Five Years--a glimpse of what's been happening!

It's been such a long time since I've blogged anything! I don't know yet if I'm coming back to this, but I do feel like I should update it a bit. I have no idea if people even keep up with this or wonder about what's happened in the last 5 years. What's the best way to update what feels like a lifetime? Here's my attempt...

2009

September

My parents celebrate 25 years of marriage and take a trip to where they honeymooned. While they are gone my siblings and I plot a surprise party for them with family and church. They were duly surprised. :-)

December

My Aunt Donna went home to be with the Lord.

2010

I take on a full time management position at work.

March

We have a baby kitten born on our porch, she gets named Puzzle and we keep her. 

May

Youngest brother Andrew graduates from high school, ending our years as a home schooling family.

June

We go on probably our last family vacation/graduation trip. Head to Massachusetts. Had a great trip. We got to see John Q. Adams house, explore Lexington, see the house of Louisa May Alcott (book loving me loved it!), see Plymouth, visit Cape Cod, and stop in Pennsylvania for a trip to Sight and Sounds. Was a great trip!

September

My sister Sarah heads to Spain for an eight month adventure as a teacher assistant. See her blog for the full scope of that adventure! (http://fromthevalleytothebasin.blogspot.com/)

Fall-Winter

Stressful time for me dealing with the stress of full time retail.

2011

March

I step down out of full time management and go back to part time. Life becomes much better!

I head to Spain to visit Sarah. First visit overseas for me! Spend a couple days in Spain and then head to Paris with Sarah. Great trip, but very crazy! Think lost luggage times 10 in weirdness. I have a post on her blog about that trip. You can read two long posts about it here:

http://fromthevalleytothebasin.blogspot.com/2011/04/semana-blancaaka-semana-amanda.html

 http://fromthevalleytothebasin.blogspot.com/2011/05/well-always-have-paris-amandas.html

April

Life at our local church undergoes some major changes.

June

I head back overseas and meet up with Sarah in London. We spend almost three weeks touring the UK. Get to see a lot of England and a few days in Scotland. BEST TRIP EVER!!!!!!!

Highlights--Attending Charles Spurgeon's former church for a service, seeing amazing historical museums etc. Stonehenge. Bath--I loved Bath. Jane Austen fans must go there! Was my favorite part of England. We get to see a Hamlet production, loved that too! Sleepy town called Woodstock, such a great place after the hectic London world. Chatsworth house--where they filmed the most recent version of Pride and Prejudice. Such a great place! We get to see the Bronte house, and get an unplanned walking tour group. Great time! Funny story involving an older gentleman taking us right up to the house because we were so concerned about missing it. Yorkshire--sorry, very lame and touristy, we should have skipped that! A couple of days in Edinburgh. Cool castle, fun Highlands tour and get to see the Loch Ness. Adventures of Sarah leaving her purse, but no worries, no one took it! That is a really surface view of our time in England. It was such a great time!

Sarah returns home with me, life goes back to normal in our household. :-)

Fall

Mom's sister Susan, has a return of cancer.

Parents take a trip with Mom's sisters and their spouses to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Dad retires from the fire house!

Sarah and I take a trip down to see our friend in South Carolina.

2012

June

My siblings and I take a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit our Aunt and Uncle. Fun trip with our first real exposure to the western part of the US!

August

I am diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis--a two year journey which involves a blog or several posts of its own!

2013

April

 Parents, Sarah, and I take a trip down to South Carolina to celebrate our friend's 30th birthday!

June

Mom's sister Susan passes away.

Most of the year

Life gets hard for me, I'm trying a diet called SCD to help with the UC. Losing a lot of weight and getting very sick. I stay with some friends in Nov/Dec to try to help. A stomach virus on Thanksgiving day puts me down to 92 pounds! Scary times. 

December

Doctor is urging me to go to surgery

2014

January

Cold times in Ohio!

I finally get in to see another doctor, who is in to functional medicine.

He suggests just doing gluten and dairy free diet. Within 4 weeks I gain 14 pounds! Praise the Lord!! Since then, I have only continued to progress and am still amazed at the Lord's provision and care for me! A short snippet doesn't do justice to what has happened in the last year of my life!

March

I start getting into gardening

June

We get a new kitten and name her Ellie.
July
Our church gets to host a joint service for the first time with several local small churches joining us for an evening service. Great time of fellowship!

August

Sarah and I take a day trip with a friend to Lexington, Kentucky. Fun times exploring the Horse Park, seeing Mary Todd Lincoln's house, and eating at a place called Shakespeare & Company.

Sarah and I take a trip down to South Carolina to visit friends.

I know I'm probably missing some things, but that's a pretty good summary of the last 5 years. Dad is preaching more at our local church. I am still at our local craft store, 6 years coming up soon! I still hope for an Administrative job someday. We currently have three cats and one dog. 2014 has brought a lot of new friendships into my life and I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for 2015!

Life is busy, but good, and God is GREAT!

Thanks for reading!

May & June Update

Hello all! You may be wondering if I've dropped off the face of the planet, I have not. :-) I just have not felt like blogging or doing any book reviews. :-) So what have I been up to the last two months. Nothing overly dramatic, but here's a summary:

Family News, Church, Work, & Other Random Things

In May, my sister Sarah graduated with her Bachelor's in Spanish. We endured the long ceremony (some of us read a book) and then afterwards we went to spend the afternoon at another family's house. :-) It was a fun day overall and it was my first Saturday off from work since I started at the craft store! The next week, Mom, Sarah, and I all went out for a ladies luncheon with the ladies at church and then went shopping afterwards. It was fun, but the only thing we really bought was candy. :-)

Josh finished up his college classes this month and is enjoying having some free time again. (at least for now, eventually I will probably be pestering him to do projects. :-) ) Andrew just completed his Iowa tests this month, and will be working on math this summer, otherwise he is done too. So we are all glad to have the school hurdles done for a few months, and we're hoping to spend the summer getting together with people and having people over. (if we can work around our crazy work schedules!) At this point we are not planning a family summer vacation.

However, in July, some of us will be going to Texas with others in the church to do a Vacation Bible School. We will be working with missionaries that our church supports. (I'll give more details on this as it approaches) Lord willing, I will also be going, and at this point I'm in charge of snacks. VBS here in Ohio is the first week in July!

I haven't gotten around to trying any new recipes yet. But I did have fun working on making baby shower presents and experimenting with some new patterns. I recently bought a bunch of clearance baby yarn and I'm trying to decide on a pattern to make with it. Still haven't made a decision yet. :-)

Our room is also looking better, I still have to return photos and sort through some church history stuff, but all the scrapbooking supplies have been put away!

This month my siblings and I went out with some friends to see the movie "Up." It was a really good movie, definitely one of the better Pixar shows! We had a great time and afterwards enjoyed eating dinner together and chatting. :-)

Work has been about the same, nothing overly exciting in this area. I did learn something "new" recently, called "queing" (I've yet to figure out how this is spelled). It mostly involves checking items with a "pricing gun" and if it says we have 2 and there aren't any items there I put in "0" in the gun. Pretty easy but somewhat time consuming, which means my nicely organized routing of getting my work done on time is now somewhat "off."

What I've been reading

I've still not totally gotten back into my usual routine of reading. But in the last couple of months I re-read some old favorites. One of those being the "Anne of Green Gables" series. Sarah and I recently watched the movies and I had to read the books to remind myself of what "really" happens. :-) I also just finished reading for the second time, "To Kill A Mockingbird" another great book. Again, I read that because we just watched the movie. (notice a pattern here?) I highly recommend the movie version and the book version of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (just be aware of some swearing in the book). I was also going to try and read "War and Peace" (Sarah picked that out) but after reading about four chapters, I tried to skip to the end to see if I could figure out what happens, and was unsuccessful. :-) I have my doubts that I will try to finish it. :-)

Update on my Aunt

A major praise in this area! One of her "counts" (I can't really explain the details well) has been consistently going down. This means her new chemo treatment is working! We're thankful to hear the good results and I suspect surgery will be coming up in the near future. Thank you for your continued prayers!

What's next

Well, I ahem, maybe will be working on book reviews this summer. :-) Obviously I keep saying this and it doesn't happen, so you can come to your own conclusions on whether this will happen or not. :-) I expect the month of July to be busy with VBS preparations, getting together with friends, some cleaning, hopefully a book review, and maybe some craft projects. :-)

Thank you to all those who still stop by and I hope you have a great day and a wonderful summer!

~Amanda~

April Update--I'm back! (almost) :-)

Hello all! Well, today is the last day of April, and I was hoping to do a book review, but it probably won’t happen. So, here's what I've been up to...

Church
April 26 our church celebrated 90 years, and the entire month was spent in preparation for that. I scrapbooked every spare second I had, at least it felt like it! Sarah and I stayed up till 3:00 a.m. finishing up last minute preparation, but we did finish! On the 26, we had a lot of visitors and it was great meeting a lot of people I have never met before, and seeing some old friends. Yes, it was worth all the effort! (oh, and when I got home I completely crashed, and I am happy to report that Monday morning I felt well rested and re-energized :-) ) We also had a deaf choir with us that Sunday, and it was really neat to see.

Work
Has been going well, nothing too major to report on this front. I’m still doing down stocking and I am enjoying my time there. (my co-workers have noticed that I’m starting to relax and “warm up” to them a little more) I was able to introduce Mom to one of my favorite managers there this month. My schedule is starting to be more regular, and I can plan things better these days, which I love!

Blogging/Reading
Well, obviously I haven’t done a thing with blogging this month! Last week I did not even check or monitor the blog at all. I’m really hoping in May I can pick up the slack and do some reviews! I don’t believe I read a single book in April.

Other April Tidbits
We made some more trips to see my “niece” this month, and our Pastor’s wife just had her seventh baby earlier this month. So, I’m having fun seeing TWO babies at church on Sundays! :-) Dad preached the Sunday that our Pastor’s wife had her baby, and I’m hoping to do a blog post of that sermon in the future.


What’s next
Well, first of all, cleaning the disaster that was once called “my room” is on the top of my “to do list.” :-) Filled with scrapbooking supplies, pictures, and church history, it’s pretty much an exploded disaster. :-) May is looking pretty busy, Sarah has her college graduation, church is planning on some ladies events; a Saturday luncheon/shopping trip and a baby shower. And I’m hoping to get back to reading, blogging, and maybe try some new recipes!

Update on my Aunt
Thank you to those of you who are praying for my Aunt! This week we learned that her two chemo treatments have not been effective, and they will be trying a different type soon, this has some potentially harmful side effects, one of which is damage to her heart. Pray that this new treatment could work! Without going into specifics, some new developments in their financial situation also came up this week; continue to pray for them in the financial realm also.

I believe those are all the major highlights of the month. I'm incredibly glad to have April 26 over with and am looking forward to having more time on my hands to devote to
other things. :-)

Have a great week!

~Amanda~

March Update

Hello all! Sadly another month has gone by and I have not done a book review! Well, technically I still have a couple hours left of today, but somehow I think my other responsibilities will take a higher priority. :-) So, here's another one of those rambly random updates on what I've been doing this month!

Work:

Work has been one of the main things that has kept me busy this month. Gone were the days I thought I'd only be working 15-20 hours a week (or even 4 hours!). I am regularly working 30 plus (maybe close to 35 hours) a week. My two days off are consistently Fridays (piano lessons and catch up days) and Sundays (church). This is one reason why I'm not blogging, I simply don't have time!
It doesn't appear work will slow down in the near future either, I just accepted a new position at the store where I will be "down stocking." (and as far as I know, it doesn't involve a pay raise, in case you wondered :-) ) This involves taking overstocked merchandise from the boxes on the top shelves and putting them in their usual spots, if they fit. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have more hours and a slightly more regular routine, but I sort of wish this was happening in May; March and April are hectic for me at the moment! :-)
No, I haven't been job searching for Administrative positions lately, no time and not much motivation. :-)

Church:
I've mentioned before that our church is celebrating 90 years in April, and I volunteered to be part of a committee and plan a scrapbook. This is the second main reason I'm not blogging. This has involved a lot of responsibility and planning. Thankfully my sister is also helping out, otherwise I'd lose my mind! :-) Without going into endless details of what I've been up to in this area, pretty much every spare minute not spent working is spent sorting pictures, scrapbooking, planning scrapbook days with the ladies at church, making plans and lists, and a variety of other things.

Reading & Blogging:
Well, at the moment I can't really think if I've even read anything this month, yes I did! Early in the month I was reading books and then selling them. :-) Not very many though. Hopefully my reading will pick up in May. (poor books, I'm sure they miss me. :-) ) As for blogging, my apologies about not having anything posted, I will really try though, if not in April, definitely in May! Thank you to those of you who still check on here to see if I've posted anything though!

Other things:
In addition to all of the above, I've been busy selling books for friends, which has been involving people coming to the house and looking/picking them up. The most noteworthy one was when a group of 10 young adults came over at 10:00 at night on a Friday, in our basement. Needless to say, life is never dull around here. :-)
I mentioned before that I was able to see a production of "Les Misérables" I also got to see one of my younger friends from church in her ice-skating competition. These two things were the "fun" highlights of my month. :-) I also had a piano recital this month.

Prayer Requests:
If you think of it, and have a desire, I certainly would appreciate any prayers this month! There is still much I need to get done, and I feel somewhat overwhelmed with responsibilities. I know that it will get done in time, but I need endurance and sometimes I have to watch my
attitude. :-)
Also, on a more serious note, my Aunt has been diagnosed with cancer, and her family and mine would appreciate prayers and wisdom for the doctors on how best to treat her.

I believe those are the highlights of the month. I've enjoyed seeing my little "niece" (okay, technically she isn't my niece, but my best friend is like a second sister, so I call her a niece :-) ) a couple of times and I hope visits will increase in the future. :-)

Hope you have a great week!

~Amanda~

February Update

Hello! This isn't a book review, but I thought I should update you on what is going on with me these days. (if you don't really care, that's fine and you can stop reading now :-) ) Actually, I'm thinking I should do these little update things once a month...hmm...maybe I should do a poll and see what you think. :-)

Work this month has been a mixture between busy and slow, depending on the week. The one week where I had a lot of time off, I spent my time doing lots of cooking and cleaning, and ignoring the blog. So yes, I did have time to do some blogging this month, but I wanted to spend my time doing other things. :-) Overall I love working at a craft store, except I really wish they had different music... :-)

As for cooking, this month I tried several new recipes and had a goal to use up a bag of wheat flour that has been around for awhile. (okay to be honest, using up the flour was just part of the goal, the real goal was to use up several ingredients that have been around for awhile) Recipes varied from potato soup, banana bread, whole wheat bread, a couple of cookie recipes, and the latest was homemade whole wheat crackers! (the goal of using up the flour wasn't quite accomplished, but I made a significant dent in it! Maybe I'll make something today... :-)) I had a lot of fun with new recipes, but I could tell I needed to get back to work, because I was driving myself and Mom crazy. :-)

The past week or two, I've been busy trying to sell things (or just get rid of things) online. It varies from books, to home school books for friends, clothes, and some other things. This week I've been trying to get my taxes done. (not the most fun thing in the world to do)

In addition to all of that, our church is celebrating 90 years this April and I and some others will be involved with trying to do a scrapbook and a variety of other things to prepare for that. This will be keeping me pretty busy for the next couple of months, so, don't expect too many book reviews! :-)

Speaking of book reviews and blogging...

I still hope to get a review done this month and with all the activity in the coming months, I will consider it a success if I can get one to three book reviews done a month. We will see though! If you are wondering on the status of Dad blogging, well, nothing to report yet, he hasn't started on anything else to my knowledge, but maybe I can get him to write something soon.

Other things...

At the end of January I attended a marriage conference with Dad and Mom. I enjoyed it and I've been considering summarizing my notes etc. here on the blog. (hmm, another poll idea!)

Also, my best friend is back in town with her new baby girl. I got to see her and the baby last Friday, briefly. I am so thrilled they are back and am looking forward to more visits! :-)

I've also been having fun working on some knitting these days. I found a bunch of dish cloth patterns online that I've been trying. (Yes, I know, my knitting knowledge is very limited, the only thing I've ever done is dish clothes)

What I've been reading...

Well, to be honest, not much! I read a Noel Piper book that I'm borrowing from a friend. It was very good and I hope to review it (along with my list from the past couple of months) here in the near future. My stack of books to read and review is still around, but I am kind of ignoring it. (I'm sure the people who are lending me books wish I would hurry up! However, they haven't said anything...so... :-) ) I also picked up a bunch of books recently that I'm reading and then selling. They won't make it here for a review, but that is keeping me slightly busy. :-)

The Love Challenge...

I was thinking of doing an entire post to update on this, but I may just have a small snippet here.

I've been working sporadically on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8b, and yesterday I said them to Dea, and with the exception of forgetting "is not provoked" I got through them! It was fun learning these verses, but also very convicting! I hope to get back to memorizing Philippians in March.

Just a comment about memorizing, if you aren't memorizing anything right now, I'd really encourage you to start! Find a partner to be accountable to and you will be a little more determined. :-) If you think you don't have time to memorize, you really do. I try to work on my verses during my lunch break at work. I don't get to look at them every time, but I've found that using the last 10 minutes or so of my break is a great time to look at verses! I'm sure everyone has about 10 minutes in the day they can spare. :-)

I think that is the majority of things that have been going on during the last month or so. Hopefully you didn't mind my rambling post. :-) I will try to get some polls and a book review done today or tomorrow.

Have a great day!

25 Random Things About Me (Amanda)

Hello all! I did this for facebook, and thought it would be fun to share with you. Technically, I could be "tagging" people. However, I don't really know too many people in the blog world, and I don't want to bother the ones I do know. :-) So, if you're reading this, and want to tag yourself, feel free to do so! Let me know if you do and I'll check out your 25 things too. Hope you enjoyed something a little spontaneous today!

Rules:

Write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. Try and think of something that no one knows about yourself. Don't type something typical like your age, type something completely and utterly random about yourself! It's really fun and kind of challenging!

1. When I was younger I really, really wanted to be a writer. (I still have half finished stories around the house)

2. I took ballet lessons for about two years

3. I trusted Christ, when I was around four, inside a grocery cart, in the grocery store!

4. I love to read, talk about books, blog about books, and convince others to read!

5. I liked dogs when I was younger, now I'm a cat person, and dogs are kind of a pain.

6. I'm pretty competitive; you'd be surprised if you played Monopoly or Dutch Blitz with me!

7. It took three times for me to pass my drivers license test, but I've not had an accident or a ticket yet!

8. I love movies, especially old ones!

9. I can't stand the smell of the wet jet that Mom uses to mop!

10. I've never broken a bone, but I had to get stitches before…not a cool story.

11. I used to think farms and farm life were cool when I was younger, now I don't. (it was before I actually SAW a real farm)

12. I was home schooled from K-12, and I love to talk about home schooling.

13. Some day I hope to be proficient on the sewing machine!

14. I love crafty things, scrapbooking, crocheting, etc, but I don't like painting, it stresses me out!

15. I don't like gross noises, belching is disgusting!

16. I'm a picky eater. (this might not surprise some of you)

17. I love to attend Bible conferences.

18. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 20.

19. I really want to get fish, but I don't want to take care of them, just look at them.

20. I can be pretty bossy at times.

21. I donated about 11 inches of my hair last year, the first time I've had it cut short since I was little! (no, I didn't cry, but I felt like it!)

22. I have a tendency to cry when I see others crying, even if I'm not really upset! (I do this with laughing too, actually)

23. I've been wearing dresses/skirts only since about 12 or 13, my choice. However, I had to purchase my first pair of pants in November to fit with the dress code at Michael's. (this was NOT fun shopping for…took forever!)

24. I love to get together with friends, but I don't do it very often!

25. My dream job is to be a wife and home schooling mom, with lots of kids!

Quick Update

Hello all! Sorry for my lack of book reviews, but I hope to do some this week! (I have two days off this week, so a book review should happen. :-) )

On another note, I had a great Christmas, and I hope you did too! If you wondered, the millions of Christmas things that needed to get done, all did get done, so I am very grateful about that! (and slightly amazed :-) ) My job is going well, and at this point, I think they will keep me on as part time. It should slow down at some point, they keep telling me this, but I have still been working close to 30 hours a week. Maybe by February? Cash register work is getting a little easier, I think I finally have a better grasp on how to do checks and returns, although it is still my least favorite thing to do. (watch, I write this and today some major stressful thing will happen with a check or a return :-) ) Once things slow down, I will go back to job searching, I would appreciate your prayers as I continue to look for full time employment and make decisions.

In the blog world:

Well, obviously I hope to get a book review this week done, and at some point I hope to make a tentative plan of what books to review this year. I am also considering adding my Dad as a contributor to the blog, or just have him write some articles occasionally. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this idea! (I will probably have a poll in the near future on that)
Dad is currently teaching Systematic Theology in Sunday School, so I am considering trying to incorporate that, or have him do book reviews on the various theology books he reads, or just do some theological type posts. So, if you have any thoughts, pass them on! :-)

Also, for Christmas, I sort of persuaded my parents, to let us get the old BBC Chronicles of Narnia dvds for Christmas. I have yet to watch them, but I will probably post some reviews on those this year.

What to look for:
I am hoping to finish up Prince Caspian, Spiritual Disciplines, a Voice of the Martyrs book, Pleasing People, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader first this year. These are all books I finished last year, but have yet to review them. After that, probably the rest of Narnia will follow and then I'm not entirely sure what I'll do next. Probably some other books people are letting me borrow. :-) If you have any requests for the year, let me know.

Hope you all have a great day!

2008 Family Newsletter

Merry Christmas to all my readers, friends and family! I'm putting our family newsletter here for your perusal. :-) I've taken out our last name for sake of privacy. :-)

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!!

~Amanda~

2008 Family Newsletter

-Amanda & Sarah

Season’s Greetings from our family! It has been quite a year for our family, but we shall strive to keep this under two pages. :-) In May, we took a family vacation/Josh's senior trip to Pennsylvania. We visited Gettysburg, Lancaster, and also Hershey for a brief time (long enough to take a tour and complain about expensive candy :-) ). Gettysburg was historically enlightening (in a good way), and we had a personalized tour of the Amish area in Lancaster by a Mennonite tour guide who rode with us in the van. It was a bit strange at first, but we learned many more interesting tidbits that way. The highlight of the trip, however, was seeing a production of “Daniel and the Lions’ Den” in the Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster. We all had a good time together, but it was our first time leaving our dog Penny for a week, and the kennel had to keep calling us because she wouldn't eat! However, she was ecstatic to be home with us afterwards and ate her fill then. :-)

Also, Amanda and Josh attended a New Attitude conference in May with some youth from church. They enjoyed hearing from speakers such as Josh Harris, John Piper, Al Mohler, and C.J. Mahaney. Josh even got John Piper's autograph (Amanda, on the other hand, had no desire to stand in long lines :-))! In August, Amanda and Sarah also had a great time visiting their friend Susannah in North Carolina for about two weeks. While down there, all three of them went to the State Museum and saw an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was very well done. This friend, whom some of you know, just had her first baby (a girl named Katherine) on December 10th. Hopefully some (or all) of us can see this new addition sometime in 2009 (once her high-pitched scream thing dies down a bit :-)).

Dad & Mom—celebrated 24 years of marriage in September and are hoping to do something special next year (such as a trip somewhere) to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Dad celebrated 26 years at the firehouse in August and anticipates retirement in a few years. He also studied for his last Lieutenant’s exam of his career. His hobbies include chess and tennis, and he is still serving as an Elder at church as well as teaching a Sunday School class on Grudem’s Systematic Theology. Mom enjoys reading and has been involved in the ladies’ ministry at church. She is also happy to retire the 24-year-old artificial Christmas tree, for we now have a new one (it still isn’t her ideal one, but at least it isn’t…old! :-)).

Amanda—turned 23 in September. She had her college graduation ceremony in June and had a pleasant surprise by being one of the marshals and receiving a special award. Her job in Fairfield ended in April, and she is looking for full-time employment in the administrative field. In the meantime, she started a part-time seasonal job at Michael's and is enjoying it—but finding that she has much less free time (thus the later-than-usual newsletter). :-) However, when time permits, she still enjoys reading, selling stuff online, crafts, playing the piano, and her newest hobby—blogging! If you enjoy book reviews, you can find her blog at: http://christian-bibliophile-reviewsandmore.blogspot.com/

Sarah—turned 21 in August. She is a senior at NKU and enjoys upper-division Spanish and Latin American classes. She had a good but intense semester and is looking forward to some time off. She tutored Spanish (and Astronomy for one day. Bad idea. :-)) on campus for the past two semesters but will be ending that to give her more time to look into other forms of employment in the future. She had a wonderful experience studying abroad in Morelia, Mexico in June and will be graduating in May 2009. She loves spending time with pets, promoting correct grammar, playing the piano, and being involved with a campus Bible study.

Josh—will be 19 in January. He graduated from high school in May and also got his driver's license this year. In August, he stopped taking piano lessons so he could have more time to concentrate on school and work (and no, he really doesn’t play on his own :-)). He is a freshman Chemistry major at Raymond Walters College and works part-time at Sam’s Club (electronics department). He also experienced the joy of getting his wisdom teeth out this past week. :-) Josh likes video games, playing with Penny, playing tennis with Dad and Andrew, and explaining weird science stuff to people. :-)

Andrew—will be 17 in March and is in 11th grade. He is busy with school and at times feels like an “only child” when his siblings are off on their various escapades. He is officially now the only homeschooler, non-driver, and non-voter in the family. Of course, all that will change in a little over a year! He enjoys reading, playing tennis, activities at church, getting out of school, video games, biff-bopping Penny (swatting her “gently” with gloved hands. She loves it.), and doing things with Dad and Josh.

The Menagerie

Shortly after Sarah got back from Mexico, it became apparent that Meeko the cat had to be put to sleep because of a tumor around her heart (there was much sniffling by the females that weekend!). Meeko was about 13 years old, and we were glad that Sarah was able to be home. However, our pet dynamics in the family have changed somewhat, and Meeko is still missed—especially by Mom.
Penny continues to be the only dog in the house, and yes, she is quite spoiled (except by Amanda :-)). Her favorite people are Dad and Sarah, and she still enjoys chasing and terrorizing Jonah. Cocoa, our fat cat, has taken over some of Meeko’s old habits—such as sleeping in Penny’s cage. She is very affectionate and loves to try to sneak outside and eat grass (which usually results in disgusting consequences. Enough said. :-)). Jonah, our skinny cat, strangely enough, has been coming downstairs a lot more since Meeko has been gone. His latest hobby is drinking any leftover water from the bathtub, and he still takes demented pleasure in scaring Patches. Patches, our indoor/outdoor cat (depending on her mood and the weather), loves to curl up on Andrew’s bed when it’s cold and has been stealing Mom’s seat on the couch as well. Snorkel, our “stray” cat, is still here and enjoys a good relationship with Penny. She likes to eat and look cute. :-) We get occasional visits from P.C. the cat (short for Peaches and Cream), but those never last long with Penny around! Another year has passed without adding any more pets (P.C. doesn’t really count :-)), and several of us are wishing for a kitten; however, Dad claims that another cat has to die before this happens. But if one shows up at our doorstep… :-)

Giving you an update on me :-)

Hello all! Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, but I've been really, really busy! :-) So, I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and let you know what I've been up to.

First, work is going well. They originally told me I would work 15-20 hours a week, and that was true for the first 2-3 weeks, however, for the last two weeks and I'm guessing onward, I've been working over 30 hours a week. So, I'm really tired and I don't exactly have the mental brain power to sit down and write book reviews at the moment! :-) In between working, I have been having several interviews, but nothing has come of those.

On another note on work, they finally put me on the cash register...on Black Friday! I wanted to die! :-) I was "being trained" for a couple of hours, and then they put me on a register on my own. I did survive the day, but not without several stressful moments...which we won't delve into. :-) (I also had to go into work at 6:00 a.m.) I have since continued working on the register, not every day, but pretty regularly. It's my least favorite thing to do. Working with checks and returns are stressful. Anyway, but good experience! :-)

That same Friday, we had "our" Thanksgiving. We had a couple of people over, whose wives/mom were not able to cook for them, so they came over for dinner to our house. So, after coming home, I had less than an hour to rest, and then we spent a fun evening with games, food, etc. Oh, we also got to webcam my best friend and her mom and talk for awhile. (this best friend, her dad and brother were two of the people we had over)

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a very busy weekend! We went to my Dad's older sisters (and saw most of my Dads side of the family) house on Thanksgiving Day. That Saturday I also worked, and on Sunday after church, we went with some friends to see a movie, that was a lot of fun! :-)

Also, this best friend who we webcammed, had her baby girl on December 10! I am very excited about this and I can't wait to see pictures! Hopefully in the near future we will be able to see the baby, but I have no idea when. So, I am excited about being a "pseudo Aunt" :-)

Let's see, what else, oh, I am so behind in Christmas preparations it is not even funny! This weekend I worked on Christmas cards with my sister, but I still need to start our family newsletter. Which I also hope to post on here. :-) So, I hope to get the cards out this week...maybe... :-) My sister and I usually decorate our room for Christmas, but we are both so busy, we have decided it's not going to happen this year. :-) There is still lots to do with presents, cookies, crafts, etc. But I won't bore you with those details. :-)

In the blog world:

Well, you can obviously tell I haven't been blogging, I am trying to keep up with putting new Scriptures and quotes up. I just added some Christmas music today, I wanted to do more, but I think I will just stick with the Nutcracker, which I love. :-) (I got the cd of the music last year for Christmas, I was very excited about that) I'm also trying to change my background every week for the next month or so, lots of fun Christmas/winter backgrounds out there! :-)

Polls, I want to do some soon, once I sit down and think of a few to do! Any suggestions?

As for the book reviews, maybe I will get one or two done before the end of the year, but we will see. First I need to focus on our newsletter. :-) I haven't been reading a whole lot these days, but I still have several books that I read a month or two ago that I want to review on here. :-)

I think that is the majority of the stuff that has been going on. I'm also pretty busy with lots of church activities this month.

Well, I need to get back to my list of things to do, so until I get to the polls, do you have any fun Christmas traditions or memories that you'd like to share? If I think of any, I will try to post some later on.

Hope you have a great week!

My official blog post on blogging during the Holidays :-)

Hello all! I've had several "Notes on Blogging" where I mentioned my status on blogging for the holidays. However, I wanted to give an official Blog post to this, that way I can delete all my "Notes." :-)

For the months of November and December I will be pretty busy getting ready for Christmas, lots of church activities, working, and who knows what else. :-) I still hope to do polls, quotes, Scripture of the day etc. However, I won't be posting as many book reviews. (you probably have already noticed this :-) ) If I can get at least one book review up a week, I will have considered that a success! :-) I'd like to get 2-3 up a week, but I just don't think I'll be able to. :-) So, in the meantime, feel free to look at the archives, vote on polls, browse the blog, or check out some of the blogs/websites/links that are at the sidebar!

The books I hope to do "soon" (as in November and December) are:

Voice of the Martyrs book
Prince Caspian
(maybe the rest of the Narnia series)
Finish Spiritual Disciplines
Maybe Pleasing People, by Lou Priolo
Maybe a Christmas Book

That's a pretty long list, and I don't think I'll get to them all, but we will see! If you have any preferences on what I do first, or the order I go in, let me know! The Voice of the Martyrs book is on my top priority list, I just can't figure out the best way to review it! :-)

Thanks to all of my readers, friends, and family who look at the blog! Hope you have a wonderful day!

First Day of Work

Hello all! I know a few of you are curious about my first day of work. (mostly for the benefit of my family and friends. I figure the average reader who doesn't know me, is probably wondering why I'm doing this post... :-)) So, I thought I'd give you a little update. :-)

First of all, I survived! I am also very tired right now. :-) So if this sounds scattered or strange, you are warned! :-)

I worked from 9-4 and I work that same shift tomorrow, I don't know about the rest of the week yet. Mondays the "truck" comes in, so after I filled out paperwork and watched some videos for two hours, I helped open boxes and stock shelves. Mostly in the framing department.

I met a few of my co-workers but not many. I did not have to learn the register yet, which I think I'm glad about. It was a little awkward for me to have customers ask me questions, and I had to explain that I was new. :-) They seemed very understanding though, one gentleman thought it was funny that he got "the rookie" and informed his wife about how he always asks questions to the new workers. :-) She didn't seem as amused. :-) I was able to find other workers to help customers though.

Oh yes, some of you know that I have to wear a dress code for the job. This means khaki pants and black shirts. I haven't worn pants in a little over 10 years, so this is something of an adjustment for me. :-) I did survive in them, and it would be pretty impractical to wear a skirt, I was bending/squatting/on the floor so much it would have been awkward. I did learn that you can wear khaki skirts, something they didn't tell me at first. However, I think I will just stick with pants. :-)

Anyway, I think those are the highlights! Hopefully you enjoyed it! I'd appreciate your prayers as I continue to learn the job! Especially tomorrow, it is a holiday and I'm expecting it to be a little crazy. Have a great day!

Praise & Prayer Request!!

Hello all! Some of you know that I have been job searching for awhile now, and today I found out that I will be working part-time seasonal work at a local craft store! I am very thankful for this opportunity! I'd appreciate your prayers as I learn the new job and continue to search for full-time employment. I start Monday morning and I will be searching for the "dress code" work clothes this weekend. (that could also be considered a prayer request too, that I can find the items I need!)

Thank you to all those who have been praying, and please keep doing so!

A very excited, and thankful blogger,

Amanda :-)

21 Years Ago Today!

Hello all! Well, another day went by without a book review. Sorry! Maybe next week! :-) (our Internet was down for awhile. My brother was busy installing a "router" and didn't have time to finish before leaving for work. Despite this temporary inconvenience, the results are worth it!)

Anyway, so, since I still seemed to be swamped with other things, I thought I'd take the time to give you some family trivia. :-)

21 years ago today we moved into our present house! That's right, I've been living in the same place since I was a little over two years old, and my sister was only a few months old. :-) (no, I don't remember the apartment we used to be in at all, in case you wondered :-) )

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that bit of trivia with you.

On another note, today is "Reformation Day" I thought I'd give you two links to read more about it if you are interested.

http://thereformeddoug.blogspot.com/

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/10/bedrock-of-reformation.html

Have a great weekend!

The brief history of this blog & why it was started :-)

Hello all! I don’t feel like doing a book review today, but I did want to post something.
So, I thought, maybe I should tell you how I got the idea for this blog and why I started it.
Of course, you may also wonder, and rightly so, why I haven’t talked about this before. :-)
After all, it would be a logical first post. Anyway, despite the delay, I shall now give you a brief history (okay, maybe not so brief) about this blog, and myself. First, I must back up a couple of months…

In June, a new family started coming to our church, I began talking with the lady/mom/wife, or however you want to describe her. We exchanged emails and shortly after that she sent me one. At the end of her email was her blog address. Curious, I checked it out, and was intrigued. I knew a little bit about blogs before this, but to my recollection, I had never looked at any. So over the course of the summer I occasionally checked out her blog and she tried to persuade me to start one. :-)
(you can check her blog out here: http://dea-frommyhearttoyours.blogspot.com/)
I thought a blog sounded interesting, but way too time consuming, and I had absolutely no idea what I would talk about. (Unless it was a family blog and I gave updates on my family) So, I continued on with my daily routine throughout the summer.

Then in August, our church had a weekend youth/teen/singles/whatever, camp out/retreat. During this retreat we watched the dvd series of the Harris brothers entitled “Do Hard Things.” (This was the purpose of the retreat) If you are familiar with their story, you know that their blog basically started their ministry. Anyway, so that is the second part of the story.

Shortly after this retreat, a friend of my brothers and fellow church member also started his own blog. Which I also enjoy looking at, you can find his blog at the sidebar or follow this link:
http://thereformeddoug.blogspot.com/

Anyway, so all these people have blogs! I still think they are interesting, but after all, what on earth would I talk about, and who on earth would care what I have to say! :-)

However, at the end of August, I had two separate conversations with people about a book I was reading, I went into some detail about it etc. After these conversations I thought, “Hmm, I love to read, and I’ve read a variety of things, and I love talking about books, why not have a blog about books!” So with this thought in mind, I began making some quick, and impulsive decisions. I was going to start a blog, and it would be about books! I remembered the word bibliophile (my sister helped me discover this word when I was doing a college project) and thought it’d be the perfect name.

However, even though the primary purpose of my blog was to be about books, I wanted to give myself some leeway to talk about music, movies, or my family if I ever wanted to expand. Thus, the “and more” was added to the title.

So, that is a rather lengthy version of how I got started on this blog.

Now, moving on a little further. One of my reasons for starting the blog, was primarily to encourage others to read good books. You may notice that I have a lot of “Classic Christian” kind of literature up that I review. This is not all that I read, I do in fact enjoy Christian historical romance fiction. However, I don’t really want to encourage others to read that, I’d rather you read more “quality” books. That’s why you won’t be finding any reviews with those types of books. So, lest you think I am some perfect person who only reads “old-fashioned” books, it’s not true.

In fact in the course of the months of September and October I have so far, read approximately 32 books, and only 7, soon to be 8 of those books have made it to my blog for reviews. However, at the same time, I really do enjoy the “old fashioned” books, and think they are much more worthwhile than contemporary fiction.

Anyway, I say that to let you know that I enjoy a variety of books. One day, I may incorporate more “classic” literature as well for review. (i.e. Jane Austen, maybe Charles Dickens, or other such authors)

More reasons/purposes/trivia about the blog: I am generally assuming that the majority of my readers are on the “younger side” (with the exceptions of my “adult” friends from church and family members). This may be a little presumptuous of me, but that’s just my guess. I define “younger” as in teens to young adults/twenties, etc. As a result, my writing style is a little more directed to that age range, at least, I guess it is…maybe not. :-)

However, I also would like the blog to be useful to adults/parents as well. I hope it to be helpful in parents choosing books for their kids. I also would like the blog to be a place where interesting discussions about the books can happen. This hasn’t really happened yet, but hopefully in the future, readers will get a little more involved.

Anyway, hmm, I can’t quite decide if I should drag this out a little further and talk about my personal background with reading etc. Maybe I will do that tomorrow! :-)

So, I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about how this blog got started. Although the blog is time consuming and I am swamped with reading, I am enjoying it immensely!

Have a wonderful day!

Why The Chronicles of Narnia are special to me

Hello all! I soon hope to re-read and then post on the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
In preparation for that, I thought I'd give some personal background on Narnia. :-) This way you can learn more about me, and I can save more room on the Narnia posts to deal with the books instead of talking about me! :-)

I do realize that there are some people out there who don't like Narnia, because of the references to witches, magic, etc. However, despite these arguments, I still like the Narnia series and think it's a great allegory.

The Chronicles of Narnia are special to me, primarily because they remind me of my childhood. :-) When we were little, Dad would read to my sister and I at night. (later he also read these to our brothers...) Anyway, Dad's book selections and story telling varied. He'd sometimes read children Bible stories to us, made up stories--these were always interesting and I'm sure could produce some laughs if I went into detail. :-) He also read to us out of a book called: "The King's Daughter." However, the Narnia books were probably my favorite. Dad always gave the characters voices and made it really fun. :-) (although, my sister remembers very little because she fell asleep too fast :-) )

So, as a result, of Dad reading the books and seeing the old Narnia British films, I grew up with the stories. However, I never actually read them myself until about 2004! This may surprise you, however, I figured I never needed to read them since Dad had covered them once or twice and I'd seen the movies. :-)

In 2004, I first read the Lord of the Rings, which in my opinion, were just okay. :-)
After reading them, I thought, well, maybe I should read Narnia too. So I did! I was in for a surprise! While I remembered the first several books well from listening to Dad and seeing the British movies, I barely remembered anything from the last three books! (Magician's Nephew, Horse and His Boy, and the Last Battle) I also discovered that Dad had left some things out of the books that were "new" to me. :-)

As a result, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Narnia books for the first time. I discovered that C.S. Lewis wrote in a very engaging way, and was surprised that even though the books were written in the 1950s onward, his style reminded me of other children's books that were written in the early 1900s. (if you haven't realized this by now, I love reading "old" books :-) )

Anyway, since reading the Narnia books, I have enjoyed the new movie productions of Narnia. I don't necessarily love them since they don't follow the books exactly, but I do enjoy them because it brings back fond memories of my childhood. :-)

So, for the next several weeks, months, or however long it takes, I will review all seven of the Narnia books, post discussion questions, and quite possibly compare the movie versions with the books. :-)

In the meantime, feel free to post your fond memories of Narnia, or how you first got "hooked" on them! :-)

Have a great weekend!

Birthday Blog Continued...read poll results and learn more about me!

Hi! Thanks for all of you who voted on my random birthday poll questions! :-) Here are the results, I will give the correct answers and some background behind the questions after each poll results.

What birthday cake did I have every year between the ages of 13--20?

White/Vanilla..................................1 vote (20%)

Chocolate..........................................0 vote (0%)

Pumpkin............................................3 votes (60%)

How would I know? :-)......................1 vote (20%)

The correct answer is pumpkin cake! Congratulations to pumpkin voters you won! :-)
I do like white/vanilla cake and that was a good guess. Also, I am not a huge fan of chocolate...everyone must have known that! :-) The answer "how would I know" was put in for all the people who like to be difficult.... :-)
Now you may ask...so what birthday cakes have you had since then? Here are those answers:

20--White Chocolate Fudge Cake
21--Lane Cake (old fashioned Southern cake--technically a Christmas cake)
22--Double Coconut Cake
23--Carmel Apple Spice Cake

Next poll:

What unique gift(s) was I given in the past?

Trampoline..................................................0 votes (0%)

Fancy Letter Opener.................................1 vote (25%)

Fortune Cookies..........................................1 vote (25%)

Sewing machine..........................................3 votes (75%)

Pet Snake......................................................0 votes (0%)

This is a weird question...............................1 vote (25%)

The answers:
I was never given a trampoline or a pet snake...in fact, I don't like snakes at all!
I was given a fancy letter opener (on my 19th birthday I believe--by my kind, generous, and usually nice, younger sister :-) )
I have been give fortune cookies several times over the years on birthdays and Christmases--also given by my sister. (this will be explained in the next poll result)
I was given a sewing machine by Mom and Dad on my 18th birthday. :-) (I still have yet to actually learn the art of sewing though....my skills are minimal. :-) )
And yes it was a rather weird question. :-)

What birthday did the "Amanda is going to China" joke start?

15..............1 vote (20%)

16...............1 vote (20%)

17..............1 vote (20%)

18..............0 votes (0%)

19.............1 vote (20%)

20.............0 votes (0%)

21.............1 vote (20%)

22.............0 votes (0%)

Ironically, everyone was wrong on this poll! (including my own sister who started the whole thing! :-) )

The joke technically started the summer I was 17, but I didn't start getting the presents until my 18th birthday, so technically, 17 is sort of right. :-) But the real answer is 18.

Now you are probably wondering, what joke? :-)

The summer I was 17 our church had the teens/young people do VBS. I was in charge of reading the missionary story every night at the end of the program. :-) The missionaries featured were John and Betty Stam---who were missionaries (and martyrs) to China.
So....now the interesting part begins. My, ahem, as I as said, "usually nice" sister decided for some strange reason, to start this thing saying that "Amanda is going to be a missionary to China." All because I did a story on missionaries to China! As a result--I was and continue to be given "Chinese" presents on birthdays and Christmases. Examples--a hand guide to learning Chinese, Chinese cookbooks, fortune cookies, a Chinese necklace, fan, chop sticks, a tea set, a tea cozy--and that's just a few of the things! The joke, I thought was finally dying down, however, for my birthday this year I got "Chinese red tea cookies." (I still need to try them :-) )

For the record--I'm not fond of Chinese food and have no plans to become a missionary to China. :-)

As a result of this joke, my sister has managed to spread it around to some friends at our church, and they have also given me Chinese presents! In fact, Sarah reminded me, that one friend actually had a dream about me teaching English to Chinese kids at Jungle Jims! (local store)
Needless to say....any time we have a missionary at church from China or someone TALKS about China...those who know about the joke all look at me and smirk. :-)

So now you know!

Hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about me. :-)

Oh, and yes, I did have a very nice birthday yesterday! Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Until my next post...

Amanda the old :-)

Birthday Blog!

Hello all! Today I turn the ripe old age of 23. :-) This may seem old to some of you, or you may be laughing your head off that I consider this old. :-)

I hope the birthday song on here doesn't offend you...I find it hilarious. :-) Don't worry, tomorrow I will be back to my usual songs and my music background template! :-) (This template is supposed to be a birthday one, and says "Happy Birthday" on it.)

Have a great day!

Amanda the old :-)