weekend at the lakehouse

Happy Birthday Presidents Washington and Lincoln...we're celebrating at the Lakehouse! Thanks to a long weekend and the generosity of new friends, my family had a grand time in the North Florida woods on the shores of Lake George earlier this month. Oh my goodness, it was so much fun! Everyone was there, and we went fishing and four-wheeling, walked trails, played pool, watched movies, swam, explored the local area, and ate like champs! It was really fun to be together in the great outdoors!





So...funny story...the dirt bike just really didn't want to start, despite the valiant efforts of both Nels and Joe. But Joe wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer. If you heard anyone say "where's joe?" ...you could pretty much bet he was in the garage working on the dirt bike. I was inside talking to Ashlee when I heard a noise, looked out the window, and saw Joe sitting up tall and proud on that bike, and flying by! :) I had a real good laugh.

Here's to an AMAZING year!!

This is a picture taken almost at the beginning of our relationship...giddy with excitement to be together and both about 20 pounds lighter! :)

A wonderfully surprising and beautiful year later... enjoying life and love!

Happy Valentines Day!

May you know today how deeply loved you are by the Father!

the King of Kings

your Creator

the One who holds all things in His hand

your Provider

your Lover

the One who longs to be your very best friend

the Holy One who reigns forever!

---HE has chosen YOU---

Relish in His love today!

And that Love has sent family and friends to demonstrate His kindness in so many different ways - I celebrate you all today!

hiking in florida

Joe recently found an extensive set of walking trails near his house, so we went to check them out a few Saturdays ago. We spent 3.5 hours in the park and only enjoyed the shortest trail! It was beautiful - fully shaded, in the backwoods of nature, sounded by lakes. Joe was determined to find an alligator, and I really wanted to meet a wild boar. Instead, we only found a few friendly deer. We're excited to go back and explore more!

Enjoying the lakes

We highly recommend Moss Park and the Split Oak Forest Trails! It was a great place to walk, talk, and enjoy being together.

for my global friends

My
country-hopping,
geography-mastering,
culture-loving,
multi-lingual
friends who have (or currently) live around the world will appreciate this picture...

Look what I found posted in all the bathroom stalls at the place where I teach English!

Generally, laughing out loud is not a typical, or even welcomed, noise to make in the bathroom...but i couldn't help myself...i think it was the mental picture that really made the laughter start...

Oh, how i love internationals!

a random splattering of pictures

because there haven't been any new pictures recently...here they are...

Isn't our God amazing?!

This picture was taken last December, as Joe and I were coming out of the grocery store. We were talking about work that day, what we were going to make for dinner, and all of life's perplexities. Suddenly, the Lord caught our attention with this magnificent display of His handiwork! We literally stood in the parking lot for about 5 minutes just gazing up at the sky, while the world continued to bustle around us.

Japanese food on New Years Eve - a family tradition

Joe and I attended a wedding of friends in early January. We emerged with several beautiful pics with Chloe Kim!

Such a good looking picture

Blue Man Group!

Blue Man Group just opened at Universal a few months ago..and I've been wanting to go since I first started seeing the billboards for this show! Former work colleagues of Joe's visited Orlando several weeks ago and invited us to join them for dinner at Hard Rock and then Blue Man Group. It was such a special treat from the Lord! I have to be honest...it's a bizarre show. It's unlike anything you've ever seen. It's hard to describe..except for FUN!

Oh yes...I had to get a pic with this very, very strange creature covered in blue

(don't his eyes hurt by the end of the night??)

chuckle of the day

I've been meaning to post this for a few days.... But I was listening to Steve Brown on the radio last week and he was responding to listeners' emails.

One said:
"Can you explain to me what modernity and postmodernity mean?"

Steve Brown started, "...well, no one knows for sure..."


I laughed out loud. The truth is, for all the books I've read and all the discussions I've had and all the seminar's I've attended on post-modernism...this is my same conclusion!

:)