Let me Share...

While I was driving to work this morning I did some thinking about what I was going to write in my Blog today.

There are so many things I would love to write about, not necessarily important, but a little noteworthy nonetheless. So I thought to myself, "What is it you love?"

• My Lord? Yes - though I don't tell Him often enough
• My husband? absolutely, with my whole heart
• My girls? - without question
• My job? - you bet
• My family? - they are the best
• My friends? - each one is good for my heart

As I was thinking about all this, I realized that I put all these things I love in my scrapbooks. Did I mention that I love scrapbooking? I do - it is my joy.

So today I am going to share some of my scrapbook layouts. These are some of the things I love...

Love this photo of Tessa and Karlee. The three of us went to a sleep over at the Aquarium for Tessa's 16th birthday. What an awesome time we had.

Every year Tony pulls this old homemade trailer up to Shuswap for his mom. His dad built the trailer in their basement and they're all pretty proud of it, as you can tell!

We love Disneyland. This was one of our favourite trips there. Just us girls - 2006.


















This layout is called "Pass It On." I designed it for a competition to celebrate marriage. We are very blessed to have had these wonderful marriages before us.







This is me.

I think Joan or Carol took this picture. We love to go pictographing together (looking for indian rock paintings) and they love to tease me about how I have to touch every one. Just can't seem to be able to help myself.

This is probably my favourite photo of Tony. We had found this wonderful old homestead on the west side of the Fraser and of course I was taking way too many pictures. When I turned around, this was how he was standing, waiting for me to be finished. When I saw the photo for the first time I thought how well it captured everything about him. I call this layout,"Born 100 Years Too Late."

What do you love? Have you thought today about how God has blessed you? Why don't you share your blessings with someone today.

Did I Tell You I Got a New Camera?

My family is getting so tired of this sentence but it's true. I've been waiting for this for so long so they're just going to have to put up with me for a while - I got a new camera!!

I have always loved taking photographs...there’s just something about capturing a moment in time and preserving it for posterity. I walked the Fort-to-Fort trail this morning (looking for a geo-cache of course) and my beautiful new camera was with me - it has become my constant companion. It seemed that wherever I looked there was another "kodak moment" - a tugboat with an enormous barge, a beautiful trillium, a old, old barn that was built a hundred years ago. They are all now captured on film (ooops...memory card.)

For some reason looking through the lens of my new camera has given me a renewed sense of the beauty around me. I think I have a pretty good appreciation for God’s creation... but lately I have appreciated His artistic ability more and more.

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

My List

I am a task oriented, list person with a short attention span. Problem is I'm 44 years old and I have just figured this out.

I think maybe it has something to do with all the things I want to accomplish in one day. Tony gets so exasperated with me. "Pick one thing and finish it!" he blusters. It drives him crazy... I tell him that Oprah calls it multi-tasking. He doesn't care what Oprah calls it.

I love my daily "to-do" list and there is nothing like the thrill of adding another checkmark to that list. (Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.) My goal (usually unattainable) is to have everything checked off that day. The problem is that if it doesn't get on the list it's not going to happen. Tony thought he'd be funny and added his own ideas to my list one day.... things like "breathe" and "blink" were on the bottom. Very funny.

I've come by this habit quite honestly. My mother has lists everywhere, usually on little yellow post-it notes stuck in obvious, make-sure-I-don't-forget places. My father has kept a coil notebook for his lists for as long as I can remember.

I don't understand how people can function without a list. I've tried it and it's not pretty. Usually I end up somewhere, like Safeway, wandering aimlessly.

So what is my point in my Blog today? I'm not sure, but now I can put a check mark in front of "Write in blog" on my list.

"Thanks God... I Found it!"

Have you ever thought that there are just too many wonderful things in this world for you to absorb? That God made this world with so many hidden gems & secrets just for you to find?

I have. I think that all the time, every day.

Yesterday Tony and I went geo-caching in a little known park north of Campbell Valley Park and the moment we stepped off the road onto the trail I was in awe of the beauty around me. The trees were dripping with bright green moss and huge ferns grew all around. It was like stepping onto a green painter's palette. I never knew this little park existed and I've lived in Langley for almost 40 years! Can you imagine what else is out there for us to find?


Like I said, we were geo-caching - one the hottest new hobbies to take hold of people these days. In a nutshell this is what you do.... you use your GPS unit to locate a box with specific co-ordinates. The box (or geo-cache) has been hidden somewhere on the planet. They are hidden everywhere, (that's me pulling a cache out of a tree) with little trinkets and a logbook inside. There are thousands just in the lower mainland. It's so addictive, the moment you say the words, "found it!!" you are ready to find the next one.

Why is it that we don't treat God's hidden wonders the same way? I truly believe that God made all this just for our enjoyment. And what do we do? We race by, going 120 on the freeway because we have to "get there." One of the greatest lessons I learned from my parents was that the holiday, the adventure, your day-to-day life, begins the moment you leave the driveway, not when you arrive at your destination. God must truly puzzle over the way we race around His planet, trying to keep up, missing everything.


Thank you God for Your creation. Please help me appreciate what a gift it truly is.

Everything I Learned From Washing Dishes

For the past three Thursdays Tony & I have been washing the dishes for the Marriage Course Dinner at our Church. I told him, "It will be fun" and he agreed to it, though he wasn't too sure about the "fun" part.

After three weeks this is what I know for sure:

• Our church dishwasher rocks - I want one just like it.
• My husband is a much better cleaner than he has let on.
• Apricot stuffed ham is so yummy.
• The care groups in our church are simply amazing... I've never seen so many happy, willing people in the kitchen.
• Serving others is so good for your heart.
• We're signed up for next time.

I'm supposed to be working....

I'm supposed to be working. Shhhhh...

But here I am blogging in the church office and technically this is work since I am in charge of our soon-to-be Blog website and all our new bloggers. I am very excited about this new ministry that we're undertaking and all the people who have agreed to "blog" are so talented, I'm sure everyone will enjoy what they have written so far.

I've got to say that it's exciting to be here at this job - to be able to see and hear all around this place. The upstairs is busy with running little feet at the Preschool, the parents busily coming and going. I hear the laughter coming from the fireside room as the women have their Monday Morning Bible Study, Jennifer is huffing at her computer (though she does her job with a joyful heart I'm sure) and Wes was just in here chatting with us both.

There's a feeling of excitement around here. Of things past and wonderful things to come. I know I am right where God wants me to be. And now I'd better get back to work.

Time Flies....

Tomorrow is a special day for my husband and me. Tomorrow it will be exactly 26 years ago that he proposed. How can that be? I remember when my parents celebrated their "Silver Wedding." They were old.

How on earth did time slip away so quickly? How can it be that I have a child who is 23?

I don't feel old. Honestly, I feel like I'm still 18. I enjoy so many things and I feel like there is so much I still want to do. So many places left to explore. I wish that I could just hold on to time and make it stand still for a little bit.

I guess there really is some truth to the adage: "Time flies when you're having fun." It has been an amazing, thrilling, wonderful ride with just a few unexpected bumps along the way.