Sneak Peak of the Weekend

Alright, I have taken a few of my favorite pictures to share with y'all as a 'sneak peak/preview'. :-) I will probably have to do several posts of all the pictures... We took (well, mostly Becca took them) over 1,000 pictures. =D But, I guess that's how it goes sometimes! ;-) And in the digital age, you can snap pictures quicker than you can say 'cheese'. :-)

So, enjoy the pictures and let me know what you think!! :-)

My wonderful parents! 

Josh and I inside a big tractor bucket. 

Josh and I doing an 'old photo' by the super cool truck...

Cuzin's

Trying to be serious....

...and utterly failing. ;-) 

Do I look at home in this thing or what? It would be so neat to own one!!! 

My 'amazing' photo... ;-) Actually, I thought it turned out pretty neat!

Lizzy from 'Cars'. 

Cuzin's Visitin' on the porch swing-the weather was SO nice.

Lining up my aim for an amazingly easy shot which... I missed. 

My Bee-u-tee-ful Sister

Yours truly (picture taken by my amazing sis!)

And one of the whole family! (photo credit to my Aunt Betty)

So, there's your sneak peak! I hope you enjoyed it and want to see more.... 'cuz there's a whole bunch of 'em. ;-) In the next post I'll probably give you the 'tour' of the house (basically I walked through the house and took pictures every couple of steps...) The Attic (otherwise known as the "Princess Room") where we girls slept was especially neat! :-)

In Christ's Service,
Sarah

My Birthday

Ok, last time my birthday rolled around, a few of my readers got onto me about not posting about it. ;-) So, I'm posting now that I've just celebrated my 19th birthday!!! Sounds old, doesn't it??? ;-)

I'm planning on posting some pictures of our super-ly fun weekend! We were celebrating my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. So, what a better way to celebrate your birthday than with all your immediate family members?? ;-) It was loads of fun! And yes, I really do have a gazillion pictures to show y'all. (no, not all of them are of my birthday! but from the whole weekend)

And thank you to those who have already wished me a happy birthday! You all made it even more special. :-)

In Him,
The old lady

Just a Random Lil' Post about what's Been Going On

Yup. That just about sums it up.  I thought I might drop in a say a few things. Many of you said you liked just my random 'daily posts', and I'm glad of it. :-)

So, what's been going on in the crazy life of Miss Sarah lately? Well, I don't think I've ever seen a busier July in my life.  You know what we did for the 4th and everything, so I'll spare you the pain of having to re-read it again. This past weekend, though, we had our annual family reunion (on my dad's side). We didn't have as many of the family come this year, but it was nice because I was actually able to sit down and visit with someone for more than five minutes before someone else came up and wanted to visit too. So, all in all, it was very nice. Sadly, we had to cut the visit short because we have a wounded calf to take care of.  Wounded calf? Yes. Unfortunately, our little pups decided to play tug-o-war with our calf. I'll spare disgusting details for those with weak stomachs. But, it wasn't a pretty sight. Both her ears are gone now, and she has a very wounded shoulder. She'll probably walk with a limp the rest of her life.  Thankfully, she seems to be recovering well, but it will take a long time to heal completely. So, daily life consists of going out in the morning and changing her bandages (I will admit here that I haven't been able to help out with that yet... Right now it's too much for my stomach to bear. I know, a rancher girl with a weak stomach. What will come next....) However, though I might not be helping now, I might help later when the wound is more healed than it is now. =S


So, in that series of unfortunate events, I come to the next topic. My pup. Living on the ranch like we do, we can't have dogs that tear up calves, even if they meant it in play. At first we were so upset with them we were just going to put them down. However, after some more thought, we decided that they weren't really bad dogs. They were just puppies that hadn't had very good training (unfortunately we don't know much about dog training!). So, we put an add on Craigslist and a few days later, a nice family came and took Oreo. My little buddy. My shadow. I miss him a lot, but at the same time, I have to say I'm glad he's there and not here where he might get into more trouble (and maybe an accident where we couldn't allow the mercy of him finding another home). So, after we found another home for him, we decided to go ahead and keep Bandit. You see, we had 3 dogs: Sadie (a Great Pyrenees), Bandit, and Oreo. We've heard that if you have more than 2 dogs, they will start forming a 'pack' mentality and will end up doing more damage than good. So, we figured that we'd get rid of the two pups and then keep Sadie (mostly, I think, because she would be harder to get rid of...).  Any way, after we got rid of Oreo, we decided to go ahead and keep both of the other two dogs in hopes that since there aren't 3, they'll behave better.

Moving on.... This Friday we are having a dance!! I'm so very excited and I hope that I can post pictures of it later. :-) Yesterday we went over to a friends house (their daughters and I are the ones who instigated this whole thing!) and learned some dances. Rather, I taught them the dances so I'd have a few more people who knew how to do it. It's going to be interesting because I'm calling the dances. So, we'll see how it goes! They'll either hire or fire me, in a manner of speaking. ;-) any way, I am SO excited. And yes, this sounds silly, but I already have my outfit picked out. The most swish-y skirt I had! ;-) There is, actually, a story behind why I already have my outfit picked out. However, I'll save that for when I post pictures. :-) We will be doing English Contra (or line) dancing. Like the one in the video below, and, if any of you have seen Pride and Prejudice, like the one that Elizabeth dances with Mr. Darcy and they have their famous conversation. :-)

(Isn't that just the most elegant dance you've ever seen? I totally love it! In fact, that's one we're going to do-or try to do! Oh, and the music is just lovely!!) 

Well, I believe that this has gotten long enough. I'll end it by saying that my littlest brother (though not to little now!) is going to be turning 12 in just 3 days!!! So sad to see him growing up, yet I'm proud of the young man he's becoming. :-) I'm going to try to do a special post for him later on....
  And be prepared to see lots of pictures (possibly) as we have several other 'major' events going on. :-)

With that, I shall bid you adieu! I hope all my readers are doing well! Have you been doing anything out of your 'normal' routine?

In His Grace,

Sarah

Happy Independence Day!

Hello! I just wanted to drop in to wish everyone a very happy 4th of July!! (even though we should technically be celebrating on the 3rd!)

Today's plans include going over to my Great-Aunt and Uncles to have hamburgers and play some games. It is tradition, actually. :-)  Unfortunately we won't be able to have any fireworks because of the drought that we are in, but that's alright. It isn't about the fireworks anyway, right? ;-)

Another tradition that we seemed to have started was getting together with another family on the 3rd. We were laughing that we always get together on the 3rd (since both the dads are off from work so they can stay super late!), so we decided that we should just make it tradition. ;-)  My friend and I had a photo shoot (I might share some pictures with y'all.... ;-), then we learned some new dances for a dance that's coming up (my sister and I are calling it, so we were trying to learn some new ones!), and then did our own "America's Got Talent" show! It was lots of fun.  After that, we got our cardio workout by sneaking around in the dark trying to find the other team before they find you. (yes, our hearts were pounding through the entire thing!) Whew, it gets kind of creepy out there! especially when the coyotes start howling (and they were very close last night!). In any case, we had lots of laughs and good fellowship. :-)

Any way, We had a blast, enjoyed sleeping in after our late night, and are looking forward to the evening with family!

Do you any of you have any fun traditions for the holiday?

Also, thanks so much to those who voted on the poll I had up. The results were kind of surprising, but I am looking forward to putting up some of those posts for y'all. :-)

In Christ's Service,
Sarah

Guest Post over at Simple Delights

Hello!

My friend, Samantha, over at Simple Delights, was very kind and asked me to be one of her guest-posters while she takes a blogging break. So, if you would like to read my post, just click HERE.  Be sure to drop a comment with your thoughts!! :-)

(Update and -hopefully-pictures coming soon!)

In Him,
Sarah

A Bunch of Characters Drama Group Presents!.....

A blog of it's own!!  That's right! If you want to keep up with what ABC Drama Group is doing, go to the new site and follow via google account or email.  The web address is www.abunchofcharactersdrama.blogspot.com.

Many of my readers have seen and 'heard' quite a bit about our drama group on this blog. I've posted pictures, quoted little snippets from the plays, and gone on and on about how excited I was for the performances, etc. :-) So, if you enjoy reading those updates, seeing pictures, reading what we're going to be doing next, and learning about how to get involved, then you definitely want to go check out the new site. It was started up by my lovely sister, Becca, but will not be written by only her. We're hoping that several of the older kids in the group will do some posts as well. So, be sure to check it out, comment, and follow. :-)

Click HERE to visit link.

In Christ's Service,
Sarah

The Good, the Bad, and the Worse

I know that is supposed to be "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", but I didn't want to take that phrase for fear of getting in trouble. ;-)

Most of y'all have probably (and might have even participated in) seen those blog posts called 'Awkward and Awesome'. I think they're kind of fun. An easy way to quickly update the readers on what the writer has been up to. :-) So, I decided to try my own version of it.

The Good:
~Driving the car with the windows down and the radio up.... and all the cows staring at you like you're some alien from outer space as you belt out the lyrics to one of the songs.
~Laughing hysterically with your brother over your own 'inside joke' and realizing that you'll cherish this moment forever.
~Anticipating getting to see some friends soon.
~Teaching Fiddle and having some of the greatest students ever. :-)
~Excitedly working on "The Project" (of which I will probably post some 'sneak peek' pictures soon!)

The Bad:
~Driving over a bridge without your license.
~Having a major disappointment about a possible acting experience (but the good side is knowing that God is in control!)
~Disappointment about not getting to see some friends Friday night.
~Slightly bummed that we are no longer hand-milking. (we made our own milk machine, which has been really nice, but every once in a while I still milk by hand... its just fun. :-) )

The Worse:
~The little milk calf, Nessie, getting hurt by the dogs playing 'too hard' with her.
~Having to get rid of the puppies because of the above incident.
~Missing my little Oreo. My buddy.
~Having seen no rain for a very long time... it just feels dry.

So that sums it up for right now.  Anything awkward or awesome going on in your life? I might end up switching to the actual awkward and awesome, since those seem to be more fun. But, this seemed to fit a bit better for what I was posting. :-)

I've been pretty surprised at the results of my voting pole! Thank you for voting on if you did, and if you didn't, then please do so. :-)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday so far!

To the Best Daddy in the Whole World

I know that my title could bring some rather controversial comments, so, ladies, we'll just have to agree to disagree. ;-)

I know I'm a day late in posting, but since we were gone most of the day yesterday and then the rest of the time was spent spending time with Dad, I figured I wouldn't be thrown in jail for a late Father's Day post. ;-)

 (So handsome in his cowboy hat! Well, he's handsome all the time.... ;-) 

(Unfortunately, he hides from the camera, so I don't have very many pictures of him... But there he is, eating with his beautiful wife of 25 years!)

I'm not super at writing poems, but sometimes, when something really inspires me, I seem to find the words. :-) So, this is for you, Daddy. Thank you for always being there for your little girl. 

My Daddy:

I’m as lucky as can be,

Though some would disagree,

I’ve got the best thing in the world!

His name is Daddy.

He taught me about God

and how Jesus came and died.

How carefully I must trod,

to stay ever on the Savior's side.

His loving arms are strong,

Often comforting me when something’s wrong.

He always has a listening ear

Whenever I need him near.

He’s the one that taught me how to ride a bike.

He’s the one who showed me how buck hay.

He even lets me have ice cream whenever  I like!

Just kidding, but still that wish does tend to stay!

His hugs and kisses are ever ready

If I’ve fallen or need to be steadied.

When my head gets in the clouds,

He’s got the right words to bring me to the ground.

Life lessons I've learned from him.

How to be a good friend,

How to love others,

How to serve Christ unto the end.

Those midnight talks,

Long summer walks,

The fatherly advice,

Makes everything so nice.

If ever I’m in trouble,

I know just where to go.

When I feel like I’m trapped in a bubble,

He helps me out, don’t you know.

He supports me in all my dreams,

Giving me strength to push through.

There are tough times and yet it seems,

The one who’s always there for me is you!

I’m as lucky as can be,

Though some would disagree.

He may not be perfect,

But he’s still the best Daddy.  

There, I know it's not much, but poetry just sometimes helps to say more than normal words.  I love you so much, Daddy! I don't know what I'd ever do without you. You've been my best friend, my counselor, my Prince Charming, my very best Daddy. I love you!!! 

Your little girl,

Sarah

The Tidbits of Life

I hope that everyone is having a good weekend so far! I know it's just barely begun, but it always seems to zip by way too quickly. :-) There are always so many things to do over the weekend and we never seem to be able to get them finished.  Oh well, I suppose that that is the way life goes, eh?

I was thinkin' (which is a dangerous thing for me to do some days) that I ought to come over here and give a lil' update on what we've been doing. We have been so super busy that I actually have something other than the boring 'we ate lunch, cleaned up, washed laundry, etc' that I think I tend to post.

Sunday morning my beautiful Sister and I got up and headed out to my Grandparents place in Tucumcari. Two hours away, but thank goodness for Lamplighter Theater!!! We were able to listen to "The Captive" on the way over. It was very good and I highly recommend it. :-)  We arrived just as they were getting out of church and met them at a local restaurant for lunch.
  If you're wondering what we were doing over there, I'll go ahead and tell that part. I guess it's kind of important. ;-)  Rebecca was asked to come and take pictures of everyone at the church for their new directory. So, she was able to set up a little studio in one of the rooms at the church and set to work. I tagged along for the labor/grunt work and moral support. ;-) Of course, she really just wanted to take me with her because she just can't stand to keep away from my wonderful self for very long. Just kidding. In all seriousness, I did go to help her out and do some work. I was mostly useful for the setting up and tearing down, but I enjoyed it while we were there. Got to visit with lots of people and enjoy watching my sister as she pulled off a very professional and friendly air as she 'shot' people. =D  Seriously, though, she really did an amazing job!!  She was able to borrow some of those 'fancy lights' (like the ones you'd see in a real studio) from a friend. Our backdrop was just a simple sheet from Alco. But hey, they turned out super nice! I'm hoping that she'll share a few on her Photography Blog.

Oh, I also got the be the guinea pig for adjusting the lighting. Let's just say that when you have to sit and have your picture taken for nothing in particular except to make sure the lighting is just right... well, let's just say that it can get boring and you start doing crazy thing without knowing you're really doing it. Perhaps the pictures below will explain a lil' better. ;-) (and yes, I know... I always said I wouldn't ever post a bunch of pictures of myself, but I figured I'd better show my goofy side every once in a while. ;-)

 "I can't believe I have to do this..."

 "I'm Singin' in the Studio, just Singin' in the Studio!..."

 "Maybe if I stare her down she'll let me go."

 

My model pose. What do you think? Should I be on the cover of a magazine? ;-)

 

 After all the goofiness, I felt that I needed to look dignified at least once.

 My Beeyouteeful sister

Just to show off my sister's great posing/photography skills... ;-)

We were there from Sunday to Tuesday evening. Grandma and one of the ladies from church worked hard several days before to get a schedule of when people were coming in. We got most of them on Sunday, but were still kept busy taking photos on Monday and Tuesday.  All in all, it went really well and I can't wait to see how the directory turns out!

Wednesday we had most of the day at home and then went to watch some friend's kids over night while they were away.  That was lots of fun. :-) The kids were wonderful and super cute. We got back Thursday and quickly made the switch for mom and Becca to go into town to go to their volunteer place and me to stay at the house with the boys.  While they are gone, the boys and I got a few things done around the house.

Yesterday we just be cleaned our house and then ran into town when we heard that some friends of ours had Chicken Pox.  Caleb hasn't had it yet, so anytime we hear of something getting it, we try our hardest to get him over there for 'snuggle time'! ;-) He read the kids books and snuggled with them while they watched a movie. Hopefully he'll get it.  So, that was a very busy week. This coming week we have nothing scheduled. whew! That will be nice to just stay home and relax.

Today my Mom gets to finally see her Christmas present! My Dad bought her tickets to go see the Broadway production of Les Miserables.  It is her absolutely favorite book. She is a little worried that the play won't be as good, but I think she will still enjoy it.

Oh, and in the next few days I'll try to get up a few photos that my sister took of my cousin and I while we were in Tucumcari.  Katie came over while she had lunch break from her job. We ate pizza and then, since we had a large open time slot with no one coming in, Becca let us have fun and mess around in her 'studio'. I think some of them turned out pretty cute.

Off to finish cleaning and maybe do some laundry. :-) Oh and don't forget to vote on the poll if you haven't already!

In Christ's Service,
Sarah