Pictures...

make a blog so much more interesting. At least I think so. Unless you are a really good writer. But since I'm not, I'm going to update in pictures!
This is the backyard, hooray for flowers! We're getting grass planted on Monday!

This is the menu from the Father/Daughter banquet. Mr. Brown makes amazing food (just in case you didn't know:) I had salmon, asparagus and this really great but impossible to spell kind of potato. Then my dad and I both got Chocolate Mousse for desert, yum yum! It was kind of sad getting ready for the banquet without Stacey. But I called her when I got home. (The dress is actually hers:)
This at Stacey's house with her totally cool new grill. She makes really good pork chops!

Hobbs!! He doesn't like having his picture taken, but I managed to get his face in this one :) This is Caleb's 18th birthday. I sent him searching in 18 places for his present but he cheated and only looked in 10. Oh well.....I stuck a clown on his cake! And this is from Mother's Day! It's a brownie torte and I was happy with the way it turned out. I was going to put up a picture of the table, but I didn't get a good one.
Then there was Caleb's graduation. He looks so......grown up and handsome:) It's hard to believe he's done with high school. Congratulations Caleb!
All the sibs! I was going to put up a picture of Candace that was snapped at a random moment...but...I like her, so I didn't :) I think it's cute, but she might not :)

Carrie had a movie night on Thursday so I made Apple Hermits. We watched Horton Hears a Who and I thought it was good:) I don't remember the book that well so I didn't know if it's much like it or not. From what I do remember it was though.We had lots of stawberries left over from the graduation and I am enjoying them very much!
Now, here is my new friend who decided to build a nest right outside my window! It's so much fun to watch!
Here she is waiting...staying with her little blue eggs through wind and rain.

Aha! And here they are! One, two, no, three little baby birds! Both parents! Now I have something interesting to watch as I sit by my window doing school!
But I am done with school. Except now I'm doing some summer school to get caught up in geometry, writing, and Spanish. It's much easier though! I'm also doing my last year of swim team and hopefully getting a job!

Well, that's about it.....I'm talking to Josh so I better go, have a great week everybody!

Memories of a Bunny....

I remember when we first got Pepper and I said he was so soft I couldn't feel him.

I remember when Muffin would get in Pepper's cage with him lay next to him making them look like a big bundle of black and white fur.

I remember the feel of his soft little paws.

I remember getting upset with him for trying to eat all the newspaper or anything else lying around (such as Mom's shoelaces).

I remember the little "thump" of Pepper's back legs when he was scared.

I remember sitting on the cold basement floor stroking his fuzzy little nose and talking to him.

I remember Pepper's cute little (wet) sneezes.

I remember bringing him outside every once in a while on the red leash (and, yes Stacey, accidentally letting him go once; I almost had a heart attack).

I remember that Pepper's favorite treat was apples, but he also liked broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.

I remember him being right on my heels, begging to get petted all the time when I brought him upstairs.

I remember when Pepper belonged to Stacey and being so excited when she left and I "had" to take care of him, and then getting him for my own when she moved.

I remember going from being so scared to pick him up to loving to cuddle him in my arms.

I remember holding Pepper and petting him on his last night as he took his last breath.

I remember telling him as he died that I'd remember him every time I ate an apple or peeled a carrot.

I don't remember a time when we didn't have Pepper....and....

I will never forget Pepper and all these wonderful memories of him.

More About ECHO!

Well it's time to tell you all about ECHO (with pictures)!

So we left on the 17th (Tuesday) and drove to Selma where we spent the night. We had people from four different states on our team and not very many people knew each other very well (or at all) so the first day was a little awkward. But it turned out to be a great team, I liked this trip much better than my first.






Then we arrived at ECHO Wednesday night, ate dinner, and then went to the house where we stayed.

On Thursday we started our routine; getting up a little before six, driving to ECHO and having our time with the Lord. Then Mr.Hanson and/or others would do devotions or talk about what they read that morning, we would eat breakfast and then the interns would come over and one of them would lead devotions and then we all would sing a few psalms. but on Thursday, instead of handing out jobs right away, we took a tour of the farm, and then we were given our jobs.

We would have a one and a half hour break for lunch and then we would get our afternoon jobs, then we'd stop between 4:30 and 5 to go take showers. We girls got to take our showers at the A-frame this year, it was so nice!

ECHO has 3 big sales a year and we got to be there on Saturday to help with "Super Saturday", it was really fun! Some people directed traffic and some people moved customers plants for them.

(This is four out of about 10 interns; Phebe, Debbie[who is from New Zealand],Heidi, and Rachael.)
They were also selling iced coffee from Ethiopia which was really good, and they gave us all the leftovers!

After we cleaned up from the sale we went to the beach and made sandcastles and did other beachy things:) Then we all went back to ECHO for showers, but we had to wait for the laundry to get done before we could leave, so Heather came over and drove a bunch of us all over ECHO in the dark, it was so fun!!

(My favorite picture of Julia:)

On Sunday morning we went to the Trinity church, heard a wonderful sermon, and had lunch with the congregation. I also followed the treasure map Caleb gave me to behind the church microwave where I found a marshmallows and stars cereal box packed with candy which he had left for me from the first trip!! Isn't he so sweet?! After the evening church service we all went to this family's house with 12 kids for ice cream.

Earlier in the week I had called Josh and jokingly told him to fly down to ECHO, well, it all worked out and he did!!!!! Mr. Hanson, Julia, Laura, and I all drove to the airport Sunday night at 10p.m., but then found out that his flight was delayed until 2a.m. So Mr. Hanson drove us girls back and dropped us off, then drove back at 2 and waited until 3a.m. when Joshua's flight really ended up coming in! Thank you Mr. Hanson!!

From Monday through Friday we did our normal work routine with lots of different jobs and then did different things in the evenings. My favorite job was filling pot holes with Beth Carson and Barry, or maybe it was planting peanuts with Julia, I don't know, I liked them both! I also worked with Heather a lot and she was really fun (she gave us ice cream)!

This is Jason, my favorite intern to work with, he is so funny!

This is Laura at the Shell Factory:)

We went to the beach again Wednesday, which was incredibly fun!

Thursday night we went to Danny's house for dinner, he grilled huge sausages. We took a tour of his farm and had tons of fun hanging out!

Josh and the corn snake he found:)

We went to Wal-Mart twice and Samuel bought a watermelon there.

The wonderful Fish family!

We left for home Saturday morning, stayed in Selma on Sunday, left at 2a.m. Monday morning and got home at about noon.

Well, there's so much more I could say, but that will have to do. It was a really great trip. If you want to hear more I'll tell you all about it:)

Exodus 14:13-14
"And Moses said to the people,'fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you and you have only to be silent.' "

ECHO

I'm just trying to see if this works, before when I've tried to post pictures it never worked, so here goes. This is the whole team minus Josh, by the way.

ECHO

Hey everybody, I'm at ECHO now!! Having so much fun! Today I filled pot holes with Beth Carson from Pennsylvania. More later, see you all!