Tuesday, June 24, 2008

BETHANY'S 19th BIRTHDAY!

WELL...... Today is my dear friend BETHANY MORRIS'S birthday!!! I am just SO excited and have been waiting for this day to come for quite some time now, for reasons I can't explain until my next blog post, but anyway I am really thrilled! Over the last few months I have been compiling pictures and just different things about "Besh" that best describe her! (Hope she doesn't mind I'm posting all this) :PBethany is an absolutely wonderful friend. In the short time that I have even known her she has become one of my most closest friends. Seemed like when we met we were worlds apart, I still tease her that I'm her "weird" friend...which I am. :) It's been such a blessing though having her as my friend. She is SO nice, HILARIOUS, a tad crazier than most people, both of our elevators don't hit the top floor :P, BEAUTIFUL, wise, a godly example, and caring. I love her a LOT! :)

I'm not the only one who thinks these things about this wonderful girl though, read what this young lady wrote about her:

"Once upon a time there was an 18 year old girl who lived on a farm in Oklahoma with her 9 brothers, 3 sisters and Mom and Dad. She is a happy girl who loves goats and in fact has over 30 goats. Her favorites are Nubian's and she also raises Boer goats and shows them. Her goal in life is to be a wife and mother and have tons of kids. She is a very attractive young lady and anyone feels at home in her presence. She is very lovable and can easily talk to all types of people without being nervous or tentative. She is also an extremely hard worker and loves being out of doors. She loves anything along the lines of cleaning out goat stalls, snuggling a new baby goat kid or dreaming of her future. Now, I'm extremely pleased to announce who this lovely young gal from the south is. Her name would be Bethany Renee Morris and I am extremely humbled to say that she is, in fact, my sister!! "

That was written by Anna, not too long ago, and they sent it to me, so I SERIOUSLY hope they don't mind that I published it on here...but I just thought it was SO sweet and fit Bethany SO well! Who other than Anna could write a more accurate description of Bethany. :)

Now for some random pictures....

Friday, June 20, 2008

On The Farm...

Well instead of writing all about our wonderful day yesterday I'm just going to post pictures...they tell more anyway! :) For a little idea of what happened though, Hanah, Logan and I packed up yesterday afternoon to spend it at the Osborne Family Farm! I am very good friends with the Osborne Family so I thought, it'd be so neat for the kids to see the animals and I could see Mrs. Osborne and the kids! ;) Hanah and Logan ABSOLUTELY loved it!!! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

(Okay, there are so many pictures so it'd take me forever to put them in order...I'll do captions though)

(cherries that we were picking and eating right off the tree!)
(Their first look at the goats)

(An old piano in the church we walked up to)
(Logan helping Nick collect the eggs)
(Hanah helping Mrs. Osborne by carrying the soapy water to wash off the goats)

(brushing the goats)
(Holly's Day Lily...pretty huh?)
(Miss Holly)
(The kids LOVED this part....Mrs. O took them on a lawn mower ride)

(This church is kinda abandoned, but we walk up to it most times we are there, so we decided to take this kids this time, we enjoyed singing some songs, talking about Jesus being in our hearts and praying while up there)

(These chicks, Nick hatched from an incubator thing)
(bottling the lambs)
(Okay, I think this one is like the cutest little lamb, but it got hurt and is now paralyzed. I still think it's the greatest though!)
(Hanah's turn)
(ADORABLE)

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

IT'S UP!

Due to not having ANY good titles to choose from, we had to pick one of our own! :) So I hope you enjoy "Dear Lord"



PLEASE if you watch it, leave me a comment!

Monday, June 16, 2008

CERTAIN CHEATERS.... :P

Okay, well....obviously, as you can ALL TELL there were some CERTAIN "cheaters" (Bruce kids...) ;) and so they racked up the comments so I'd have to post my pictures....WELL..... in order not to spoil the surprise of the movie, I will be only posting ONE picture. That way I don't go back on my word here, and also keep the surprise! ;) Now beware cause this picture is quite wild and well crazy. Don't laugh TOO hard!

Okay, and well actually I just tried to get ONE more picture, but due to rendering the video, I'm only able to get this shot, so it still wont tell much, except I look insane! :D

The movie will be up TOMORROW though! And I can post it on my blog if you'd like! :)



Enjoy!

Father's Day Weekend


Seems like this blog is getting less and less attention from me. The times I really NEED to write I'm in the car driving and can't write and when I DO have the time I sit here staring off thinking of millions of things to say but not being able to come up with words to say it. What's happening to me? lol My Mom has been on my mind a LOT! A small incident happened last week that has left me thinking about her constantly and then Saturday night I had one of the strangest, most horrible dreams I've ever had. (I'm not someone who is big on dreams or anything) This dream though seemed ever so real. My Mom was there, but not really. Mandy was with me and David, my stepdad, but my Mom had already passed away. During the conversation Mandy and David were having I saw my Mom laying there, so I ran over to her and just held her begging her not to leave me again. I just kept saying, "Don't go this time, stay with me, stay here" and then she would disappear. Mandy and David of course thought I was crazy, but then she would come back and I'd start pleading with her again and told her to not let go of me. As you can see this dream was quite disturbing for me. Whenever I dream about my Mom I forget that she has died, so I'm never sad in them, this was the first where I knew she had died. I ended up just getting out of bed so I could stop the dream and when I woke up I had and email and of course, it talked about my Mom. I should have expected it....but the exciting part was....the movie that was being made about my Mom and her choice to go to Mexico is ALMOST done. The man making it emailed me to let me know that the website was up and the trailer was on the site. I checked it out immediately and watched the trailer. I am so excited to have this movie done. My Mom would be so pleased that her journey with cancer will be able to be used to touch others lives and inform them of the hope they can have when given the fatal news they have cancer. Please check out the website and view the trailer. www.illegalhope.net
Part of me wants everyone to see this film, just because the information is so valuable and for some it can help them see what our family DID go through, but then for others, those friends of mine that are so close to me that DIDN'T know my Mom, it's hard for me, because by seeing this they will know my "sick" Mom, not the Mom I know. I'm not sure how I'll feel when the movie is out and done. Excited, that they can sort of "meet" my Mom, or Scared?
(Lane thought this car was like a race car since the speedometer said 180)

Anyway enough about that....besides my horrible dream my weekend was very nice! Friday night I took Lane shopping with me to Wal-Mart. He had such a great time sitting in the front seat with no booster seat thing and being able to lay the seats down ALL the way into a bed, he just loved that! ;) On Saturday we had my Grandparent's 50th Wedding Annviersary party, so that was VERY exciting!! There was such a great turnout there and everything just looked so elegant! I got a few pictures, but it was rather dark there and well, I still am not used to this camera. My grandparents enjoyed it so much though, and loved seeing old friends and all the family! After getting home Lane and I went shopping again, we planned on a list of things we would make for my Dad's breakfast on Father's Day. My Dad is really into gourmet foods and presentation...well, I am not! :D So...I ventured out and tried all new things, to my surprise they all turned out ookay...except for one little thing! :D (My Dad never knew about it though, I just threw it away and acted like it wasn't planned to have!)






We ended up making stuffed french toast with bananas and carmel sauce on top, bacon, potato cakes, sausage, and these little egg and ham cupcakes. Sounds weird, I know. I was just So happy that my Dad enjoyed it so much! We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and playing outside some (until I had a tick on me) and then we played rook in the afternoon! That was SO much fun! I was the only one who had ever played, so it took them all a little while to catch on, but it was funny to watch! :) We never do things like this as a family so I really enjoyed it!


Oh and lastly...this weekend I have been editing Living Hope Production's upcoming short! It's about done and should be on youtube soon, we are just trying to figure out a title for it. If any of you have suggestions, let me know! This should be funny....leave a comment with the title you think it should be, even though you have no clue what it's about!!! :D C'mon..IF your reading this, you MUST leave a comment, deal? ;)

Oh, and IF I get at least 15 comments I'll post a few stills from the movie to get you guys excited about it!!!!!

Hope you all had wonderful Father's Days! And Happy Father's Day to the two guys in my life..... Daddy (Steve, my Dad) and David (my stepdad)!!!!!! Love you guys!

Monday, June 09, 2008

A lot on my mind...

Well right now I should be working on my grandparent's anniversary DVD. The party is this weekend and well, I'm about done, but still have about an hour of work on it, maybe more...it'll get done in time though, I just can't seem to stay focused tonight. I have SO much on my mind, but nothing "concrete" really...just thoughts. I know, sounds weird, I haven't quite felt like this for awhile. Mostly, I am thinking about love. I have no idea why it all keeps coming into my head. Not like mushy gushy love, just relationships I have here right now. Here are a few examples to try to help explain what's going on.

First of all, earlier today I was working on this DVD and going through all the pictures and constantly seeing pictures of my Uncle Joe. I have never met this man in my entire life. He moved to Arizona right before I was born and hasn't been back EVER to visit. He is my Dad's brother and even my Dad hasn't seen him in 20 years. When I was younger I used to write him letters, he never once wrote back, but I'd just keep writing. I told him one day I'd come and meet him. Well then my letters just stopped, he didn't seem to care about getting them anyway. Well today something snapped in me. I couldn't take it anymore. (Joe decided to NOT come to this anniversary party on Saturday) so I got this really sick stomach ache, not sure why, but I just couldn't work on the DVD anymore. I laid on my bed and wrote Joe a letter. I told him how badly I want him to be here this weekend, not even for all of us kids to meet him, but for his parents. I then told him to value the time he has with his parents, because I know more than some, that life is short and So precious, and he will wish later he would have spent more time....but then, I let him know that I hoped this whole time that he could possibly love us, like my other uncle did, but I realize now, he can't...he doesn't even know us. Can we love someone we don't know anything about?

God made us, formed us, breathed life into us, HE knows us! And He loves us, but can a person who really doesn't even know Him, love God?

Then tonight as I was working more on the DVD, Hanah came in my room and just comes right up to me and says, "Danielle, guess what! I love my Mommy, I love my Daddy, and........I LOVE YOU!" It was So sweet. Hanah does NOT usually say this. I'll tell her I love her and she just says, "No, I love my Mommy!" This kind of shocked me tonight, but also touched my heart! :) Once again, Hanah knows me now and sees the love I have for her. When I first came she wouldn't once say she loved me.

Now for the clincher.... a little bit different kind of love. I don't usually think about marriage, like at all. Well I mean, I think about it, but not like WHO I'll marry, or when, or what colors for bridesmaid's dresses! :D lol....but lately, I've been wondering how will I know? Nothing so far has just seemed right but it's like I'm judging everything off a feeling, and I'm wondering how wrong I am for that. Those of you who are married, if any that read this, will I just know? I'm so scared that I will never "just know" Also...when your taught to guard your heart, and then a guy comes and wants to court or something, how would you have any feelings for them, when your not supposed to in the first place....sorry, I know this probably doesn't make sense, but I'm just SO lost I feel like. Any advice from anyone is greatly appreciated!

Maybe I should get back to my DVD now... ;) Gotta get it done! :)

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Nothing Much...

Not sure why, but I just have to write. Not really anything is going on, I'm sitting here in a quiet house with probably a 100 things to do, but not wanting to do any of them. I know...bad of me! Today was an unbelievably good day. Logan's first day of summer break was today and so I had a full day planned, full week actually. So after waking up to finding that they had CHOCOLATE energy bars for breakfast we had a short talk about that then had a nutritional breakfast. I'm going to try this week to have Logan liking onions and bell peppers by the time the week is over. He instantly turns up his nose to something if he sees anything "unusal" in it, although it tastes good or he can't EVEN taste it. That was proved this morning. So....I'm going to experiement. Tomorrow he is going to eat breakfast blindfolded, not as a punishment, just as a game more, and I'm going to show him that he really DOES like onions, and they aren't bad. Of course, if he proves me wrong, then I wont make him eat them, I understand people don't like everything. :) I'd hate it if someone blind folded me and made me eat mushrooms and black olives! ;)

After breakfast I read them each a rather long story and then we read from Galatians about the Fruit of the Spirit. We talked about first the qualities that people have that will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and then read on about if we live by the Spirit we will bear "fruit" They listened very well and Logan was especially attentive. Then we made our Fruit of the Spirit wreath! :) We thought of 9 different fruits and cut out the shapes of them, (apple, banana, grapes, blueberries, orange, etc.) and then we wrote one thing on each, like our cherries say "Love". Then we glued them on to a wreath made out of a paper plate and attached a ribbon so it can hang. It was a simple craft but they enjoyed making it and hopefully we can hang it up to be a constant reminder. For the next two weeks though we are going to look more into each "fruit" Hopefully they will learn a lot and have fun at the same time. I have some different crafts and games planned. After our craft though we did some flash cards and then went shopping. I love to go grocery shopping and the kids were great so we got LOTS of groceries and even made it to Micahels to get a lot of craft things. We bought plain t-shirts to tye-dye on Friday and then paint pens to write on the shirts. :) Also, I'm trying to start a new system this summer with both kids home. I started this morning teaching Logan how to rinse his plate off and load and unload the dishwasher. So....I decided to make a star chart for both Logan and Hanah, but it's not exactly for doing what is expected it's for doing the right thing without being told. So, if Hanah picks up the living room without me telling her and if Logan clears the table and helps with dishes without being asked then they would each earn their star for the "Doing Chores" category. :) Some other things they get stars for are Using Manners, Not arguing, Being a good listener. Now I have to say again, no matter what I expect they would do this when I ask them to, but typically I'll have to remind Hanah to maybe listen better or to not have an attitude, so we'll see how this works. But each day I'll keep track of how many stars they got and then at the end of the week whoever has the most stars that week gets to pick out of the prize bag. :) We picked out LOTS of prizes today. I let them pick their own, but they wont get it until they get their stars. I just started this so I'm not sure it will work, I'll let you know though! :)

You know, I am really thankful for the job that the Lord has given me but often I am left wondering why He would even have this for me. I mean, why couldn't my life have ended up like my friends? Why was it MY Mom who died, and why is it MY Dad who doesn't hold to the same standards as me, and why did I have to move out and get a job? I desire to do the right thing SO much but then others would look at my life and see the situation I'm in and wonder I'm sure. I'm always left with the same conclusion though, I don't know why this happened to me. I don't know why this is God's will for my life, but I just pray daily that He will use me for HIS glory and that whatever He has for me I'll bring glory to him. If that means I'm a nanny for the rest of my life, or work at McDonalds, okay, well hopefully not THERE, but wherever he places me I'll be content and have joy. I can say now though that I feel very blessed with the job He has given me. I love this family a lot and can't imagine how it will be once my time is up here, I'll feel lost for sure.

I talked to my Grandma today and she just cried, a lot on the phone and she said she isn't even sure why she is crying. My Grandpa doesn't understand either so he just wants to go back to Florida and leave everything here. They just got here it seems like so it's sad to see them go so quick. I think my Grandma misses my Mom a lot. I sometimes, well often, just think of myself grieving and think no one could possibly miss her as much as I do, but my Grandma loss her only daughter, and she already loss one son so I'm sure she is hurting very much. It's hard though because my Grandma isn't usually one to even cry, I mean, I don't think she cried at my Mom's funeral, but now more than ever I think she is missing her. This is the second time being up in MO after my Mom died (they moved right after she died) and I think being with all us grandkids is very hard bringing up memories. I'll admit though, it's hard for me too. For some reason I can talk to a total stranger or blog on here all about my Mom but talking about my Mom with my sisters or even grandma is hard. I want to hide my hurt and talking to them makes me remember her and makes me realize how empty I am and how much I truly miss her and want her here. Well, I'm getting that sick feel in my stomach, so I better stop writing. Sorry that my posts seem to always lead to this.

I wish all of you could have met my Mom. Especially those of you who are very close and dear to me. My Mom was the most wonderful person I have ever known. And I'm not just saying that because she was my Mom. The relationship she had with Jesus was one that I haven't seen in anyone else. She loved the Lord more than anything else and as hard as it was for her to leave us she believed that the Lord had a GOOD reason for taking her and that BIG things would happen and that we'd all be okay. I miss her a lot guys.....she was everything to me, and maybe that's why God took her, not sure, but I wish I knew. ;(