These Three Remain...

Ok, for those of you who know me at all, you know that it would take something extremely exciting for me to do this-but believe it or not, I did. As I walked back up the driveway after getting our mail the other day, I saw what I had been looking for (for weeks)-a letter from the college I'll be attending in the fall (yes, I've been accepted! :D). It was from the School of Music there. I could hardly wait to get inside. I plopped the mail on the counter as I entered the house and quickly ran my finger under the envelope flap, so excited and expectant I could hardly stand it-my heart was beating a thousand miles an hour. I opened the two pages enclosed and read the first words, "Dear Kristen, Congratulations! I am delighted to inform you...." I had been chosen for the 4-year music scholarship!!! Then I did it; yes, I really did. I danced. :P I jumped up and down, twirled, and danced! :D When I went in to tell my mother, I don't think my smile could have gotten much bigger. :P Praise the Lord!! I now have 3 scholarships to this college, and I am soooo excited! Oh, I can't tell you how excited I am! All I can say is wow, what a "God thing"-indeed it is! Wow-how amazing, incredible, and awesome He is! :D :D
Whew! So that's my big news for the month! (lol) My life has been as busy as usual; I have had several activities to prepare for graduation, including senior pictures and bios for the graduation ceremony (which will be on May 12)...that, AP studying, and piano has been just about all that I've done the past month. ;)
Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately (I consider rainy weather gorgeous, too, by the way :P). Everything is sprouting, turning green, and flowering, including Daddy's garden! :D Yes, he has already had the first of his crop (squash), and his tomatoes, peas, corn, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and peppers are well on their way. In addition, Daddy has a little space for some herbs this year! :) I'll be in charge of that. :D
So, I have less than 2 weeks left before my AP exams and my graduation, after which I should be relatively free! :D Our summer is already being planned, with a wedding (:D guess who's?), a mission trip (to Mexico!), and a conference (in Chicago) decided on so far....I'm looking forward to it all!
Thank you all so much for your comments, notes, and prayers! They mean so much!

Hello again, everyone!
I'm afraid that I am a bit overdue for an update! As Kallie mentioned in a comment a while back, life only seems to get busier-such is the case in my life at present, anyway. :)
In case you all have been wondering about me, well, I believe this picture will speak for itself! :P





I have had to "hit the books", as they say, since January and will probably stay there until May when I will graduate ;). So I apologize for my posts becoming so scarce and inconsistent; it is only a temporary condition, Lord willing, but a very necessary and hopefully a productive one. I am studying for several AP tests ("several" being a slight understatement) from about 10 am to 10 pm most days (with breaks, of course!). The tests will be administered in May, and then I should have a relatively free summer! :D In addition, I am increasing my piano practice time considerably, as I recently auditioned for a scholarship and admission into the college from which I hope (Lord willing!) to get my major in Piano, and at which I am currently taking piano lessons. :D Please keep me in your prayers, as these are very important events that will shape the next 2-4 years of my life, most likely; needless to say, I need and want my Lord in on these decisions! I would really appreciate yours prayers; that the Lord would give us (my parents and me) wisdom and guidance, that we would make the right choices and that I would use my time wisely, etc...thank you all so much for your support and encouraging notes! Please don't hesitate to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail; I may not be able to respond promptly, but they mean a lot! Thanks again for your patience in my so far scarce updates-by the middle of May (at the latest) that will hopefully change. :) Love and blessings!
-Kristen

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him."

Today is my now 7 year-old brother Joshua's birthday! If you all want to leave him a note, I'll be sure to pass it on to him! ;) He'd love it!





FYI: A post is currently in progress as to the reasons for my long absence and irregular posting....sorry it's taking me so long! Thanks for your patience! ;) Many blessings!

Ok, I promised a post regarding our Thanksgiving weekend trip, so here it is! I'll start with trying to explain the place which we visited (not an easy task). :P First of all, it is called Homestead Heritage. Basically, it is a large group of believers (around 800 people) that live as a community and "live off of the land", so to speak. Actually, they live in a manner similar to that of the Amish, I suppose; however, they do not believe that modern appliances and technologies are wrong (in fact, I believe that most of them have modern ovens, stoves, etc.), they just choose to live a "homesteading" life. They grow and mill their own wheat, forge tools, make rope, raise cattle, grow and cook much of their own food, make soap, furniture, pottery, clothing, etc., and sell to each other (and outsiders) so that everyone doesn't have to be skilled in everything. In addition, they have a wonderful music ministry. Their choirs and orchestras are phenomenal! For the special Thanksgiving fair that we went to, they have a large tent set up where they perform several times during the weekend. The other special activities during the fair ranged from special soap-making, pottery, furniture making, and wood-working classes to blacksmithing, rope-making, plowing (with horses), apple-cider making, harnessing, and sheep dog demonstrations. They also had hayrides, as well as a petting zoo area for children (or adults ;) ). And I haven't even mentioned the delicious food that they serve! All whole wheat and "home-grown" (or "home-raised", for the meat :P), too!
Well, I think that I have done about the best that I can in describing the community without going into too much detail. ;) (You can visit their website here; also see this page on their site) Anyway, here are the pictures!

Hello all! I am very sorry that this update is so over-due! I have so much that I'd like to share, and just not enough time to say it all, so I'm going to have to spread it all out a bit....thanks for your patience!
I'll start with yesterday and work my way back. Yesterday was a baking day for me! Yes, I actually had time to bake bread and muffins! You might be wondering how on earth I found time; that would be a very good question, considering that I've been spending about 7 hours a day (5 days a week) working on Physics lately! However, all that time paid off last Friday, when I finished my Physics!!! Yes! I am so excited! I have so much extra time to do the things that had been set aside before, like baking our whole wheat bread! (My daddy is especially glad, as he misses it when we don't keep some in stock!) :D


Let's see....I have been pretty busy with Christmas preparations; I'm hoping to get those finished soon...Our weather has finally started cooling down, praise the Lord! Up until the last week in November we were having temperatures in the 70's and 80's; that would be a bit too warm for Christmas. :P Of course, it had to get down into the 40's just when we're ready to put up the outside lights. ;)
So, that's what has been going on this past week (or two :P ); I'll try to get another update put together soon about our trip that we took on Thanksgiving weekend (with pictures :D)! :)

God is so good! Many blessings!

Praise the Lord for a beautiful day in the 50's-60's (finally!), for chats with close friends, and for......our piano!!!!!! Yes, our grand piano came in today!




I am so excited!! It's a beautiful glossy black, 6' 1" Bohemia grand piano....there is so much difference between this piano and the upright Yamaha that we were playing on :P....no comparison in what you can do with it. I played and played it almost as soon as the movers got it set up (except a short break to let other people try it :P); I love it! Praise the Lord! :D
Love and blessings!

Ok, I'm going to update; I will not get distracted by e-mails, by terribly interesting websites, or by conversations....so here goes! lol
This is going to be what I like to call a "bits and pieces" post. :) Bits and pieces of information I'd like to share, but no one main theme, or any simple way to make them into one, if you want an update before next month! lol :P

• First of all, my sister has been "metaled"(borrowing the words of my friend Kaylene)! Yes, Kara got her braces and a palate expander put on this week!
  
• I know this is extremely belated, but happy birthday to my friend Paige! Hope you had a blessed one!
  
• Our piano is scheduled to come in sometime next week!! (notice I said scheduled)
  
• Our Grandma is coming home next week! She's been in Michigan finishing up some business, but is ready to come home and leave that crazy Michigan weather where it snows in October, right Grandma? :P 75 degrees in November sounds better, doesn't it? lol Love you and can't wait to see you!
• In addition, I'd like to introduce Tralene to the rest of my blogger friends, if I may! :) Tralene (who commented on my last post) is one of my cousins from Michigan, and I'm so glad that she's joined the blogging world! So when is your blog coming up, Tralene? :P

Well, that's about all for my life update right now...I wanted share a little something else with you, too, but I'm out of time for tonight. :) I think that'll have to wait 'til tomorrow or Friday...sorry! Thanks to all of you for your patience! ;) Love and blessings!

Ok, that title is only partially true....I don't think my life will ever be "normal"! :P Of course that depends on your definition of "normal", I suppose. Anyway....We are glad to be back and settling into full-blown school now. I am trying to be finished by the end of this semester, to give me some time to slow down a bit before graduating this May and starting some college classes. So my time has been full of Physics, Spanish, and 15th century history lately! :P I am very much looking forward to getting all of those finished so that I can focus on other things. I am also trying to work up about 7 piano pieces by this May that my teacher and I picked out. There is a special music diploma that you can receive if you meet certain requirements, including learning and memorizing 7 pieces (that also have to meet certain requirements :P). In addition, I took a music theory test this Saturday, which took me about three hours to complete...thankfully it wasn't too difficult, just very time-consuming. :) Speaking of piano...You all have probably been wondering why you haven't seen any pictures of our piano yet. That would be because we never received it. :) I won't try to explain the entire process here, it was too complicated; basically the man we were dealing with was not honest, and we eventually had to drop the sale and get our money back. However, on our way back from Michigan, we stopped by a store in Chicago, from which we ordered another piano that was almost exactly the same! The only difference is that it's a bit smaller; a 6'2 rather than a 7'4. I think that it will fit the room better anyway....assuming that it comes in. :) It is supposed to be here in the next couple of weeks....we'll see! I can assure you that you will know when (and if) the piano comes in!!
Let's see....I think that's about all for this update. I will try to be more consistent in my posts :). Sorry that they've been so sporadic lately!


Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for me and my family. We had a safe drive to and from Michigan, and the funeral went fairly smoothly....Blessings!