WE'RE DOING IT!!

I feel like the Lord has narrowed down our army, like He did in the Old Testament with the Israelites, so the victory and the glory will be His.
This move is an impossible task for us, but we're so grateful that "all things are possible with God". "We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us" and we're doing it - we're moving little by little. Actually our living room, dining room, spare room and some other rooms are practically empty now. GOD IS GIVING US THE STRENGTH, THE TIME AND THE GRACE. Thank you for all your prayers - they are powerfully at work. We are keeping our eyes on Him and are not overwhelmed. He is so wonderful!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Timber Trail Cottage - before & after

Hey guys, I'm back from the workshop in Md, and it was wonderful. I'm so glad I went, even though we're moving at the end of this week. It was really worth it! I learned so much, but as you guessed it was pretty intense, and that's why you did not hear from me. (So sorry that the pics I tried to send did not post - who knows why? If you do please let me know, will ya?) I'll post more about the Workshop later, but now it's moving time, and we've got to get this show on the road. Please pray for us this week if you can, since we sure have a lot to do to move in by Saturday.
Al worked so very hard while I was away and got all the flooring put down, the plumbing to the new kitchen done, the special effects lighting above and below the cabinets, as well as the bedroom finished. And yes, he did put the kitchen cabinets in himself (with the help of Justin, who works for him, thankfully). Al even made the counter tops himself. It's almost completed now. Things like tiling the back splash could be done after we move in.
I took some pictures to share with you, but I should have put the flash on and did not realize it. The pics came out very dark of the kitchen, because of the light from the windows. In reality it is very light and bright (and open), as the new kitchen cabinets are a natural maple. Also the panel under the overhanging counter where the stools will go are the same maple color, but it came out really light in the photo - well, you'll get the picture =)

These are before (or rather in the midst) and after pics of the dining and living room ( Al even brought in some rugs and a couple pieces of furniture to surprise me when I got back - He did such a great job) The walls are textured and then trowelled over. It really looks good, and feels so bright and open.

Look at the dark panelling on either side. We ended up demolishing and replacing the kitchen, expanding it as well.

This photo really does not do it justice -you'll just have to come and see it yourself

We're really excited about moving here, and love the little cottage. I believe we will enjoy living here until we build, which we plan to do next year.

Dana and some of our grandchildren came over for a visit yesterday, and they played in the stream, and Al with them. It was so peaceful listening to the sound of the water over the rocks, as Dana and I sat outside with them and talked. We're really looking forward to living in Fishing Creek.

Well I've got to run now, but will try to keep you posted.

Workshop in Easton,MD

Hi guys, here I am in Easton, MD, after nearly 3 hrs of driving in the pouring rain, but it was Sunday afternoon and not much traffic compared to the usual on the Baltimore Beltway. I had a great trip, found a good Christian worship station, and sang and worshipped the Lord almost all the way, except for talking to Christian and Sean on the phone.
Before leaving, Al and I went out for brunch after church to the sweetest little place called Hummelstown House. It's a family business and the lady who owns it is a caterer, and only opens to the public on Sundays from 10 to 2pm for brunch. (The phone no. is in the directory, and we highly recommend it. You may need to make reservations though!)
The food was wonderful, and the atmosphere was great. She will also do private parties, dinners etc. We'll certainly be back!
I've got to go prepare for the workshop tomorrow which starts bright and early (for me anyway =), but I wanted to send some pics so my hubby and family could see my accommodations (and of course you, Gillian - I did get your message about posting in the process =).
It is an historic inn in downtown historic Easton, only a block or so away from the Academy of Arts, where we will meet before going out to " plein air" paint (outdoors - come rain or shine, so my car is full of rain gear. I'm asking the Lord for good weather though =)
Hopefully I won't be too wiped out to post more as the week progresses. I'm excited, but sometimes it could be very intense. My friend Donna reminded me that "it's the anointing that breaks the yoke"- as she prayed for a special anointing from the Lord to paint, that the yoke would be broken, and that I would walk with "ease" in all that the Father had for me this week. What a friend!
What a heavenly Father!!!!

Easter Sunday and the EASTER EGG HUNT

Here are some pictures of Easter. (I should have taken a video to really capture it all, the action as well as the sounds!)
Will, Dana,(our daughter) and the five grandchildren were over for dinner (paper plates this year) and our annual Easter egg hunt. (And I don't really need to mention the usual wrestling with Grandad - everybody gets into that, even Megan)
What excitement!! They could hardly eat the meal, asking over and over "Grandmum, W-H-E-N are we going to do the Easter egg hunt???"
We eventually sent them all downstairs into the basement, while the adults hid the eggs upstairs. Since we've been packing and taking things over to be stored at the "new" cottage, it was pretty bare pickings for great hiding places.
Well, apparently the kiddies enjoyed it even more because they did not have to work very hard at all, but instead were in a frenzy running from place to place, grabbing as many as they could and filling their bags. It was short and sweet, over in no time, and I don't think I'm going to find too many leftovers this year =)
At the end Dana asked Tim if it was what he had expected, and what he remembered it to be like, and he said "It was much better". (You never know with them though, what you're going to hear, since they are so honest =)
It was lots of fun, but we missed Christian and his family, and of course Sean as well. How very blessed we are with the family and friends that we have - This is what truly matters in life! We are so grateful to God!



















We had a lovely Easter and hope you did too!
.

Current Art Show & Upcoming Workshop

For those of you who are interested, I have 27 paintings on display (solo) at
Trinity Lutheran Church
2000 Chestnut Street,
Camp Hill, PA

The show will last until the week after Mother's Day, or the middle of May.

Next week, from April 16th -20th I will be at the Easton Art Academy And Museum in Easton, MD for a workshop with a wonderful artist from Colorado, Ralph Oberg.
I am so thankful for a husband who fully supports and encourages me in my art, and to the Lord for the gifts He gives to each of us.

Worship Art

As soon as we got back from CA, I was asked to paint again during the worship segment of both morning services. I agreed to, but then the night before wondered why I did =)
I get quite nervous because of the time constraints and again needed to exercise faith to believe that I could do anything worthwhile in approx. an hour of painting (from start to finish). I believe the Lord wants me to do this, even though I'm not "comfortable" doing it. (Who is comfortable with what God calls them to do? Then I would be able to do it in my own strength!)
I have found that it's only when we step into the Jordan that it parts, or get out of the boat that we walk on the water. So by faith I did it, and of course God was so very faithful as usual.

Me painting during the service.
(Crazy? Maybe - See my explanation in the archives of this blog under "A New Day Dawning" on Jan 4th, my first worship art experience)

"BREAKTHROUGH" Acrylic on canvas 30" x 24"

Here is the painting that I did during the service. Only a few days before, Sean, Al and I hiked up to these falls (Vernal Falls) and wittnessed the great power and majesty of it all.

I called it "Breakthrough", as waterfalls speak of breaking through the hard and difficult places, through the power of God only, at work in our lives. Scripture says that God is the Fountain of living waters (see Jer.2:13, 17:13).

The sermon which followed had to do with stepping out, and letting God's power work in and through us - "Step out and find out" as my friend says =) On Sunday I did!

A VERY HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL! How blessed we are that Jesus died and rose from the grave, "He sacrificed for our sins" Hebrews 27;27 says "Once for all" (no additional sacrifice needed) Praise God!

Our Visit With Sean (CA)

We are so very blessed to have been able to visit Sean in California, after leaving Oklahoma and Christian's sweet family. We only had a couple of days with Sean, but we made the most of them. Sean was able to take the time off work, and had a plan, but was also very sensitive to us.
We spent the entire time together which is what we all wanted. (We even went shopping with him for steaks - nothing but the best, for a barbecue he planned around the pool so we can meet his friends on Sunday). What a blessing!!!!
We left straight from the airport and headed for the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about half an hour from where he lives in Visalia. What an awesome time we had! These pictures were taken in the following days. We first visited Kings Canyon National Park, and we thought we had gone to heaven. Sean kept saying the best is yet to come, and I could not imagine anything more beautiful. Even the drive up to the mountains was exquisitely beautiful since it was probably the best time of year to be there. The wildflowers were out in full bloom (yellows, pinks and purples), as well as the American Red bud trees all over the slopes.
What a feast for the senses!!! Very difficult to describe =) And it got more and more beautiful. We then went to Sequoia National Park, after driving through thousands of acres of National Forest. The temperature was in the 70's down in the valley, but dropped to a very comfortable coolness as we climbed to 7 & 8000 feet. It was a spectacular day, with very little haze so high up, since there's little or no pollution. I wanted to stay and paint almost everything I saw.
The following day we went to Yosemite National Park which was absolutely amazing. (I will label the pictures so you'll know what you are looking at).
You may click on any of the pictures to make them larger so you can get a better feel for the grandeur of it all.

Our first stop in the mountains. Sean held the camera out and took this. I love it!

We were so excited to be there with him!

There was still snow in the parks, but it was rapidly melting in places. They can get hundreds of feet of snow each winter.

This is Al down there, just to give you a feel for the vastness (and perspective). It took him a while to climb down.

You may click on these pics to make it easier to read. (Really amazing!)

Here it is : The General Sherman, the biggest tree on earth - hard to get the right perspective from pictures.

This was taken maybe 35-40 feet away from it's base and it still looks big. It's nearly 40ft in diameter. How amazing is that!

This was a fallen Sequoia tree, certainly not one of the largest, but you can see how large the diameter is compared to Al (His outstretched arms are approx 6 ft.)

Just a small limb that fell off the top of the General Sherman =)

This was a granite dome that we climbed (over 300 steps, at approx. 8000 ft. above sea level)

We actually were standing there, and it was more dangerous even than it looks. I felt really queasy!

I definitely felt a whole lot safer behind the rail. (I took this into the sun, but it was worth it)

What a view, mountain range after range after range after range...............

What an amazing God who created it all for our enjoyment! I wanted to stay there until the sun set. We actually drove down there afterwards, and we had never seen such hairpin turns before.

On the way back down from the dome (The dividing range is in the distance)

I can't believe where Sean got me to stand for this picture. (Even swimming with sharks in Belize, and holding a 7 ft. one in the Atlantic was not as scary =)

This was really steep, but you can't tell in the picture. (Giving our stomachs a break from the hairpin turns down the mountains) You can't see, but there were beautiful big purple wildflowers all over - you can see a little behind Al on the left. Gorgeous scenery!

There is a beautiful river in the valley, and you can see the purple Red bud trees on the slopes, although the sun was going down here, and you can only imagine how much more beautiful it actually was.

VISALIA, where Sean lives. This was taken from the car as we were driving. Sean lives in the valley where this lake is fed by melting snow off the mountains. This raises the level 50 more feet by the summer.

The following pictures were taken the next day in YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK:

(When we arrived, Sean said this reminded him of the worship song "How Great Is Our God", and we all sang it together and worshipped the great Creator of such magnificence.)

Yosemite Upper & Lower Falls (Nearly 2,500 ft high -from this valley floor -over 7000 ft above sea level I believe)
Sean and Al.

We all took a three mile hike to Vernal Falls in the Yosemite Valley, but Sean, who is in great shape, didn't tell us it was uphill all the way - I wasn't thinking I guess =)

Sean took this of Al and me with Vernal Falls in the background. Hard to see with all the spray. It also started to sleet when we got there , and then abruptly stopped. AWESOME!
It was drizzling when we were in the car, and before going on the hike we prayed that God would hold back the rain until we got back from the hike, and He sure did!

As soon as we got back in the car, it poured! (Very unusual for there, and apparently got lots of snow overnight in some places) We had an awesome day together - THANKS LORD!!!

Vernal Falls - I painted this scene (will post pics soon of painting)
Heading back home to Visalia.

It's hard to get the right perspective here! Al put the camera on the ground facing up to get this shot, because the cliffs in the back went straight up for hundreds of feet - incredible!

We miss you Sean, but like you said, if you could have picked where you could live, you could not have done better than what God provided for you. (We know it still is a big adjustment though).

Thanks for an awesome time of blessing. It was so good to be with you. You're in our thoughts and prayers each day. We love you and hope to visit again soon - be great to have the whole family visit together. =)

WE ARE BACK!

Here are a few pictures of our trip to Oklahoma. (I keep forgetting this posts everything in reverse - the first thing last, and the last first . A judgement day reminder maybe? =)
I spent the first week and then Al joined me there, and we went on to visit Sean in Visalia, Ca before coming home. I'll post soon of our visit with Sean. Holly with Addie on the slide (she was amazing, Addie that is - and Holly's a wonderful mother)
Grandad and Grandmom with our two OK granddaughters - how we miss them!

Christian and I having coffee together - What a delight it was!
Storie and her Grandmom - I'm in heaven, can you tell? =)

We are back home after a wonderful time in Oklahoma with Christian, Holly, Addie (2 years old), and our not-so-little 2 month old (13 lb) grandbaby, Astoria Rose, or Storie as everyone says. We 've only been home a little over a week and miss them all already!

It was such a joy being there with them; taking Addie for walks to our "secret place" so Holly could have some quiet time or catch up on some sleep; spending time kissing, holding, feeding, changing, and rocking - or shall I say walking and shaking baby Storie ( she did not like when I sat down with her. I wondered just how she knew, but they always know =)
We really enjoyed the times with Holly and Christian as well when the babies were asleep, and had some great meals together - from Trinidadian cuisine to Holly's amazing dishes (she's a great cook), and wonderful Mexican food on my birthday. The time just flew, and now when I get up in the middle of the night I miss those rendezvous times with Holly and baby Storie.