Tiffany’s Corner

Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a wonderfully glorious day!

James and I certainly made the most of it. We went to church at CTK and sat with his parents. The service was amazing. The pastor’s message was about “Crossing the Line.”  That is, crossing the line from sinner to saved. Making the choice to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. The whole sermon was basically one long alter call, something I’m sure a lot of people attending today needed to hear. It was really moving. The first half of the service was of course, mostly singing. Then the message. And  the last few minutes of the service involved a lot of people, mostly members of the church, standing up on stage with cardboard signs showing their previous label, like “Had Multiple Abortions” and then they’d flip it over to say “Forgiven and Alive in Christ.” It was totally humbling. I think the one that got me the most was when one of the Associate Pastors stood up with his sign that read, “Drug Dealer 15+ years” and he flipped it over to show “Associate Pastor 12 years.”

Wow. Talk about really getting my attention. Sometimes I feel so self-absorbed. But at this service I just couldn’t believe how wonderfully transformed all of these “sinners” were. You know what I mean? Sometimes I feel like no one would understand what I might be going through at any given moment, letalone that God would understand or care about my struggles. But then to see the people, including Pastor Grant, standing up there, bearing the shame of their past and beaming with joy at how God had changed them. It was amazing.

That’s just it. God is amazing. Afterall, he sent his one and only Son to die for us. And he now He lives again. That’s pretty freakin’ awesome!

Chocolate bunnies and marshmellow peeps aside, I have something else I’d like to share with you.

His name is Jo. That’s short for Jumpin’ Jehosaphat. He’s my new goldfish. He was a gift from my Mother-in-Law, Sue. (Thanks again!!)

He is a orange and white Ryukin and he’s HUGE compared to my other Fancy Tail Guppies. This is why I named him Jumpin’ Jehosaphat

He seems to be fitting in nicely with the other 6-8 guppies. I say 6 to 8 because right now I have 3 males and 3 females (two of which are pregnant) and atleast 2 babies that were born within the last week or so. I wish the babies luck, if they can outswim Jo, then I’m sure they’ll go on to live a long and happy life!

Here are some pictures of the other fishies…

School of Yellow Fancy Tail Guppies

Pregnant yellow guppy

Male Yellow Fancy Tail Guppy

And guess what?! I took the pictures of my fish with my new plum colored Nikon Coolpix S220! It’s a really great little camera that we picked up at Costco earlier this week. If you know me, then you know that I love to take pictures. And I’ve been without a camera for almost a year now. Man, it’s been tough!

Well, I think that’s about it for now. I guess I’ll close with a few more pictures that I took of my 20 gallon aquarium.

Have a marvelous Monday and I promise I’ll be more diligent at posting!!

The tank

Checkin' out his new digs

Swimming, Swimming, Swimming (he's channeling Dori) Jo stretchin' his fins

I know you’ve missed me, so here I am!
I have to apologize, sometimes I just get to busy with life, or too lazy to get on here and post a blog. I’d like to share a few pics with you from a hike we went on a few weekends ago. It was a little wet out, but that’s the best when you go hiking in Washington, right?!

We visited a trail just a few miles from my parent’s house in Darrington/Arlington. The trail was 1.25 miles each way, pretty easy with a few hills. The trail takes you past Boulder Falls, you don’t get to see that waterfall, it’s somewhere below the trail (you can here it!), but you do get to see this beautiful one. We sat on a little bench and ate our sandwiches admiring this lovely scene.

 And finally, here’s a pic of James and I at the base of the falls returning to our car. This was a pretty short hike, we had plans to meet up with the rest of my family to celebrate my sister’s husband’s Bday. Happy Bday Ben!

After visiting with the family at Britt’s cabin, we ventured outside to play with the dogs and throw the frisbee.

After wearing out the dogs, Brittany discovered a little baby duckling all alone in the grass. We just had to pick it up and pet it real quick before returning it to it’s very angry momma!

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Okay, I’d like to try something new here. I know, from watching the traffic on my website, that business has been slowly increasing over the past few months. Yay! I’d really like the chance to get to know some of the people reading my little rants and looking at my pictures. Please, take a moment and leave me a comment. If there’s something you wish I would talk about, please tell me. But most importantly, before you leave please answer these two questions:

1. What is the worst smell in the world to wake up to?

2. What is the funniest commercial on TV right now?

As some of you may know from reading my preceding blog, I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert this past weekend. At the concert SCC talked about how much he loved his family, especially his 6 kids, 3 biological, 3 adopted from China.

Well just this morning the entire Christian community was informed of a terrible tragedy. Maria Chapman, the youngest (just 5 years old) of the Chapman clan was killed in a horrible accident at the family’s home. One of SCC’s sons, only 17, accidently backed over the young girl in the driveway. To make matters even more horrific, the family was gathered together at this same time to celebrate the eldest daughter’s engagement and the 17 year old’s graduation from High School.

I can’t even begin to imagine what their family is going through. For such a strong Christian family, I see this as a very powerful test of their faith and commitment. My heart aches for all of them.

If you’d like to visit the website that, at this point has been dedicated to the memory of Maria, just click on the link below.

http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/

Take care and God Bless.

So I got to visit with my friend B. on MSN today. Haven’t talked to her in quite awhile and it got me thinking. Time goes by so quickly, there are so many things going on with work and married life and church and getting back to school and well, I’m sure you get my point.

I keep saying to myself, “I should really call this person,” or “I wonder how so-n-so is doing?” You never really know just how much time you have to spend with someone.

I work in a Dr.’s office. Sometimes it’s hard not to feel like I am surrounded with death and disease. It can happen gradually over time or it can happen in the blink of an eye. And then what? No one plans for these things.

I’m not trying to be depressing. In fact, I’m happier right now that I’ve been in a long time. Maybe it’s because I just got married, maybe it’s because my parents have a litter of puppies that can never get too much attention, maybe it’s because everyday at work I am reminded of how precious life is. (Man that was a quite a run-on sentence!) Who knows and who cares. All I’m saying is hold your loved ones close and cherish every minute with them. Don’t forget about your family and always keep in touch with your friends, whether they’re 10 minutes or 10,000 miles away.

As for me, I’ve got a letter (yes, an old fashioned snail-mail kind of letter) to write to B and get in the mail. Gotta practice what I preach!

Take care and thanks for reading my silly little blog!