Tag, Cool Pictures, and Randomness

I'm a little over due in doing the taxing job of fulfilling my 'tag' duties given to me by Liz. The 'duty' was to write a six-word autobiography of myself and put a picture that kind of illustrates it, just so difficult isn't it? (I know I'm supposed to tag six other people, but I'm not very good at tagging. Excuses, excuses... ;) ) ;D

Playing for Him, today, tomorrow, always...

Not a very good autobiography, in my opinion, but oh well. And most certainly not true all the time, as I am lightyears away from being perfect. :) And since this post is super short, I thought I'd post some really awesome pictures that I just love. And, no, I didn't take any of them. Obviously. :P
When I look at this one I'm reminded that even in the darkest of moments, Jesus shines through. He's always there for us to give us His loving light.
Reminiscing here... :) Aimee, Richard, and I were 'triplets' for awhile, before Richard decided to get an inch taller and pass me and Aimee up. :P We knew that that was going to happen, so we took some pictures of us together before that dear boy shot up. :D

Last, but most certainly not least, here's a verse that brings such conviction to my heart when I read it and makes me really wonder, am I seeking God's treasure or the fake glitter of wordly things?

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Matthew 6:21

Georgia, There and Back Again, A CI Tale :D

Where to start? The trip to Georgia to help in a children's program was . . . absolutely amazing! A growing experience for sure, going out of my comfort zone, a million miles out of my comfort zone! :) A 'stretching' experience as some would say. ;) We were working with Romanian families over the course of eight days. They so generously opened their homes and hearts to us in ways we would never be able to repay. Our purpose was to be used of the Lord to strengthen the kid's hearts in following Christ as the parents were encouraged to seek Godly principles in Bill Gothard's seminar and to consider the option of homeschooling. It was awesome to see the Lord opening doors, not only to the children's hearts but to the young people's lives as well. It is such an amazing experience to be able to be used by the Lord, because I can heartily attest that whatever was good was most certainly the Lord! God is good! In between those eight days, the whole team got to travel to Tennessee for some time to relax. That was a blast! We hiked, and talked, and played ultimate Frisbee, and did more talking . . . A lot of fun! :D

I won't bore you any longer with my ramblings, so here's some pictures. Apologies if you might have already seen them. Also, most of these were taken by Andrew Stevens, Andrew Ouatu, Kevin, and Darleen Waltman, photo credits go to them. :D Except for one that I took, and you can probably guess which one's mine. ;)

Us girlies waiting excitedly to get on the airplane. BTW, flying was 'fantabulous', one of the words we liked to use with the kids. :)

Kevin making sure that I understood everything, a very hard job I assure you. ;) Working on a sign for CI registration.
Here's a good depiction of what the kids looked like to us leaders. :D
Joking aside, the children were absolutely adorable! You couldn't help but love them! They all had such cute personalities.
We had our break times too, here's us girls looking meditative . . . This may look like a very 'blah' picture to you, but oh my, it was not 'blah' driving and riding around in that thing! :) We had a blast using the Ceausu's boat! Lois and I were sold, and decided we needed to get ourselves a boat and load it up with cheesecakes, and pies, and lots of that kind of stuff, and never get off. ;D Just kidding, of course. Thought I should add that, lest you take me seriously and think that I'd gone crazy. :D
Here's two beautiful pictures of Tennessee, photo courtesy of Kevin Weston. :)
The whole group, or at least a good part of it. It was a blast to really bond with each other, share about God's work in our lives, and have good times.
Darleen Waltman, so sweetly took some pictures of us girls! I love photography and watching her was amazing. She has a lot talent!! It was wonderful to get to know the whole Waltman family, they really made the trip! :)
A lovely picture of Lois, we spent a lot of time together, as we were in the same house. She was such a blessing to be with!

A really good picture of Cristin, she was my 'adopted' older sister for the trip. :DMe and Kendra or Kendy, our new nickname for her. :)My super bros, who, without them, I would most certainly have gone crazy. :D They were tremendous in everything!I wanted to end with this picture because I think it really sums up our whole trip. Looking at it makes me see that even though we are 'dark' with sin, Christ can still shine through us with His glorious light! I can wholly say that I am so unworthy to have had the honor of working with those children, yet I saw, despite me, Christ shone through! God is good!

"I can do all things through Christ which strengthaneth me."

Philippians 4:13

Life

At request, ;) I am finally updating my blog, it's not much though, so don't get too excited. :) I scrounged around in our pictures and came up with some that depict normal (well, maybe not that normal :) Weston life.

Grandma had her 94th bithday pretty recently, so here's the proof of the puddin'. :D Grandma with her 'girlfriends', she doesn't have to many peers left, which could be a good thing, not much peer presure. :D Grandma is a dear, though! Best in all the world!! :)
I thought this one was so cute. :)Here are the 'present-opening-watchers'. :) Take a second look, (or maybe you got it on the first look) you can see who took the picture in the mirror. ;) Switching gears here, I asked Kevin if he could take a few pictures of me. Don't ask why. :D Being a kind brother that he is, he gladly obliged. :)
You've probably seen this one, but it was one of the better ones, so you get to see it again. In this case I am a tree hugger. :D Just kidding, all the way! :)
I got a hold of the camara too. :) It's so hard to get good pictures of the sunset with all the houses in the way. It would be glorious to live in the country! :)
My Dad got a peach tree so I couldn't resist taking a picture of some of the flowers on it.Ricky had a sudden urge to get up on our huge, black, bellowing suburban. Such is the extent of excitment at the Weston's. :DThis is my dad's cubicle. :D He's a school bus driver now and takes handicapped kids to and from school. A very awsome bus driver I might add. :)And this . . . is a hairy tomato, lovely isn't it? :) I couldn't leave you with such an aweful picture, so I picked one of my all time favorite pictures. Isn't it absolutely divine?
Last of all, but not least, here's some verses that has been such a great encouragement to me, Romans 8:35&37-39:

"Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Have an absolutely awesome week!

Quiz . . .

Call me a copy cat, but I saw this quiz on two other blogs and thought it would be fun to take it too. :) Besides, I need something to update my blog with, so this looked like the best thing. I'm kinda low on money, so if you have to go to the hospital because of a severe case of bordom for reading my posts, I can't cover you. :) So read at your own risk. :D

1.) If I were a doll, the accessories packaged with me would be: Lots of clothes. :)

2.) I have an irrational fear of: Being alone, crazy I know. :)

3.) What type of food do you eat at your grandparents house? Mostly junk food, things we don't usually buy. :)

4.) What weight were you when you were born? I think I was 8 something.

5.) What would you do if you were stranded on an island with the person you hate most? I would see it as God's way of showing me that I need and love the person.

6.) I find the thought of childbirth: Asolutely amazing, and very scary at the same time!

7.) My feet are: 8 1/2 to 9

8.) My preferred style of jeans is: Ummm, I don't care for jeans, but my preferred style of jean skirt is A-line. :D

9.) Do you play a musical instrument? Yes, for sure!

10.) Know how to cook? Uh-huh.

11.) What annoys you: Being left out, when I work at something and just can't get it right, bad breath, bad writing and grammer. . . a lot of things. :)

12.) What sea creature scares you? Sharks.

13.) What color hair do most of the people you are around have? For the most part, dark hair.

14.) What object have you broken most recently? I can't remember, sometimes it's nice to not have a good memory. :D

15.) Name one of the Spice Girls. Can't.

16.) What was the last thing to make you cry? Aimee's miscarrage.

17.) What are the stems on wine glasses for? To hold on to the glass.

18.) My favorite shoes are: My white flip-flops, though they're about ready to hit the dust. :(

19.) Can you use chopsticks? I doubt it, I haven't really tried.

20.) Do you prefer beaches or forests? Forests!

21.) Who knows a secret or two about you? My mom knows about me more than anybody else.

22.) Have you ever burned yourself? Yes.

23.) Who is your hero[s]? Jesus, my Dad and brothers!

24.) Do you believe that things last forever? Only the things of God.

25.) What are you listening to? Some family members watching something on YouTube, I think.

26.) What do you smell like? A little like vanilla, shampoo, and laundry detergent.

27.) Are you married? No.

28.) Does anyone regularly tell you they love you? Yes!

29.) What’s the most confusing to you? Math, basically anything along those lines.

30.) Do you have any bad habits? Way too many!

31.) Have you ever wanted to be a teacher? Only with my own children, if I ever have kids.

32.) What is one thing you’ve learned about life? It changes, but God doesn't.

33.) What’s your favorite color? Blue!!

34.) Have you ever been stuck in an elevator? Nope, glad of it too.

35.) What are you looking forward to? Going to Georgia to work in a Children's Institute!

36.) How are you today? Very well!

Valentines Banquet and Children's Program

On V Day (Valentines Day), as it's been fondly called before, our church had a banquet for married couples with a Hawaiian theme. It was a blast to be able to serve them and be with friends at the same time.

Here's a few of the "staff" =) getting ready. Ashley helping Kendra out with the flowers us waitresses were 'forced' at gun point to wear. J/K No, actually we didn't mind wearing them at all. =D
Here's a picture of all of us waitresses. We had a lot of fun! =)
Kevin as The Tourist in the skits.
A few pictures of the decorations, they were really cool!

The camara didn't quite catch how awesome it was. =(

Then, later, on the weekend, we went to Simi Valley to help out at a children's program. That was a blast! It was definitely a test in flexibility because we didn't quite know what was going to happen next. But it was still pretty much cool. =D

Kevin and I were on a team. Here we are waiting for the kids.
A very sweet little girl. =)Helping the children out with a craft

A Lepoard, Hiking, and Snow

That was a random title . . . but that's life for you. =) Randomness aside, we went to a mini version of the Wild Animal Park called 'The Living Desert'. And if you don't know what the Wild Animal Park is, well, it would take a while to explain it in detail, but, basically, it's a place where they have exoctic animals and some not so exoctic animals. =) So, I thought I'd post a few pictures.

Some really pretty flowers.
A weird shot of a butterfly.

We made sure to put Ricky to work. =DTHE awesome lepoard, not a very good picture though. =(

Then, on Saturday, we went up to Idywild to hike . . . in the snow, quite a bit of snow. =) Some of us were told that there wouldn't be very much snow on the trail. Well, somebody was either a bit off in their estimation or to a local, like them, maybe it wasn't very much snow. =) Anyways, despite all that, we still had a grand time with Jennifer, Christopher, and his mom.

A beautiful view. Gotta love it!A really cool picture. =)Kevin looking cool.Kevin and Ricky just looking.Everybody on the hike.

It was such a blessing to enjoy the beautiful world God has made! God's handiwork is truly amazing!! I'll leave you with this verse, very fitting I think.

"Praise Him for His mighty acts: praise Him according to His excellent greatness. "

Psalm 150:2

Thoughts . . .

I've been racking my brain, trying to think of something to post and, because my life isn't all sword fights and maidens in distress (but, of course, who's life is now days? =), there's just not much that would be exciting and interesting and that wouldn't bore someone half to death. So, I've been trying to think of something wild . . . well, wild isn't the exact word that I'm looking for . . . out of the ordinary, yes, that's better. The only thing that I thought might be 'out of the ordinary' is playing my great-grandpa's violin. It's a beautiful story, too long to tell here, of how the Lord brought it into our lives, but another reminder of the love of God. I can't describe how lovely it was to be able to draw a bow over the strings, and to hear the well worn violin with it's rough finish play once again. It was a lovely moment . . . I played Jay Unger's 'Ashokan Farewell', and thought of my ancestors, immigrants from England, Ireland . . . Over the many times that I've played it, I've wondered what my great-grandpa had played, where it had been . . . If only violins could talk what tales they could tell. It's not a beautiful violin with a glossy finish, but the tone rings, warm and glowing. That's what makes a violin, not the outside, but the sound you hear.

This one's a bit blurry, but it's the classic flower-with-instrument picture. =)