Saturday's Song - Revelation Song

This is a new song that is in circulation with the radio station I listen to and I love it, every time it comes on I just want to blast it on the radio and sing to the tops of my lungs...and I do do that, a lot. It sounds like a perfect love song that we would sing to the Lord. I can just picture singing it with all the angels in glory one day.

Revelation Song
By Phillips, Craig & Dean on their upcoming album Fearless

Worthy is the
Lamb who was slain
Holy, Holy, is He
Sing a new song, to Him who sits on
Heaven's Mercy Seat
(Repeat)

[Chorus]
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And I will adore You

Yeah I will adore You

Clothed in rainbows, of living color
Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor, strength and
Glory and power be
To You the Only Wise King,

Yeah

(Repeat Chorus)

Holy, Holy
You are Holy

Filled with wonder,
Awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your Name
Jesus, Your Name is Power
Breath, and Living Water
Such a marvelous mystery
Yeah...

(Repeat Chorus 2 x)

Holy, Holy
You are Holy

Could it be? Summer...finally here?

This post will seem to have a few random things to it but they are all tied together by "summer".

The weather has been so crazy, up and down, here that it has made me wonder if summer would EVER come. A couple of weeks ago it got up into the upper 80's making me think, finally our long winter and extremely short spring had finally morphed into the summer season, but then last weekend it had cooled way off. There were a couple of days that our heat even kicked on. Sunday, the 21st, was the offical First Day of Summer but then it was cold enough that we needed heat...huh? Yesterday and today though have finally warmed up again but is it here to stay? I hear that this summer is supposed to be a hot one though (joy for us that don't have air conditioning) so I'm not looking forward to those REALLY hot days.

Our hummingbirds are going to eat us out of house and home this summer...or at least our sugar containers...maybe I should look into buying a 25 lb bag of it for this year. Back at the beggining of May we started to pull out all the summer furniture for our patio but we forgot about getting the hummingbird feeders out until I had the front door open one day and I could hear them out there chirping away. I immediately got their food boiled and started out with making 6 cups, that was quickly consumed. So then I increased it to making 12 cups every time I'd make it. About 2 weeks ago, they slowed down their consumption and I remembered from reading this would happen because they were tending to their nests & eggs but they would be back and to keep the feeders filled. Well sure enough last week we started seeing more and more and MORE of them. I filled up the feeders (we have 3 out that hold a cup each) last Thursday...by Sunday they were empty. We filled them again and by Monday 2 were empty. So I decided to made 20 cups of food (that is 5 cups of sugar) hoping I wouldn't have to make anymore for a couple of weeks, however, I'm not sure how long it will last because NOW I'm filling them up every other day. I think we may be the only house in our neighborhood that has feeders out. My step-mom had a point though when I mentioned that I was worried about going anywhere because I wouldn't be able to fill them and they would leave...she said, they'll come back, they will just feed off of nectar from the flowers around here instead of doing it the easy way, off my feeders. I didn't think of that and it also made me realize that I wonder if our feeders are being hit so hard because our honeysuckle didn't come back this year that we planted 2 years ago.....think?

All of our strawberries have been ripening too so I've been out picking them a couple of times a week...and we have strawberries galore. We have a little strawberry patch out back that is 30 inches wide and about 2 yards long (that my husband and his ex-wife started 11 years ago and started with 25 plants - but has grown to hundreds of plants now). When I first moved up here just after getting married, Scott was showing me everything and mentioned the strawberry patch and that we'd have to be out to pick strawberried every night. (Even as a brand new newlywed) I said, "WHAT....I'm sorry, I'm not spending every night out here picking strawberries"...gardening is not my thing and I could think of SOOO many other things to do with my time than picking strawberries every night of the summer.....but he failed to mention they were June bearing strawberries only, not ever-bearing. Makes it a little easier to take on but I'm still not out there every night picking.

We are hoping to go camping at some point in time this year too, if the gas doesn't get to astronomical prices like it was last year. But so far we haven't had any luck. Last weekend when we wanted to go, the weather was stinky so we stayed home. Hopefully the weekend of the 4th will be better.

I'm hoping everyone will get to enjoy their summer doing something you love to do.

Saturday's Song - Mighty to Save

I would just love to be in a worship service with Hillsong, just once. I can always feel the Lord's presence whenever I hear any of their songs and this video just shows it.

I feel the Lord has been working on me the last couple of years on compassion. I know growing up I had a lot of compassion but I think when your emotions have been manipulated too many times for the wrong, it has led me to be incompassionate.

I pray for more compassion and that my eyes will be more open to situations that are just trying to play on my emotions. Everyone deserves a chance at forgiveness and salvation.


Mighty to Save
By Hillsong

Everyone needs compassion
A love that’s never ending
Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a savior
The hope of nations

*chorus*
Saviour he can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as you find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again

I give my life to follow
Everything i believe in
Now i surrender

*chorus* x2

Shine your light and let the whole world see
Were singing for the glory of the risen king JESUS x2

*chorus* x2

Shine you light and let the whole world see
Were singing for the glory of the risen king JESUS x6

Yummy Muffins - Peanut Butter Muffins & Sweet Pineapple Muffins

I've tried a couple of muffin recipes lately that were pretty good and thought I'd share them. They are both Quick & Easy recipes from Taste of Home.

Peanut Butter Muffins

2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups buttermilk baking mix
3 tablespoons jam

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, milk and peanut butter until smooth. Stir in the baking mix. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Top each with 1/2 teaspoon jam. Bake @ 375 for 15-20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Yield: 12 muffins

My own personal note: These are best made for the day they are going to be eaten or the very next day since they got a little on the dry side after 24 hours but the tops are really moist.


Sweet Pineapple Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cans (8 ozs each) crushed pineapple, undrained
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder. In another bowl, mix pineapple, eggs and oil; stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake @ 350 for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before revmoving to a wire rack.
Yield: recipe states 20 muffins, but I got 29

My own personal note: When these bake the tops get really brown but I think it is just because of the pineapple in them because they aren't burnt or overbaked.

I have several other muffin recipes that I'm wanting to try and if they turn out good, I'll share those recipes as well.

Randomness

It has been a while since I've posted and all I have are a few random thoughts/things going on...

I'm still doing the whole job search thing and at the suggestion of an aquaintance I went into Spokane and got registered with Accountemps. I've had a lot of experience in the Title/Escrow industry and would really like to get out of it and go more into accounting, since I got a little taste of that while working at Stewart in Boise.

The Escrow business is so stressful and is so up and down with being busy/slow. When I got into the Title business back in the early 90's, a little after high school, it was a good industry for me to go into since I don't have a college degree in anything. You can work your way up in the business and learn a lot and get paid a lot making it hard to find anything else to compare and the only way to get experience in the business is by working in it.

Out of high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do....kinda, I thought I wanted to go into photography but I wanted to do studio photography and found the best place to go for a degree in that was Santa Barbara, CA and I was in no way ready to move away or out on my own, so I ditched that idea. Now that I'm older and know what I'd like to get a degree in, I can't afford the college tuition to pursue it...but upon winning that lottery, that I don't play, enrolling in a college to get a degree would be one of the first things I'd do.

I've never had any experience with temp agencies and knew nothing about how they worked and I really wish I would have gotten hooked up with them back in December. I think it will be easier for me to obtain a job in accounting being with them. It is hard for me to really boast about myself and how good of a job I can do and how quickly I can learn new things and most companies want you to have a degree in accounting before they will even interview you. Accountemps will be the ones to market and sell me and my work. The rep I interviewed with helped me with some major suggestions on my resume because she said it screamed "escrow" and she wanted me to highlight my skills and what I could do to get me more into accounting. So I spent some time completely re-doing my resume and I had to come up with a Marketing Summary for myself too, ugh. I also did some pre-liminary testing with them to see where I was with experience in Excel, Accounting principals, Quickbooks and 10-key. The Excel I was tested on was Excel 2007 and I haven't even opened up the new Excel but I've heard that it has changed a lot from those who have used it and it has taken them some time to "find" some of the items in it. If I can remember right I scored around a 60-70% on that test. The test wants you to know from memory where to go to do a task, and I'm used to if I don't know, clicking on each of the tabs at the top to find it. On Quickbooks I did pretty well (80-90%) considering I've never been in that program either, but the rep said that from my score on the test it showed that "I got it" as far as accounting procedures go and where I need to go within the program to apply accounting tasks. I did exceptionally well on the the 10-key test. On the average key strokes per minute (spm) most get around 7900 spm and I came in at almost 11,000 spm with 95% accuracy. She said I could actually slow down quite a bit on that and my accuracy would come up and I'd still be doing really well. The accounting principals I did so-so (50-60%) on but it has been 8 years since I've worked in the accounting department at Stewart.

I have access to their online training site and can go in and take a HUGE number [8,000] of courses online and do tests, but I have to go back into their office to re-test on their system to get scores they can use. I have already gone through the big list and so far have 28 courses to take in Excel 2007, Accounting and Quickbooks. Once they are able to place me after I get my first check, I am eligible for their insurance and it has health, dental (including orthodontics - now that we won't need it), vision, short-term disability and AD&D. After working 1, 150 hours, I get 6 paid holidays; after working 1,000 hours, I can enroll in their 401K; and after working 1,500 hours I am eligible for a bonus check. Some pretty good benefits for a temp agency, especially since I figured working with a temp agency, I wouldn't have any benefits at all.

I have already gone on and taken the Basics to Excel 2007 course and took a bunch of notes, I have another 12 courses in Excel 2007 alone picked out to take but they also include Advanced procedures and things I've never done before in any Excel program before...if I can only retain the information because I don't have Excel 2007 on my own personal computer and I typically forget if I'm not utilizing it.

Since I have been unemployed though (or really since the first of the year) I have been reading A LOT...I went back through and counted and I've read 36 books. My sister told me to get a library card and that would save me so much money by not having to buy books...wow, I'm so glad I did. I also have over 100 books (so many that I've had since before Scott & I were married but have never gotten around to reading) of my own to read and I also have a friend who loads me up every time I go to her house....so I've been reading up a storm trying to get through all of them.

For the summer though we're hoping to get in several camping trips (especially if the gas prices don't go up too much) and we have some decent weather on the weekends instead of so much rain. Scott is even wanting to make a long weekend trip over to Montana and fish around Dillon, sounds good to me, I've never seen that part of Montana and I'm sure it is beautiful. I know my oldest girlfriend, Nichole, and her husband, Terry, will be coming up for a long weekend in July to do a mini tri-athalon and that will be fun since they will be sans children for the first time so us adults can do what we want. We are also hoping and planning to go down for another "Cousins Reunion" in August this year at my Dad & Terry's...wow, it has been 3 years since the last one and I've heard that a lot of my cousins from Missouri are planning to be there. Before we know it, the summer will be over, but I hope it doesn't go by that quickly because I'm not ready for it to get cold again anytime soon.

Saturday's Song - Don't Blink

This week is a little different in that this song isn’t a Christian one but a good one, one I’ve always liked of Kenny Chesney’s when it hit the radio. I found it appropriate for this time of the year with all the graduations happening.
This song is so true….while we are little kids or in high school we want time to pass so quickly, to be out of school, to hurry and grow up…then we graduate and days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and months turn into years and they all pass SO QUICKLY. The years just slip by and we turn around and wonder wow what happened, where did time go, next thing we know we are getting older and wishing time would just slow down, if for only a little while.
I especially like the part of the verse that says "Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand/
You can't flip over and start again/Take every breathe God gives you for what it's worth" - no matter how many times we wish we could go back and do a do over on a part of our lives or change our mind on a decision we made, it won't happen.

Don’t Blink
Kenny Chesney on the album Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates

I turned on the evening news
Saw an old man being interviewed
Turning a hundred and two today
Asked him what's the secret to life
He looked up from his old pipe
Laughed and said "All I can say is."

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your better half
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

I was glued to my TV and it looked like he looked at me and said
"Best start putting first things first."
Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
You can't flip over and start again
Take every breathe God gives you for what it's worth

Don't Blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your better half
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

I've been tryin’ slow it down
I've been tryin’ take it in
In this here today gone tomorrow world we're livin' in

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your better half
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
Don't blink

Naw, don't blink


You can watch the video by clicking here (sorry I couldn't embed this one in my post).

Honey Do's

I had to do a quick, little, "funny" post about this.

Two weekends ago we painted (my husband found out it isn't very fun to paint with me because I'm very anal retentive and want it to be just right in the corners and along the edges) a few small walls in our house and all these walls have lots of pictures on them. One of the walls was going to be put back the exact same so we just left all of our nails where the pictures would go. But we had a couple that were changing and my husband has to be the one to hang them since they are on our stairway and I'm afraid of heights on a ladder....and increase that fear by putting it on a staircase. I've told him in the past, if he'd build me a little platform that is flat but the bottom side would form onto the stairs, I could use my step stool and I'd be good...too much work, so he gets the joy of doing this part and I get to be the boss as to where/how close/no move it over/etc...to him on this little task.

Well last weekend, he was going to hang them all for me and we measured off the "area" in which I had to work with and on Sunday, I laid them all out on our rug (just the right size) so we could get an idea of where they would be placed on the wall. I wanted to leave room on the wall for future pictures because lets face it our family only grows....so I was kind of bunching them together in little groupings.

This is the wall on which they are to be placed....(all of the pics can be clicked on to make them bigger if needed)
This is the rug on which I had to work with for area wise (mind you I thought they would be hung up that day or the next at the very latest or I wouldn't have laid them out)


This is the area of our house that I am referring to...right in the middle....as you walk in the door... and right through from the living room to the kitchen....at the bottom of the stairs going up...at the top of the stairs going down...
(it does look like this now, I wish I would have taken a picture of it with the pictures all laid out at this angle, oh well, too late and not going back to that view)

After 4 days of stepping over them, my honey FINALLY put them up last night....WHEW!! He did mention taking a picture of them so he could refer to when hanging them but I KNEW, if I did that they wouldn't have gotten hung until another weekend had passed or so and I wanted it done and over with.....if he would just make me my little platform (it would be so much easier to dust them too). He is real picky too and doesn't like stuff laying around, drives him crazy, I was just surprised it too him so long.

Here is the picture of them all back on the wall...

Here are a few other pictures of the other walls that received a fresh coat of new color....the first one is the finished wall from an earlier post (yeah took a while to get those pictures hung back up too) but it looks soooo much better, don't ya think?

Well, I thought it would be a quick little post....I need to read up on my "Blogger" tips so it doesn't take so stinkin' long to post pictures (moving them to just the right spot and deleting all the extra line spaces after doing so...takes way too long) it is just one of the reasons I don't post too much....sorry.