June 25, 2009

Owls Nest Sunset

This was a really pretty sunset that I happened to catch in time from our second story window!

 

Sunset 1  Sunset 2

Hawaii

 

These are pictures from my recent trip to Hawaii.  I have more posted on my Facebook Profile.

The beach in Maui  Rocks inside the Crator in Hilo  Mountain side on the way back to Honolulu  The pier in Kauai    The Beach in Kauai    Crab anyone?

June 10, 2009

Purple and white Irises

These are some Irises that are growing in the front of our house.  I took some pictures this morning after it rained a little bit. 

Iris1  Iris2  Iris3  Iris4  Iris5 Iris6  Iris7

May 25, 2009

A Sad Departure…. a joyful friendship

Tonight I went over to a going away party for some good friends of my church and my family.  Desmond and Andrea Glenn are moving from lovely Winona to St Cloud… and this week is their last here in Winona.  Desmond has been an awesome youth leader at CBC this past year and has really been a lot of fun.  He is an amazing man of God.  I’m going to miss both of them!  So here are some pictures I took while there :)

Gladdy playing beanbag :)  The big man himself!  Playing polo...  Greg... enthrones on his lawn chair :P  This is actually a screem of happiness... this kido was super happy!  Clothes pins  Toes and shoes....  Craig, My brother, Desmond...  Goldenfur and Sparkle... two of my little sisters best friends :)

A dandelion, a Lilac and a bridge….

A dandelion...  A lilac...  and a bridge...

May 7, 2009

Suffocation

Ever since I was a kid I have had this fear of dying from suffocation.   The thought of not being able to breath gives me the chills!  Breathing feels so good and obviously without it our body is in agony to get a breath.  I used to have breath holding contests with my brothers when I was little.  I remember holding it for a long time and feeling the burning of my lungs and how good that first breath after felt!   My body immediately relaxed and that inner agony for the much needed oxygen departed. 

Today I was thinking about how when we live our lives without God we are suffocating spiritually.   Much like our lungs hunger for breath, our heart also hungers for something that will satisfy the deep agony within it.  Our hearts needs Jesus!  They need the life that He breathes into them and our souls need the purpose and meaning He brings.  Living with out Jesus suffocates our heart.  Even when we are living as Christians we can suffer from suffocation.  When we pollute our heart and mind with things that destroy… like swearing, anger, and selfishness, our hearts get clogged.  When that happens we too suffocate.  When that hunger for the life that Jesus brings to our heart is ignored, it slowly dies and we are left weakened by the lack of life.

Suffocating throughout life is not good; we need every breath we can get!  In Hebrews life is described as a race that we are running.  Every runner knows that if they can’t breathe, they can’t run or if their breathing is constricted it slows them done or causes them pain.   When we find ourselves thirsting for that breath of life, we need to take a look at our hearts, our minds, what we are letting ourselves be apart of and figure out what it is that is suffocating us.  It’s no joke!  This isn’t something we should play with. Don’t think that as long as you get a breath once in a while you’ll be good.  Our hearts need this continuous breath of life that Jesus alone brings!  And in the end if we aren’t filled with that breath, that saving grace that He brings, then we will spend eternity with out him.  Don’t take the risk in thinking you can get away with “holding your breath” because you don’t know when you’ll need it.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” - Romans 8:11

What is holding us back from completely breathing in the life of God’s Holy Spirit?  What is it that distracts us or pulls us away?  I want to challenge you as well as myself too look at the way we live,  how we talk,  how we control your emotions,  how we show kindness to others.  We really need to make sure that there is nothing that is holding us back from that breath.  When we feel good at the moment, that agony is still building up. We can’t put that aside for long, so don’t be fooled into thinking that you’re fine.  Take a good look around you and make sure you are getting rid of everything, not just the little things.  Take that breath!  God longs for us to breath in the fresh and eternal life that HE brings to us.  He loves us!  We need to be strong and courageous and get rid of what ever it is that is hindering us from that breath and over come that agony of suffocating!

“I am the way, the truth AND the life.  No one comes to the father except through Me!” - John 14:6 

April 21, 2009

Some Flower Photos from Germany!

Spring Time!  Spring Time! 2  Spring Time! 3  Spring Time! 4  Spring Time! 5  Spring Time! 6  Spring Time! 7  Caught in the Rain! 7

April 13, 2009

More Crete Pictures

Here are some more Crete pictures and some from Santorini!

 

Crete 1 - The sunrise I actually woke up early to see.... It started out as a red sliver and turned into this....  Crete 2 - and then into this!  Crete 3 - This is the boat we took to Santorini!  Crete 4 - This is the spray from the back of the boat... it went 42 knots... which is like 55 miles per hour.  Crete 4 - This is Santorini!  Crete 5 - This is the cable car that we road down the mountain!  Crete 7 - The cable car going up as we are going down!  Crete 8 - Waiting at the bottom for every one so we can ride the donkeys back up!  Crete 9 - This is the line of donkeys that were all waiting to take people up!  Crete 10 - Carrie riding her donkey up the hill with my Uncle Dennie in the lead. Crete 11 - Emily riding her donkey up the hill.  Crete 12 - My donkey "lightening", he was fast and fit my style and kept steady for the most part so I could take pictures :)  Crete 13 - Me passing Dennie... notice that I was on the ground taking a picture of him way ahead earlier and now I'm ahead...my donkey was fast!  Crete 14 - Megan, Dennie and Carrie riding up the hill!  Mrs. Cook (Holly) and Laura riding up the hill!  Crete 16 - A quick shot over the edge as I rode by...  Crete 17 - No your not taking it right, it's on manual focus, it  Crete 17 - There good shot... oh wait you can't see the dome... let's take another one!  Crete 18 - a great shot! Thanks Holly!  Crete 19 - Picture from the bus on the way to the port.  Those circle things on the ground or vines!  Crete 20 - The cutest puppy ever that I saw at the port under a bench this guy was sitting on.  Crete 21 - Waiting for the boat and playing slapping games.  Crete 22 - This is  a cute little German kid that was the son of two people we got to know at the hotel... his name was Fin and he w as super fun!  Crete 23 - This was taken at the beach we skipped rocks at by Mr. Smith who held onto my camera.... and this is expression is... "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WASTING MY BATTERY!!!!!"  Crete 24 - This is a rock... as you can very well see :)  Crete 25 - The closest thing to a Sunset that I ever saw!  Crete 26 - The shattered windshield!  Crete 27 - The pottery shop!  Crete 28 - The runway before take off...  Crete 29 - Taking off...  Crete 30 - Flying over some snowy mountains.... kind of weird to see after being in sunny Crete, but I guess I saw snowy mountains there too!  Crete 31 - About to land...  Crete 32 - Safe landing and getting off... MR. Jackson, Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Smith, Zack...   Crete 33 - Getting off the plane... Zack, Carrie, Mrs. Smith, Laura, Ana and Aunt Debby  My aunt Debby, Emily, Uncle Dennie and Olivia 

Yey for a very good trip to Crete and a safe airplane ride back to Germany!  I had a really good time and definitely want to go back someday! I’ll be posting more pictures when I can, but this is it until I get home tomorrow! :D

Crete pictures

Here are some of the pictures I took in Crete.  The trip was an amazing adevnture that included not having a working battery charger I made it 6 days on one battery and took over 600 pictures…. talk about a miracle!!  So here are some of the ones I got and I will post more as soon as I can :)

 

Crete 1 - The bay that our hotel was in.  Crete 2 - A view from the main hotel building of the beach!  Crete 3 - Down on the beach checking it all out.  These are the beach chairs!  Crete 4 - This is the room we stayed in. I'm standing in the "living room" where there were two beds and then there was the kitchen and a "master bedroom" where my grandpa was walking from.  And a bathroom to the right of my Grandpa.  And a deck behind me! :)  Crete 5 - This is the view from the deck outside of our room. That's the swimming pool below that I swam in 10 minutes after this shot!  Crete 6 - Ten minutes later! :)  Crete 6 - The second sunrise I saw in Crete... it was really beautiful!  Crete 8 - The beautiful sunrise  Crete 9 - The girls and Kyle (Olivia, My cousin Emily, My cousin Ana, Laura, Kyle (behind her) and Carrie  Crete 10 - These are the ruins we went and saw  Crete 11 - Pillars and part of a painting at the ruin  Crete 12 - Half of Delany, Kyle, Carrie, and Laura  Crete 13 - Best friends Carrie, Laura and Ana at the ruins  Crete 12 - A random dog at the ruin that was just lying there.  Crete 13 - Prettpy purple flowers at the restaraunt we at at Monday  Crete 14 - This is fried squid, and it was good, but kind of chewy.  It was definitely not my favorite food there.  Crete 14 - A stranded boat on the beach we went to after lunch.   Crete 15 - The Beach  Crete 15 - Delany tip toeing in the ocean :)  Crete 18 - An orange stand where we got oranges for Emily!  Crete 19 - On our way home... that is the bay in the distance.  Crete 2- - Kyle over looking the work Laura and I did on the castle of vines.  Crete 21 - The bay our hotel was in. Our hotel is the building to the left, but we stayed in a seperate building that further down the road....kind of in the middle of the picture and to the left  Crete 22 - My Gyro... Mmmm :)  Crete 23 - This is a picture of the valley from a mountain vantage point on our way to the southside!  Crete 24 - Another picture of the valley!  Crete 25 - The valley and the beach we went to below!  Crete 26 - This was really cool.... the waves would crash into this little hole and then spray back out.  Crete 27 - Sunset in crete :)  Crete 27 - The girls sand castle...  Crete 28 - Zack and I's castle :)  Crete 29 - and another picture of our amazing fortress!

April 3, 2009

More pictures of the Alps!

Here are the rest… well I have more, but I’ll post more when I get home! Enjoy!

The Alps (5) - Day 16  The Alps (6) this reminds me of Lord of the Rings! - Day 16  This is the ski station taken from the ski lift - Day 16  The Alps (7) - Day 16  The Alps (8) - Day 16  The Alps (9) - Day 16  The Alps, with my favorite peak in the background.  - Day 16  The Alps (10) I think this was taken on the way up to the very top station - Day 16  The Alps (11) - Day 16  The Alps (*12) - Day 16  The Alps (13) - Day 16  The Alps (17) , Taken from the way top! - Day 16  The Alps (17) - Day 16  This was the marker for the very top,  I thought that was cool - Day 16  A river that we passed on the way back from skiing - Day 16  The creek - Day 16  Here I am again!  - Day 16  So some random lady walked up to me as I was standing next to the creek and asked me if I wanted my picture taken, but she was lithoanian so I didn't understand her and it sounded like German... it was kind of awkward when I appologized for not understanding German... so she took my picture and then I took a picture with her camera of her... it was cool!-  Day 16