Here's What I am...

This one was kinda mean... It's a cartouche. My son Matt made it in art by cutting out the cardboard then gluing on aluminum foil. Then he carved his designs in. After that he painted it black and then sanded the black off to provide relief... this is the finished cartouche... It has a owl for M, a falcon for A and a piece of bread for T. Pretty cool huh? BTW the first one looks like a buffalo to me... and the third one looked like a son or moon...

The neatest thing to me is at the beginning of the year the art teacher had them make a 'logo' Matt made the shape of a tree with these little arrows.

What Am I?

I will be shocked if you get this one!

Super Moon!

Ok so that's not a super moon, it's a super Que. These are our shadows... Que was acting like he was all big and bad and gonna get me!!! I kissed him and he forgot what he was going to do... (grin)

Super Moon! Wow it took me three hours to get this shot, but it was worth it!

Here's What I am...

A couple of you nailed it. I just didn't admit it so others could have time to guess.

Good Job! Thanks for playing.

On a more sombre note, this is not a picture I took. This is the Tsunami swirling off the coast of Japan. Please pray for those people.

Guest Blogger Stacey Meadows.

This is my friend Stacey, she is a youth sponcer with us at Christian Life Fellowship, where Que and I are the Youth Pastors. Last night we opened a "Can of Worms" in youth. This was one result.

(Thanks to Anna L. Wight Photography for the picture.)

The youth group tonight started a discussion (that I came in on rather late, as I was helping out with kids & couldn't get there quicker, sorry guys, for the interruption!) about something that I feel pretty strongly about... suicide. First, I think you may want to know why I feel this way.

As someone who (long story short) has struggled with self-worth issues & depression most of her life, I was pretty quick to jump on the bandwagon when I came across ideas that made me feel important. I had an eating disorder in junior high, became a practicing Wiccan, went goth in high school, skipped school, wrote obscure poetry & song lyrics about death & loneliness... you get the picture. I was one of those. So when I had a particularly bad breakup (that followed a terrible, co-dependent relationship), I felt I needed to end it all. I felt that THEN someone would listen, THEN someone (ANYONE) would pay attention. So, I took a whole box of medicine, hoping I would just fall asleep & never wake up. I woke up the next morning, upset that I hadn't just ended things, but didn't know that I was pregnant. I attribute that second heartbeat with saving my life, tell me I'm wrong. I dare you. So, I had thought that I needed to end things to never, ever, be lonely again - that people would be SO sorry they had ever ignored me, or rejected me, or just plain not giving me their love.

But wait.... listen to this next line -

I. WAS. WRONG!!!

I was lied to, everything in my life told me I needed to hate myself, that the only way I would ever be worth anything was if I was a part of someone else, that I could somehow glom onto their worth, and it could be my own. That I could "bewitch" someone or seduce someone into something, if I only concentrated hard enough. And that set me up for a whole mess of failures, the sting of every one feeling like an earthquake in my soul. See, I know what it feels like to be that person... and God set me FREE from that. Since the day that happened, I have never ever felt like a worthless, hopeless, or helpless person. I know my worth isn't because of anything I have done, but what He has done for me, and what He can do through me, if I only allow Him to. He has shown me that I am His child, always have been, and that He LOVES me, enough to send His son to be humiliated, betrayed, wronged, beaten, broken, and after all of that, to take on everyone's sin - and He never did a single thing wrong! He was allowed to experience every single human emotion, without ever succumbing to sin, and He died - for me, for you, for the very people who spit in his face, for the ones who don't believe, for the ones that are cutting themselves to temporarily stop thinking about their pain, for those who are drinking their worries away, for those who are abandoning their children, for the ones who habitually lie, for those who hurt other people for no other reason than they want the high of control, for every single person who has ever & will ever walk this earth.

My heart hurts for you if you think you are worthless, that you have nothing... you have everything. He has done everything for you - accept it!! Healing, acceptance, justice, peace, companionship.... whatever you need (more than you need!!)- just accept it - it's a free gift for all of His kids! You, right now, are a prince, are a princess, and YOU ARE WORTH IT ALL.

Ps, I have a website for you. It's www.twloha.org, thanks to a friend who went to school in Florida, I found out about them years ago, for those who don't know what they're all about, here's their mission statement, copied directly from their site:

"To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery." People know what you're going through - do NOT hesitate to ask for help. You ARE worth it.

Oh - and I love you. :D

We love you too Stacey! Thanks for sharing.

What Am I?

Here's a new one for ya!

Wuv, True Wuv...

(I didn't take this picture, but it is so cute...)

I recently had an argument with someone, you know who you are, and you know I still love you, we just disagree. The statement I made that they disagreed with was “There is no reason for two people who are actively perusing God to get a divorce.” Their argument was that I had never been in a bad marriage, and they had. Actually, let’s see I’ll call you… Kira, I don’t know any Kiras, and if a Kira reads this, you’ll know the name is a pseudonym. So anyways… Kira said “You don’t know, you’ve never been in a bad marriage.” Well that shut me up for a minute or two… However, I am kinda funny that way, if something bothers me I have to simmer on it. Not as in getting mad, but just honestly consider it, sift it, and decide how I feel about it. I learned long ago not to trust my emotions. Emotions are like a runaway dog that needs to be leashed and told where to go. No matter how I feel that doesn’t make it true. If I make the right choices, the right emotions will follow.

For example… (haha wish the dots made noise, dut dut duuu) lol I don’t always feel love for my husband, but I always love my husband. I CHOOSE to love him, but the warm fuzzies got a cold shave many years ago… But because I keep choosing to love him every day, eventually the warm fuzzies come back… and leave, and come back… Does that mean I stop loving him when I don’t feel it? No, I am committed to him. I choose to love him even when I don’t feel it.

Now that is why it hit me a few days later, I have been in a bad marriage. We have had days, months probably even a year that we… well let’s just say love is not an accurate word for what we felt at that time. I fall out of love every day and jump right back in.

Juju the Dalmatian...

Seems all my posts are about Juju lately... she is sooooo photogenic, and into so much... lol Her class all dressed up like Dalmatians today. She was so excited!