Count Down continues....

Another day almost over......

Most of the prep work is done.....

Nan is finishing up hair pieces for Stephanie 's bridal doo.....

the house is filled with girls, poor Daniel had to go to bed....

Watching wedding movies, and laughing, and getting ready for the big day.

Having so much fun sharing this occasion with friends and family....  we are so blessed... God has been so good to us with surrounding us with people that love us, and filling our lives with joy and happiness....

We can't wait to see our family for this great event!

Remember to tell your family you love them and appreciate them....and don't forget to enjoy each and evey moment that you have with them..... 

Praise the Lord we get to embrace our life with joy and happiness....And that we have so many special people in our lives.... our friends are The Best....

Thank you Lord that you have blessed us with two wonderful daughters, and with a wonderful and Godly young man to share the future with my darling  Stephanie...

They're.....Going to the chapel, and their, going to be married..........

Only three days! 

Four Days.... How can it be so........

It is so hard to believe, yet so very exciting....

It is almost the day that Stephanie will walk down the isle to become a new bride....

From little girl, to loving and beautiful wife...


The wedding preparations are almost done...

Their house is almost finished and ready to become their new residence, ...

The flowers are getting delivered tomorrow...

The food is ordered....

Sleep is elusive...

Dress is in it's last fitting, and the veil is finally finished....



Family and friends have started to arrive, and Laughter fills the house from time to time....

That day we have been planning is almost.................... Here.........



Wow how time flies....


And great and new adventures are about to happen....


God is so Great.....

His mercies endure forever....

His Love is never ending, and fills us completely....

Thanks be to Him alone...

Drunken Chicken? Can it be possible.....

Last summer, I had the opportunity to share dinner with friends... It was wonderful and she is an amazing cook, as well is her husband.  Well... she made us her famous (well famous to us) Drunken Chicken.  It was absolutely wonderful...

It is marinated overnight, and then you grill it, and then put on the grill back in the marinade to simmer until nice and tender.... Wow... Flavorful and wonderful...

Well... Stephanie received this recipe in the mail yesterday, and she went straight to the store to purchase the ingredients to make this for us today... and I can hardly wait to taste it again..

Of course it will not be as great as hers, because it won't have all the Love she puts in it, and we won't be eating it with them on one of her beautiful quilted table clothes, but I am hopeful that it will taste close to hers!  And if it does, we will be very happy eaters when it is all finished.

Now for those of you who think that cooking with alcohol is bad... I am sorry... but, all the alcohol does burn off in the cooking process, and it does make the chicken so very tender.... It is worth it to us....  

The Chicken was wonderful, and we had leftovers.... Yum...  Will definitely make it again...  Stephanie did a wonderful job with making it, and her Daddy did a great job of cooking it on the grill... It was wonderful... 

Am I a bad person for destroying some books?

Let me start out by saying I love books..... and I was raised to put great reverence in the written word.  Books are very special to me, and I love them.

Over the past year, my daughters wedding has caused me to destroy several books in the process of making things to use for her wedding and her showers, as well as her bachorlette party.

It is the hardest thing to find a book that I feel right about destroying, because I have been raised to take great care of books, and not to do anything that would hurt them.

Well.... I have succeeded in destroying 4 books so far.  One cookbook, one novel, a book of worship songs, a vocabulary book, and the last one is a book on flower crafts.

I loved using the interesting media source for sewing, but it was very hard to make myself rip pages out of a book.  I was raised to revere books and to treat them with respect, and never cause them harm, and there I was ripping page after page out of the books.  It was a little bit traumatic at first, but it did become easier as I went along.  And the finished projects were really neat.

The only problem was when I was working on my last project, and after ripping out about 50 pages, I happened to casually read part of a page while sewing seams around the edges, and a couple of words caught my eye..... wait a minute, the content on that page is not quite appropriate.  An innocent looking novel with content I don't want people reading right there on my project.

Back to the thrift store to buy another book to destroy.... so sad to ruin a perfectly good book that I couldn't even use for my craft.  Kinda felt sorry about that one, but glad that people didn't have to be subjected to it in my project....

The finished projects were and are pretty neat, I really enjoyed making things out of books.  It is sad that some day there might not be many books left to play with, since we are moving into the digital age.  Less books are being printed, and the choices won't be as numerous in the future, and you can't rip pages out of a digital copy.... You just don't get the same effect.


~Alaskan Brat~

The Wedding day is almost here........

Never really thought that this week would ever really get here.... but yet it has arrived.  I have thought about this and prayed for this for so long, it is just hard to believe that it is actually happening.

Went to the airport today to pick up my wonderful husband..... he came back to us from a trip he really didn't want to make, and no one should have to go through, yet most of us will.    He returned from being reunited with his family, to share one of the saddest days of his life. Sharing in the passing of his beloved father.   At a time filled with celebration and promise, God wanted us to stop and remember we are only here for a little time, and realize how important those loved ones truly are to us.

Tomorrow we head back to the airport, to pick up my mother.  When it comes to sorrow she understands what losing a loved one is like, she has had Both of her husbands leave the earth way too early.  She might have had her share of sorrow but she also knows how to make the most out of life.  Our time here has its limits, and as long as we keep our focus on Godly things, our life will be something to rejoice in.

It will be doubly hard at this wedding.... loved ones that should be there rejoicing, will not be there physically, but they will always be there in spirit.  Carried in our hearts and minds.  They will always be with us....My father never had an opportunity to know my daughters, but just looking into their beautiful eyes, I can see Him staring back at me.... their Grandfather Don taught them so much about being a Godly person and treating everyone with kindness and compassion.  He lives deep in the essence of who they are and will always be a part of them.  My step father was always there for them and spoiled them rotten, but that's ok, because I'm spoiled too and I turned out pretty decent.

This week will happen like whirlwind and more trips to the airport.... which is funny because it is usually us that are flying off to destinations all over.  We will definitely be busy.... but will share this time with friends and family, and that's always a wonderful way to do it.

Can't wait to see what this week has in store for us!  Stay tuned for what happens next... you never know what kind of mischief we will find our selves in....


~Heather~

Consider it Pure Joy....

~James 1:2-7

² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Scripture keeps coming back to me and my family.... Just when you think it has been neatly tucked away in our memory, it pops up into our lives, and reminds us that life is not always a box of chocolates.

Well, maybe it is like a box of chocolates, with many different ingredients, and delicacies.  

Most people like chocolates, and truly enjoy eating from a big selection and assortment, but not everyone likes one kind of chocolate.  Not everyone likes caramel  or nuts, or gooey centers.... one persons delight is another persons last choice.  

It is kind of how life is sometimes... we go along enjoying that which is laid out for us each day, some times it is good, and enjoyable and some times it is something that brings unwanted feelings, experiences, laughter or pain. 

Like biting into a chocolate covered strawberry... Now some people LOVE them, some people like them but they are allergic to them, and some people just Hate them.... Some people swell up and turn colors from them...  Or biting into a nice little chocolate covered ant, or worm.... looks good and yummy on the outside, but when you find out what is on the inside, it makes you want to spit it out...   

Life tends to give you experiences like this too.

I am a chocolate lover, and I admit that I do kind of like chocolate covered strawberries, and that I do enjoy all kinds of chocolates, and I might even have tried chocolate covered ants, crickets, and other assorted insects in my life time.... but I am a little bit more adventurous than most. 

I also look at adversity in a different way than most people.... I don't turn to God immediately and say "Why Me?"  I tend to think "Why not me Lord, what Do I need to learn..." .  Me, I tend to look at it from the prospective of James.  

It has been a lesson that I have tried to instill in my daughters from an early age.  I think and hope that I have been successful in doing this.  

So many times in our family, we have been dealt situations that were not always happy times. Like being laid off from work, or dealing with difficult relationships, or dealing with the death of loved ones.  

We have learned that these times are not used to make our lives miserable, they are there to draw us closer to God, and to bring our relationship with him to a new level.  We have learned to be examples in our pain, and dissapointment, to learn from them, and to draw our strength from Christ.

We are privileged to be here, in our given families, surrounded by friends and loved ones.  It is not something that we should take for granted.  You never know when that gift will be taken away. 

When you deal with sorrow, or disappointing situations, look at it from a different perspective... Try to think of it from Gods point of view.... He is waiting for us to look first to HIM, and to go to him for our comfort and direction.  So often He is the last person we go to.  He is waiting patiently for us to draw near to him, and for us to make our relationship deeper with him.  He is waiting for us to understand that these things happen to make us better people, and to strengthen our relationship with him and other believers.

Which brings us back to the book of James.... "Consider it pure joy...."  Try to find the joy in the situation, I know it is hard to do some times, but all Joy comes from God, so look to him first... 

~Brat~

Saying good bye to a loved one is just for a time....... until we meet again in Heaven

I have had the wonderful opportunity to have the most amazing man for a father in law for the past 27 years.... I lost my own father when I was a teenager, so he had a very special place in my heart... 

Sunday this amazing man made his final journey, and his most successful journey of his life.  From his earthly form here to his perfect heavenly body in the presence of Christ.

This man overcame so very much in his lifetime, and brought so much happiness to his family. His is an amazing story, with more trials in his young life than you could imagine, yet he was always filled with amazing love and compassion, and he was always a wonderful father, grandfather, and such a Godly example of a man and husband to his beautiful wife Diane and all of us that had the privilege to know him.

His favorite things in life were his family first first and foremost, then hamburgers, and boy did he love hamburgers, ate them Every day. His day was not complete without his daily hamburger. Then came reading Westerns, and watching science fiction.  And of course John Wayne.

 He loved to read, and for the longest time I truly thought he secretly couldn't read.... it bothered and worried me and I talked to my husband one day about this.  Don would read stories to the grand babies  and there were a lot of grand babies, but the stories were never what the book said, it was always a different story but but the same books.  My fears we not true of course, he just loved to tell stories so much, he would improvise for the babies. I was so happy that my fears were unfounded.  He was a great story teller. We spent so much time listening to his stories.....He could tell you stories for hours.....yes we will all miss that.

He is leaving a great spiritual legacy behind, a family that loves the Lord as much as he did. I see great spiritual strength in his children and grandchildren.  Their commitment to God runs to the depth of their heart and souls.  He thought them to go to church, but most importantly, he thought them to love Jesus, and to have a relationship with Him, and to embrace his saving grace.  His Godly legacy will live on, and I know it made him proud....  And I think that,  is the best and greatest gift he could leave us with... the most important thing he ever did.... an eternal difference that will touch lives around the world forever.

Thank you Lord for giving us this wonderful man to touch our lives.... I'm so glad we were able to share in his life, and call him ours. 

 

Donnie Eugene 

Surrounded by some of his Grand-kids, summer 2012

Love you Dad....

One of the things I love and miss about Alaska.....

The first thing I miss about Alaska is the MOOSE!

Every year on my birthday, or withing the week of my birthday, all during my early life living in Alaska,  I was visited by my Birthday moose....

I would get all excited for my birthday to happen, and would get all excited for the visit of my birthday moose.  How was I to know that not everyone had this special thing happen on their birthday.  It happened for me, so I just figured that everyone had a birthday moose...

Even when I moved from one house to another when I was in Jr. High, the moose still came to my house to visit me on my birthday.  Many years she would bring her babies to visit, one or two little mooselings... I know, that isn't a word, but to me they were mooselings.... 

Any way, they would be waiting in my front yard for me to wake up and see them munching away on grass they dug up, or willow bushes, or something tasty growing in my yard. Waiting patiently for me to say Hello and good morning and thank them for my birthday visit.   Many mornings I would sit with my nose pressed to the front room window waiting patiently.... waiting for the arrival....yep, I was one lucky Alaskan Brat.... not one year went by without my birthday visit, all through my years living there.... 

I'm not sure what happened the first year I was away, but I know that I still wake up on my birthday and think will I see my birthday moose????  

Sadly I don't think there are any moose roaming western Pennsylvania...… Such a shame.....


                        

  Photo@ www.animalfactsencyclopedia.com/Moose-facts.html

I was so blessed while growing up in Alaska..... I really do miss the people and the majestic mountains that surround Anchorage....  But the moose will always have a very special place in my heart.....

~Alaskan Brat~

The wedding is almost here.....

The wedding date is quickly approaching, and all the last minute details are getting done.  Finally got Stephanie to try on her dress to make sure it fits,  and praise the Lord it still fits, we still need to do a few tucks and arrange for the bustle, but It Fits!


Hard to believe that a year of courting and a year of engagement are done and gone.... my how the time passes.  June 1st will be knocking on our door very soon.


Now we just need to keep praying for good weather and all will be good.


Can't wait for the family to start arriving, so we get to spend time with them.  Sharing this time will be such a blessing and so much fun..


It has been years since family have visited the east coast with us, and we are so blessed to get to have many make the trek for this joyous occasion.


Spring is in the air and the natural world is coming alive after a long cold winter, you can't help but get excited for all the new flowers and spring green foliage.  Birds making their nests and baby birds chirping away..... yes, spring is in the air.....  and a wedding is about to happen!

Update on Salsa Recipe

Mothers day was wonderful, and spent with my beautiful family.  

What did we do you ask???

We went to our local Mexican food restaurant for lunch after church of course....  

The food was wonderful, and we saw many people there that we knew which was fun.  They were so very sweet in that every mom that came in received a red rose on entering the restaurant, given with a smile, by a very nice employee.  They must have handed out over 100 roses that afternoon alone.  It was such a sweet thing to do.

Any way.... back to my thoughts on Salsa...  

The food was wonderful, like I already said, but the thing that surprised me was the salsa. We were given the salsa to enjoy as we were looking at our menus, trying to narrow the selection to only one choice of so many delicious possibilities!!  Well... the salsa was just OK... I was a little dissapointed with the look of it, to begin with.  It didn't look bright and  pretty and fresh looking like I thought it would or should, it was all the same color and was kind of a dull red.  It tasted fine, but it just left something to be desired.... The chips were fresh and Hot and delicious, but I couldn't help wishing that I had some of the salsa that I had made, that was sitting in my refrigerator at home to dip into with those yummy chips.

So.... that leaves me with my desire of this post.. which is....If you are a salsa lover, and really enjoy the salsa you are given to enjoy as you are sitting there in your favorite Mexican restaurant, and would like to enjoy it while you are at home... Try the recipe I posted here on the blog... it lasts up to a week or so if you can keep it in your frig that long.  It tastes wonderful and fresh and really delicious.

So next time your shopping, don't forget to pick up some cilantro, jalepenios , onions, and canned crushed tomatoes... you won't be sorry....

~Heather~