Crazy for CARS

This past weekend we took Will to see his first movie in the theater. Cars 2! He was so excited and could not stop talking about. :) We got there and I thought he would be really overwhelmed by the large screen, but he wasn't. He just sat there like he did this sort of thing all the time. We watched a ton of previews and after every single one he kept asking when we were going to see cars. He giggled at stuff because others were, not necessarily because he understood what was going on all the time. :) He was so stinkin cute!! Although after a couple snacks he was kind of antsy and kept switching seats to sit on my lap or Thad's lap, and stood up to dance and move around a few times. But he did great! I didn't expect him to sit through the whole thing. Cars 2 was good, he recognized some of the characters from the first movie and enjoyed the racing scenes, but for the most part there was way too much of an action storyline for Will to follow with this sequel. I think I like the cuteness of Cars 1 better, and there is a lot less violence in the first one. But we had a lot of fun, and the last couple of weeks have seemed to be filled with activities Cars related.

cars+stickers+crayons=awesome race track!

...with some extra supplies around the house a made a few fun magnets to surprise Will

A man in Des Moines who restores old cars made a real life replica of Tow Mater. So my Dad took Will to see it. He was able to climb on the back too!

(My brother with Will)

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Easter with the Coulsons

Celebrating Easter this year we joined my sister Kristin, Josh and Hunter for a couple days of fun and hanging out, going to church, and to the park, and grilling out. We talked a lot, laughed a lot, and really enjoyed being around each other. For those of you who may not know, they are soon moving to Sydney, Australia long term to further the Gospel of Christ!! Wahoo! I am super excited for them and the people down under and for all the experiences ahead. I am also mourning the time that I will miss with them. So who other than the Coulsons would I want to celebrate this holiday with. :) If you would like to check out their journey or if you are maybe interested in helping support them (for they still have some funding to complete before they can go), you can check out my sister's blog here.

Will adores his cousin Hunter. Although I only could get his attention for a couple pictures, Hunter on the other hand LOVES the camera. You can check out the rest of the pictures of our weekend here...oh and one more of the boys.... I am realizing that it is rare that I actually make it in a picture as I am the one behind the camera. oh well. :)

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter Weekend!!

P.S. I went to Good Friday service at my Dad's church and watched a short film called "Most." Have you heard of it? Definitely check it out if you get a chance. Amazing Love.

a good way to start the day...

"All my Fountains" by Chris Tomlin is one of my new favorites! It has such a happy tune I can't help but smile a lot and dance around. A perfect way to start the day!! The acoustics are amazing too! :)

You can also listen to it here.

Have a splendid weekend!!

Meteor Shower

This is one of my new favorite songs. Meteor Shower by Owl City. This is a video of them live in Chicago a couple months ago. (No I was not there...I wish.) It is short and simple, but the lyrics are so powerful!! Enjoy. :)

With Everything

Below is a video of the song Will and I have been listening to every time we are in the car. He head bangs usually while eating a snack and I am singing really loud. (probably off key, but who cares.) Hillsong United is my very favorite band and I am blown away by their vocals, instrumentals, lyrics, and the way everything is for God's glory! And they can really jam. Saying "Jam" was kind of 90's of me :)...anyways, I won't blab anymore. Just make sure you pay attention to the beautiful lyrics that are in subtitles. Enjoy the video! HooRoo!

Albertine

Albertine by Brooke Fraser

I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
her mothers voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent
And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine
there in her eyes what I don't see with my own
rwanda

now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let go till you are

I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Rwanda

I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine

I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me
I will tell them, Albertine
I will tell them, Albertine

In 1994 there was a mass killing in Rwanda. Almost a million people were killed in the hands of their neighbors and friends with in only a short 100 days. There have since been decades of tension and fighting between the two ethnic groups- the Hutus and the Tutsis. Brooke Fraser, the artist and singer of this song, went to visit Rwanda in 2005. She helped out in the local churches, schools, memorials, etc. With in her stay she met people from child-headed households, communities living with AIDS, and many people facing life with no medical care or basics like clean water. She met many people who were joyous and many people who were in a lot of pain. Brooke's friend wanted her to meet a young orphan whose personal history he was familiar with. Through out the whole trip he introduced Brooke as a a musician from the other side of the world who was going to go back and tell everyone about the people of Rwanda and help. Just before introducing Brooke to the orphan girl he told her..."You must go back to your people and you must write a song, and I will tell you what the name of the song is going to be." He motioned Brooke toward the girl. "This is Albertine."

"Albertine is alive today because of the selfless, sacrificial love of another. Funny thing is, so am I. And now I want to know what it's like to love other people like that, so have decided to spend my whole life on the experiment. Feel free to join me. We might just change the world." -Brooke Fraser

This song has been on my mind a lot lately. I am blown away by it's beauty! I hope you are too. You can listen to it by clicking on #2 of my playlist in my sidebar.

Also check out the interview Part 1 and 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84RVRy0jFT4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efi8mxIrcec&feature=related

Enjoy.

...and we are back!

Well, we have been back for a few days now, but we have been getting settled and ran into some fridge problems...yes, when we got home our kitchen smelled like EWW! Our fridge broke when we were gone for a week and all our food was rotten when we got home!! EWW! So unfortunately we had to throw all our food away and thanks to our landlord we got a new one! It looks pretty much the same as the old one, but its always fun to get a new appliance, and then I got to organize all our new food in our new fridge! yay! yes... I am kind of a dork, but I love doing stuff like that. :)...anyways, besides our fridge troubles we had a wonderful vacation!

We started our trip in Des Moines spending some time with each family. We got to see some old friends, and I also had a booth at the art market downtown. There was so much going on downtown that weekend, so we thought that could be either be good or bad for the art market and unfortunately it was not very busy. In fact there were times when no one was there at all! But the good thing was that the people that came were buying stuff, so I was able to make a little money, but not as much if it were busy. I met lots of local artist and exchanged cards with them. My mom came out and helped and it was a good time. Here is a picture of what my booth looked like...I might be doing the art market again in august and september so stay posted for info on that in the next couple of months.

After spending 6 wonderful days in Des Moines we headed down to Kansas City to visit my grandparents who have been looking forward to seeing us ever since we said we were coming; planning our meals (that's what italians do best.) My sister and her husband Josh met us down there, so it was so nice to see them as well. She has the cutest little pregnant belly! I miss you sis! We ate lots of good food and had good conversation...and Will actually started eating whole cheerios! The first time he got excited to eat any sort of food!...one after another he kept wanting more. It was so cute to watch. :)...but he wants nothing to do with any other foods. We are just taking it slow.

For the 3rd and 4th of July Thad, Will, and I headed over to St. Louis on our way home back up the river. They are hosting the All-Star baseball game next weekend so there was so much going on downtown St. Louis. We had a blast walking around and just watching all the people. We went to a free Counting Crows concert under the Gateway Arch, shopped at "the loop" and had fresh root beer at Fitz's on the 3rd. The next morning (4th) we took Will swimming for the first time in our hotel pool. It was freezing!!!...so I don't think he really liked it very much. We will take him sometime this next week again. Then we visited the St. Louis Zoo and toured the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. We had lots of fun but we were super tired on the way home that night. We missed the fireworks, but we saw lots of small town fireworks on our drive back to the Quad Cities. So all in all we had a great trip!...but it is always nice to get home. Click here to see our pictures from St. Louis...and yes I got excited with almost all the animals we saw at the zoo and took too many pictures so i only included a few. They do not look as neat in the pictures. Hope you all had a wonderful forth of July as well. :)

Strings

The Business of Being Born

Thad and I anxiously waited to see the documentary," The Business of Being Born." Renting is only available on Netflix right now and in late spring will be available in video stores. But since we have recently decided to have a homebirth we were interested to check it out. So we signed up for one month of netflix, which was only $4.95. It was way worth it, for we did not want to wait a couple of months. We loved it! I tryed to post a YouTube trailor on my blog, but I could not figure it out. So, is all you have to do is click here to see the trailor.

"Natural childbirth is the focus of this documentary by filmmaker Abby Epstein and executive producer Ricki Lake. Much debated issues concerning at-home verses hospital births and controversies of the childbirth industry are explored through intimate footage of several mothers--including Lake--and their birthing experiences." -Rotton Tomatoes

I feel this documentary was not at all one-sided, but addresses many issues that we all need to be aware of. I hope you enjoy.

Yearn

Yearn
by Shane Barnard

holy design

this place in time

that i might seek and find my God

my God

Lord i want to yearn for You

i want to burn with passion

over You and only You

Lord i want to yearn

Your joy is mine

yet why am i fine

with all my singing and bringing grain

in light of Him

oh You give life and breath

through Him You give all things

in Him we live and move

that's why i sing

acts 17:25-28, hebrews 12:28-29

I got the chance to see Shane and Shane live last Thursday night. I have been listening to their music for years, even back to when it was just Shane Bernard, and each time I hear them live it just blows me away!! They sound so beautiful, they are so passionate for who they are singing for...Jesus! This is one of my favorite songs they sing. After the concert I went home and looked up the lyrics. I can sing a song so many times, but with out tunes I hear it very differently. I like to use this song as a daily prayer. Asking God's guidence to seek Him, to burn with a passion for Him, and to praise Him for the reason that He is who He is. :)

Across the Universe

Last weekend I had the chance to watch "Across the Universe," a film by Julie Taymor who also directed one of my favorite movies,"Frida." Across the Universe is a musical based on 33 of the Beatles songs. I was a little hesitant at first because it seems pretty daring for someone to re-record these ledgendary songs. I thought it would be as bad as a sequal is to an original...but I was wrong! It was so eye popping! Each scene was paired with a Beatles song that defined that era of anti-war, struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration, and rock 'n' roll. It seemed sort of warhol-esque. It moved from realistic to very surrealistic. I guess whimsical would be a good way to describe this. I usually am not a big fan of surreal musicals, but with this one I can not get enough of it. I am normally not much of a film critic, but more of an art critic. This is so artistic I think that is why I have so much to say about it.

One of my favorite parts, I guess you could call the climax of the movie, was Jude's artwork with rows of bleeding strawberries that turns into a hallucination of strawberry bombs being thrown into Southeast Asia. Symbolism: at the same time shows Max and the other soldiers in war. Also another good part with super creative choreography was the "I Want You!" with Uncle Sam while Max gets recruited into the army. So much fun to watch, it had to have taken forever to perfect that.

The music and vocals were fantsastic. I watched the special features and they expressed that all the vocals were captured live on set rather than pre-recorded and lip-synced.(did I spell that right?) :) Well anyways...I hope you all get a chance to see this movie. I did not live in the 60's, but the history and overall impression seemed very accurate.

Favorites of 2007

Well, the year is coming to an end and the other day I took some time to reflect back on all the good times and things I discovered through out 2007. It has been a great year. Thad and I had our 1st wedding anniversary on June 10th, our first nephew was born (Tate; he is soo cute!), Thad started school at Palmer College of Chiropractic in October, my sister Kristin and best friend Liz got engaged to be married this spring/summer 2008, we got to visit our good friends Kali and Andy in Denver, CO exploring the Rockies, vacationing in Wisconsin and Minnesota this summer with family, I had my first couple of art shows in the Quad cities, and we have met so many great couples and friends through Heritage Wesleyan Church enjoying small groups and other crazy fun-ness. :)

God has blessed us so much in the past year, looking back on it helps me to recognize those blessings I didn't even know existed. Even the little things daily that make you smile. :) Here is a list (in no particular order) of some of my favorite things I discovered this year...

Reusable Bags and produce bags from Reusablebags.com

Saves plastic and makes it easier to carry groceries over the shoulder. These string bags hold up to 40 lbs. Now I don't have loads of extra plastic bags cluttering under the counter. Makes me smile.:)










Klean Kanteen
...helps my water to taste so good and klean.:) 27 oz. is perfect for traveling and
taking to work...another good one(Thad's favorite)...SIGG.

Scoop of peanut butter

---my new favorite snack...yummy!

Homemade Pesto
...we like to mix in with whole wheat noodles or to spread over pizza crust...homemade pesto pizza, yum! I think its a new favorite! Here is the recipe:

1/4 c. olive oil
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
2 c. firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 c.grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and quartered
1/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
(I also like to add a little lemon juice for flavor)

In food processor or blender, mix all ingredients and toss with noodles. You can keep it in the fridge up to 2 days and freeze up to 3 months. Enjoy!

Dr. Bronners...

...like I have talked about before in a previous post, its an all-purpose mild soap that has so many uses! Everyone should have this in their household. Peppermint is my favorite.

TAZO and YOGI tea...yummy! I like the white tea with blueberry and cranberry flavors.

so good....so good.:)

Pomogranate over my salad...It's so juicy I don't even need any dressing!

David Crowder Band new CD "Remedy"...love it...love it.:)

Ikea plant pots

...they make me smile; I enjoy having plants in my kitchen and bathroom to absorb moisture so it doesn't feel so stagnant. They have such a clean and simple design.

Organic blue agave

....perfect for sweetening my oatmeal; so I don't use any sugar.










Cricut!

---I just got this for Christmas from my mom. It cuts out tons of different images on paper for scrapbooking and card making. By tons of images I mean tons! There are so many cartridges you can buy with different fonts, shapes, characters, sayings, etc. I am having fun exploring and creating.:)

Have a Happy New Year!!