to leave our heat off... trying to keep it off until November 1st!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

26 Sure Feels a lot Older Than 25

I celebrated my 26th birthday on September 29th. Greg was incredibly sweet and invited some of our friends over to surprise me. What made it even more special was that he stopped at Dairy Queen on his way home from work and bought me an icecream cake! My family has celebrated birthdays for many years with icecream cake and it was very sweet to have my husband remember and continue the tradition.

We were able to see the rest of the fam on the 3rd where we celebrated my birthday at The Roadhouse.
Britt and Kyle just moved to Salem where they will live until March, when they will move to Virginia for Kyle's training in the Marine Corps. Greg and I are looking forward to having them close by for the next 6 months. Always good to have another married couple around for game nights, and even better when they're family :)
So nice to have parents who are (and still want to be) very involved in my life as an adult. It's a good thing they only live a little over an hour away!

After our meal we all went to the AT&T store to upgrade our phones. Not gonna lie, there was a 20 minute time period where I was seriously considering a smartphone. Luckily Britt helped talk me out of it! I stuck to my guns and did NOT get a phone with a data plan. Britt and I both went with the Samsung Mythic. I was frustrated with the touch screen at first, but am getting used to it now. Greg says the phone is "boring" and "there is nothing fun to do" on it, but I can make calls, text, and take great pics; I'm a happy girl!

Proverbs 4:23 - Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Blessing: Began small group this week with young married women from my church.