Our Disney Vacation!

We just got back from our "grown-up" vacation to Disney World. We had a great time. We stayed on site and that was great. It let us into some parks early and we got to stay late at others, depending on the Magic Hours that were available. But this is the time to go...there was no wait on any of the rides. Our longest wait was 25 minutes! It was great!

The above picture is at Liberty Square around 10 am on Wednesday morning. The park did get busier but I thought this was great. We had the whole street to ourselves! The only glitch in the whole trip was my bout with food poisoning on Wednesday night from eating at Animal Kingdom. But even with the food poisoning, Animal Kingdom was still our favorite!

On Tuesday we went first to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) and did the rides we wanted to from there and then planned on going on to the Magic Kingdom, but when we saw the lines for the monorail to MK and the one to Epcot, we went to Epcot. We did EVERYTHING there and our longest line was for Soaring and that was only about 20 minutes. When we were done there, we headed over to Magic Kingdom and did four rides before it started pouring down rain. We stayed in the Haunted Mansion for four rides till it was not pouring then braved it to purchase our lovely $7 each ponchos. So after that we called it a day, our feet were so happy! The next day we visited Magic Kingdom and did almost everything there within about 3 hours and then went to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day and we rode everything there at least twice. The only disappointing thing was the hotel. It was loud and of all the hotels ours had the least amount of buses. We stayed at the Pop Century. It was cheap and easy but the next time we will stay at one with a boat or monorail to the park. The other thing was the food. I was expecting better food. We did the meal plan and there was plenty of food, but the quality was not good at all...Monday night we went to Downtown Disney and that had good food, so we will try eating there for our large meals next time. It would be worth the small trip on the bus. Just some hints if you ever plan to go. If you have kids, get the Unofficial Guide to Disney, it had great hints and do make reservations for dinner if you go during a busy time. If you think you want to do without the all inclusive food package, think again. It is so worth getting it. One of our dinners for just dinner, soda & dessert was over $60. Also, if you can, go in February, just not the week of Presidents Day, but it was slow. Maybe a little chilly, but that makes it less busy. Also you can honestly skip going to Epcot and to Hollywood Studios if you have small children, but if you have time and a park hopper pass, go ahead. There is just less there for kids, but fun for adults. I look for Disney to really change Hollywood Studios alot in the next years to come. It seems outdated to me. I wonder (hope) they may make it into more of a thrill junkie kind of place with more coasters and such. But it was a ton of fun whether you are 2 or 80. Well worth the trip and it was surprisingly not a budget breaker, just know how much you are going to spend, use your food pass and stick to it and you will have a great time!!!

Freezing

Okay this is short. I am sitting here at work and the last few days we have had horribly cold weather and freezing rain. I scraped 1/2 inch of ICE off of my car yesterday and it leaves me wondering...."WHY did we move back to INDIANA?" *of course the answer is it is home and our family is here, but still.* I am looking forward to visiting Micky Mouse on the 25th when we head to SUNNY, WARM, Florida for a week!!!

Feels Like a Breakup

How do you breakup with "friends"? We have a Bible Study we have been part of for a little over a year. We made a few friends out of it, but never quite fit in the group. We are the blacksheep of the group, since all most all of them have grown up in very, very conservative homes and mostly Baptist roots. (Not that there is anything wrong with that) But we have very different views. We have decided not to continue on with the group. It was not too hard of a decision for us. There were many reasons to name other than our schedules and the time of the study, but we just stated that it was our schedules. We still will see these people at church. I am sure it will be ackward for some time when we see them. We kinda did the "post it note" break up with them; it was via e-mail to the leaders. Kinda schmucky I know but we dread even going to this study we didn't even want to go to tell them in person...Sad but true. That brings me to what a Bible study is normally about...


I am used to a group where people openly share their prayer requests, questions and discuss the Bible. I am definately not the most perfect person and people who do not have personal prayer requests make me very nervous. Plus, I feel like they are not honest. Not that they have to lay out all their personal laundry, but they cannot have that perfect of a life that they do not need prayer! We all need prayer. I always need it. If you are not willing to open up to a group of people who like you are Christians and are supposed to be there for you, something is wrong. You meet with these people every week and never open up? Also there needs to be open discussion about the Bible. I am not a brick and morter type person. I am used to discussing and having different takes on the Bible. I believe it helps us learn and who knows, maybe someone else has something you need to hear that may be different from what you believe.

I have been reading a book that has changed alot of things for me. It is called Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I love this book. It really has brought up some good points about being legalistic and just how much of it there is. I feel and know it inhibits growth within our church community. I have felt this personally when I was in this group. They do not facilitate discussion. There is one way and only one way to interpret the text and I believe that is wrong. If it were true, that is sad. The Bible is a living book and it can have different meanings for you depending on your circumstances. In his book Rob Bell talks about having more of a non-brick & morter type faith. It is more of a tramopoline, the basics of Christianity are the inner bouncy part and everything else is the springs attached to it. They bend and move. But the core is still the same even if you remove a spring. That is more what I feel like. I believe Jesus is God, that He died for us and our sins before we were born or first sinned. We must accept him to be "saved" from our sins and the punishment of eternity without God. We can accept this or not, no amount of works will substitue for this. Other than that, there are many grey areas in which things fall, and can be looked at in different ways. This is why we really left the group, they hold that everything must be their way, so guess what...We took the highway.

Crazy Holiday

We are still celebrating Christmas...With my family we do Christmas Eve & Day then the following weekend we go to Nate's dad's family and then this weekend we have Nate's mother. Not complaining, just getting worn down.
This week we are housing a 13 year old boy. That is MAJOR work. Plus oh how he can eat. It is a great time having Nate's younger brother though. Although our cat, Zeke, really dislikes Chris. He has pestered our cat forever and now the cat is retaliating...He chased Chris around the house yesterday trying to attack him. Our normally docile cat hates this kid...But we warned him not to mess with Zeke or else he would not like him so we were right. We locked poor Zeke in our bedroom today for safe keeping so he doesn't beat up on Chris. (I am still kinda chuckling about this.) So the activities for this weekend are looming. Nate's brother, wife and two kids are being added to the mix on Friday - Sunday and we are going to the Children's Museum on Saturday. Sunday his mother is coming over for our Christmas with her. I am cooking lasagne and all the trimmings since we are turkey'd out...
We hope everyone has had a blessed Christmas and has had some down time. We are looking forward to the "downtime" next weekend. I might get out of my pj's on Saturday....Maybe.

Why Go To Church?

This is the question Nate & I were asking ourselves yesterday. . . Now I am not perfect in any way, but this bothered me.
Here is the story:
We go to church yesterday and we were servers for communion. During the worship the family behind us is chatting away (see where I am going with this?). We get done serving communion and we sit back down. Pastor Steve starts his discussion. Yack, yack, yack, blah, blah, blah. OH how rude. WHY GO TO CHURCH if you don't want to hear what he is saying? Now I did listen to what he was saying. He discussed the upcoming season of Advent and about Love. It was a great talk but I had to really strain to hear him over the family behind me. I know that to turn to your neighbor and say something is acceptable, we are not to be robots during church; but to talk the entire time? It was mostly the mom to the daughter. This does not seem like a great example to me by the way. Why did they talk almost the entire time? I am confused. Do they know enough on this that they do not need to know more or to listen? So applying the 'love' part of the lecture, I did nothing...When at the end of the service he told us to go in love and peace and to tell our neighbors hello and have a great week. I turned around and they were about to BOLT out the door. Noticing to myself, yes, they are members. They had name tags. They didn't even want to say hi to anyone, they were busy putting on coats and zipping purses and turning on cell phones. Church is a place to fellowship and meet people. Why not be friendly? This was not just this family. I took notice of it throughout the church at the other distractions and people.
I felt bad for the pastor between the baby screaming, no one would take the child out (and it was in the balcony, so it echoed) and the cell phones ringing. I really felt for Pastor Steve; I know that would have to be a hindrance. When I am working and people are really loud around me it is hard to concentrate and keep on track and it is distracting, not to mention just rude. I really enjoy my pastor and look forward to what he will teach. I wish everyone did and would listen. There is always something applicable no matter who you are or what stage in life you are. I hope people will respect him and let him do his job, he does it very well if you only listen.

Did I see a SNOWFLAKE?

This morning on the way to work it was freezing! There was a little moisture in the air and sure enough, there was a snowflake or two. I just posted how much I love fall, but fall is going away and on comes winter! The signs on the highway are reminding us that "Remember, snow and ice take it slow". It is winter weather reminder week... I was really ready for fall, not quite ready for winter yet though. I wanted to enjoy the colors changing a little more. But it was a beautiful fall though it was short. Our tree behind our house was beautiful and bright orange with some yellow as well. It was like a big fire behind our house. Well here comes winter ready or not and I think it will be a cold one...

Advanced Machine Piecing

Here is MY quilt. I made this one for MYSELF :) I chose my favorite colors (with the exception of pink) and put them into this quilt. There is LOTS of paisley, my favoirte!!! And also lots of red. I wanted it to match our livingroom where it will live and be used...The instructor would make us redo our seams if they were not perfect, so this class challenged me and I am very happy to say I only had to rip out one part of a block. I will set the blocks together with a cream colored sashing (the inbetween part) then use different colors for the border. I will post pictures when it is done. I have other quilts in process as well right now. Everyone is having boys, so my pink days are over for a while!

Retro Baby Quilt

I had so much fun making this quilt. I made it for a friend and really like the colors. I have already started on another quilt...this new one is for a boy. Here are more pics of it...

Is it Really Fall?

I was driving home from work last week and noticed taht the leaves are starting to change. There are bits of yellow, red & marron muddled inbetween the green leaves. I cannot believe that it is already October! This year has flown by...But I will not complain about the leaves changing. I love this time of year! I look forward to the cooler evenings and the beautiful leaves, it is acutally the only time of year I really like to be outside even. I am not an outdoorsy person to begin with but I love having a nice bonfire in the backyard, roasting marshmellows and hotdogs. When we were in Albuquerque, it brought the wonderful smell of roasting Green Chile. I really miss that smell.
I have put a new swing out in the big tree in our backyard and look forward to reading in it. It is also the time of the year our poor air conditioner gets a break, the nights get cooler and you can open the windows and let it cool your house and the autumn air just smells so good! I will have to plan a trip to go down to Brown County and walk around town. They have the most beautiful hills and you can really see all the trees and colors. I will post pics if I ever get down there :) Anyways, heres to fall, may it be a colorful one and not too cold!

Nebraska state senator sues God???

Are you kidding me? Sen. Ernie Chambers is the man, shown above, suing God. How can you sue God? He may be "everywhere" as stated by Sen. Chambers, but I don't believe he will take the witness stand...I know he is trying to make the point that ANYONE can be sued, but seriously??? Our justice system is in serious need of an overhaul if this man can bring charges against the Almighty to court. He states that he does not believe that this is a frivilous lawsuit but I disagree wholeheartedly. If I were a Nebraska taxpayer I would be very angry and wondering WHO elected this man to office. He is calling God a terrorist and says that he brings widespread destruction upon the people of the earth and has threatened him and his "consituants". Really? Wait until he reads Revelation and finds out what happens to nonbelievers, a flood is nothing to the destruction and "terror" that Satan will bring. Is he suing him too?

Well that is my soapbox and I am standing on it...I will be awaiting the verdict of this court case or the breaking news flash that lighting bolt to hit the top of the courthouse...

Hiking in Brown County

On Labor Day Nate decied we should go for a hike. So we got some water and drove down the hour to Brown County. We took the Rugged Trail as seen above. It was a nice path and time although it was warm. During the trip there was a creekbed and since we have had no rain, it was dry.

We have not been on a hike in a long time and it was nice to be outside even if it was warm. We just took water with us and trecked on. It was around two miles and was a little hilly and rocky. It still does not compare to the trails in New Mexico. I really miss hiking out there. When we were through we drove back home and stopped along the way at Brown County Winery and then to get a couple carmel apples. :) I love fall and can't wait for it to get here.

Labor Day

So after a busy week, a busy weekend ensued. Straight after driving in traffic for an hour from the north side of Indy to the South Side we get back into the car and do this again. :) What fun! It took us another hour or more to get back to the North side to drive thru to Carmel and then onto the fun town of Kokomo where every block there is a stop light.

Did I mention how much I love driving in traffic? I have had to do this alot lately and I really belive I am the only one who knows how to drive! Most of the time I just drive with the radio blaring and singing at the top of my lungs to pass the time away, but with Nate in the car...I try not to do this as much. Plus, he doesn't like my music as much. What should have been a three hour trip to Elkhart to see his dad & step-mom took more like 4 1/2.

Once we get there we are greeted and as always, very glad we made the trip and love his fam. It is very strange going into their house now...its quiet.
All the "little" brothers and sisters are now in college except for Christopher. He is the lone child in the house. Sara is married and lives in San Diego. Caleb & Ellie, with their mother. Moises is off at Ball State, Katie at IU.
It is so quiet. I am sure Dave & Lori are happy to have the silence. But to me I miss them. Having grown up an only child, I welcome the chaos of their house. I can only imagine what the brood will look like when we all have kids or they get married. It still is strange to me to think they are getting so old and grown. It's been over eight years of knowing them now...Katie is a Junior, 21 at IU. Caleb, in a screamo band and is 20. Ellie about to be a single mother, please pray for her and Moises a Freshman at BSU, our alma matter (I won't go into visiting him there and how OLD that made me feel). Sara is off married and living so far away. I remember all that went with that and am pray for her strength and to not be lonely. So that brings us back to Christopher all alone. I think he is bored. No one to beat up on him but he has grown like 5 inches over the summer and looks like a blonde version of Nathan. So he may acutally be able to stand up for himself when they torture him now. He is a great antagonist...
The Fairchild family is up to 16 now with only three grandchildren in the count...can you imagine when we all have kids and get hitched?
Enough of those thoughts...
We stop by Nathan's Grandma BJ's house and that takes 2 hours :). We leave hitting the traffic of the Notre Dame game going back to Indy. Again with the traffic... We finally arrive home at 11 pm last night. Church today and my mom came up to visit. We stop by my favorite place, the quilting store and buy more fabric for my upcoming advanced machine piecing class. It starts on Wednesday!!! I will update everyone with pics of my "baby" as I go. I am almost finished with another one. It is pink & brown. I love it, but this will be going to a friend who is having a baby in January.
Well as am done rambling I wish everyone a happy and safe Labor Day.

Golden Rule

I am now working at Golden Rule Insurance and it seems to be very much better than the last job. I am very thankful to have a reliable job and not be in sales anymore. I have also started weight watchers and am trying my best to stick to it. It is hard to lose weight :( At the new job location they have a great walking path around a lake and I have already made a few friends so this coming Monday we start walking...

Adicted

I am Adicted to quilting. I am thankful to have more time to work on them now. I have completed two now and am wokring on a chocolate brown and light pink one with pinwheels on it. :) Very exciting. I am also planning on taking an advanced quilting class in the next few weeks. The quilt shown here is my first and is now my mothers quilt.

Am I mindful?

YEA! It has finally happened. I have made it back to life with children...I am starting on Monday to be a pre-school teacher. I can't wait! Back to a life of sniffles, runny noses, potty breaks and nap time But I can't complain, I love every minute of it.
However, I have to remember that everything I say and do will be copycatted again and remembered and taken home to parents' listening ears. But, as a Christian I should be mindful of my choices anyways. I am just more conscious around little ones I think. A good reminder to myself that everyone watches you and critiques you when you are a Christian and we should all be mindful of what we communicate with words and actions. My friend wrote on her Blogg yesterday and quoted Psalm 39 "I said, 'I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth'..." vs 1. This is what I will have to do. Muzzle myself. What a great thought...I have been working at that anyways and trying to be more nice to people so this was a challenging thought.

Perfectly Willing?

I have been reading a good book, by Jan Karon called "At home in Mitford" just easy reading...the kind where you don't have to think. It's about Father Tim and his life as a Preist and his parrish, friends, what little love life he has with his new neighbor, his giant dog & a boy named Dooley who continually CRACKS me up! (I recommend this series of books, they are sweet and really good.)

In one of the paragraphs the main character, Father Tim asks his neighbor, Cynthia, "Would you agree that we must be willing to thank God for every trial of our faith no matter how severe for the greater strength it produces?" The neighbor responds, " I'm perfectly willing to say it but I'm continuely unable to do it."

I whole-heartedly agree with her! I am perfectly willing but half-heartedly do it. No matter my intentions on being thankful, I grumble at my trials. Do I grow stronger? Does it increase my faith? Absolutely!!! Thanking God is easy when times are easy. Thanking God during the hard times is at my best effort pathetic. I half-heartedly give thanks if sometimes even at all. I am working on the thankful thing and remembering even when times are hard, God is giving me the strenght to make it through and allowing hard times to strengthen me and my faith. I MUST thank God for everything, accepting it at the same time. No giving thanks out of one side of my mouth while grumbling with the other side of it. We all do it. I just need to put myself in the right place and frame of mind and respect God, submit to God, and realize HE is GOD...not me. He knows best and has put me in the circumstances I am in for a reason. HE knows what He's doing, not me...that's why He's perfect!
As I sit here today I am trying to be thankful. I have much to be thankful for, but am going through a trial and hearing what I definately do not want to hear. It is going to be hard to accept this trial. But accept it I must and trust God that He knows better than what I want. Would I agree to thank God for everything? I am trying my best.

Grrrrrrr.....

Today and yesterday I have really been in a foul mood. Unusual for me but I had a foul weekend and today was even worse. This weekend we painted the room from "hell". It was hot pink with even hotter pink flowers painted in enamel! UH! Five coats of primer and two gallons of paint cannot kill these flowers! We have guests coming this weekend and I want the room to be nice for them, but I still cannot kill the flowers. What to do? Is there a lesson in this for me? Maybe it is just to not ever buy another home with painted walls. The homes previous owner, the man of the house, was an artist...kinda. He painted our room with tiger stripes on one wall and the second bedroom is a safari, on all four walls, the ceiling and the trim. The safari is next to go...The slowly dying pink room was 2 walls pink with the flowers and the other two were a Hawaain scene. One more coat of paint slathered on should kill it for good.

Also our computers at work are not working right. Plus in general I think they just don't like me. They are outdated and still in black and green screens...like from 1980 or so? But they have only added to my tension.

As for the company, that should cheer me up! My best-friend who is surely all cute and pregnant and her hubby are coming for Friday night. Yea! That will put me back into a good mood. For now I think I need a study time in the Bible to set my attitude right.

I keep a nifty little tattered bound notecard book at my desk, it has traveled with me from college then from job to job. Verses are added as often as needed, but its got my favorites...I look at it often at work to change my thoughts...usually not nice, and to put me into a better mood. God only knows what will happen when my little book falls apart? A verse in my book reminds me of why I should be in a better mood...

"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and numble and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

When my burdens are seemingly many...how much more can my burdens be than the ones Jesus was carrying on the day he told his disciples this? His burdens were light? The man was carrying the weight of the sin of the world on His shoulders soon? Light burdens??? Wow, how small all mine really are. See? The bible always puts my life right back in perspective! God is my rest, he will give me strength, even when I'm in a foul mood, God meets me right where I am! Thank God!!!

Blessed art me...

Just counting my blessings today. I try to regroup every now and then and think of how blessed I am. Take check and thank God for all that He provides...which is everything. I have been remembering lately my dependence on Him and trying to put myself where it belongs. Below, way below Him in reverence and submission to Him. I have trouble being reverent, especially the submissive part, to Him and remembering how GREAT He is and how little I am. Counting my blessings does that. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Ephesians 1:2-4 Remembering that Jesus is our greatest blessing of all, what other thing could we ask for? A good friend, Pastor Cheryl, e-mailed me a quote today and I thought it spoke of blessings:

I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as
fragmented people make for better consumers, buying more bits and pieces--two or more cars, two homes and all that fills them-and outfitting one's body for a
wide variety of identities: business person, homebody, amateur athlete, traveler, theater or sports fan. Things excercise a certian tyranny over us. Whenever I am checking bags at an airport, I recall St. Teresa of Avila's wonderful prayer of praise, 'Thank God for the things that I do not own.'"

Cheryl always has a verse at the ready or a good quote. She is such a great woman of God and I could learn alot from her! I think about the quote and am convicted about how whole I do not believe myself to be sometimes. I think of the material items listed in the quote and how I strive for those things and worry about the house, the car, the clothes and am brought back to God's Word and His promise... "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I
tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:25-34

What could we ask for other than Jesus? Nothing is the right answer...except to grow closer to Him and the closer we grow the more we find we don't need. He provides all things. AMEN!!!!

I think I can...

I have been thinking lately about life and how precious it is at all times. In easy times and times when I struggle, I strive to remember I am blessed beyond belief at all times! (This is always much easier to remember in the easy times.) Through all things God is there and gives me the strength to make it through. "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" Philipians 4:13. I need to remember that more and thank Him for this! No matter what happens in my life I have His word to help me and speak to me and of course God Himself to speak with. He is the best listener of all...