Moving Day

I have moved my blog!!! You can find future Green Eyed View posts at:

www.greeneyedview.wordpress.com

So, change all your links and bookmarks and head on over to my new space on the World Wide Web. Hope to see you there!! :)

Stained Glass

This year, I got the bright idea to make a few of my gifts to a) satisfy my creative, crafty side that has been neglected for some time, and b) make my small Christmas gift budget go a bit farther. I decided to create a few mosaic items for a few select friends and family. I have not had much experience with mosaics. I think I have made one in my life, and that was a mosaic tile I made at Different Strokes last year. All the materials were placed in front of me, and all I had to do was glue the tiles to a square ceramic tile. A first grader could do it [and probably better than mine turned out..]. But doing a mosaic from start to finish...well, I was heading into a new frontier, where no green eyed gal....uh...named Sarah Jean Hodges....who has a dog named Jasper.....has gone before.

Anyway, I had collected my plethora of supplies way back in November. I think I spent over an hour at Hobby Lobby deliberating and stressing over what supplies I was going to need. I had planned on spending the next month between Thanksgiving and Christmas creating beautiful masterpieces my loved ones would 'ooo' and 'ahh' in amazement over once completed in plenty of time for Christmas. Well, it is the 18th of December, and to be vulnerable and honest, ......I really only began tonight. Let's just say that a couple of my original recipients of Beautiful Mosaic Items By Sarah will now be receiving gifts bought, with great thought and care, from some store and will only be Gift Wrapped By Sarah. However, if I start in January, perhaps those few wonderful people will get their Sarah creations next year for Christmas....

Even starting tonight, I believed I would be able to do a couple of the mosaics. So I got everything I would need moved to the garage and set up on the small folding table I bought at Lowe's specifically for this crafting experience. I had 3 panes of colored glass, a mosaic kit that has all the basic tools and supplies to begin mosaic-ing [including beautiful Italian glass tiles], safety goggles, craft glue, my various items that I want to mosaic [glass candle holders and wooden trays], and a small space heater, which is absolutely essential for crafting in my chilly garage. And that is where things began to turn quite Unfortunate for this Green-Eyed Gal.

There is one bricked step that leads from my house into the garage. I was heading back into the house from the garage for one last item, when I found myself tripping on my house slippers and falling on the step. My right house slipper slipped off my foot, and my right foot, where my big toe meets the ball of my foot, made contact with the corner of above-mentioned brick step. Oh, the pain. Oh, oh the pain. I managed to limp to the bathroom, where I grabbed a Kleenex, then over to the couch to survey the damage, the whole time trying not to cry. I whined for a while holding the tissue to my throbbing injury.

WARNING: ICKY DETAILS TO FOLLOW IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!!

Upon examining my wound, it looked as though it wasn't too bad in the "bleeding profusely" area, so I got up to hobble upstairs to the bathroom for a band-aid. Well, it turns out it was bleeding more profusely than I first assessed. I left a trail of blood drops from the kitchen the first few steps of the stairs. Great. That is just perfect. Now I have to get blood out of the carpet. I try to wrap my now bloody tissue around my foot the best I can and go BACK to the downstairs bathroom for more tissue so I can wrap it some more and try again to go upstairs. At this point I think I am crying a little. Once upstairs I grab the bottle of peroxide, a washcloth, and a hand held mirror, and sit down on the floor to clean the wound. The hand held mirror allowed me to actually get a good look at the wound, just in case you were wondering....

Did you know that not only does peroxide bubble amazingly when it comes into contact with blood, but it also gets really, really warm?? Well, it does. As I was pouring peroxide on my foot and catching the excess with the rag, the rag started getting very warm and foamy. It was kind of cool. Anyway.....I clean my foot, it keeps bleeding a lot, but I ointment it up and slap a band-aid on it. Enough already with the foot! I've got a masterpiece to create!

The art of mosaic takes way too much time when a) one has no experience whatsoever with said art, b) the artist is a perfectionist, and c) the item said artist is attempting to mosaic is curved. The item mentioned is a votive candle holder. The curvature of a votive candle holder is not conducive to keeping broken pieces of glass from slipping once glue is applied and they are stuck to the solid glass of curved candle holder. I kept having to nudge pieces back in place and hold the glass at an angle while blowing on the pieces to hurry the drying process along. I finally stuck to one section and held the glass still until that section dried. I tell you, watching glue dry is even less exciting than watching paint dry. Finally, it was 8:45 and I needed to call it quits for the night.

All in all, I have the rim and 1/2 of one section of a 3 inch high votive candle holder covered in glass. Whoopee. I have that one to finish, 7 more candle holders to apply bits of broken glass to, and all of them to grout. I also have a hurt foot, and I think there are tiny shards of glass in my hands. I am off to a good start. Only 7 days until Christmas. At this rate, I should be done by Groundhog's day, and need to buy stock in bandaids and triple antibiotic ointment.

Until next time......

Glowing Warmth

Today I experienced my first fire in the fireplace at The Palace [aka Jamie's and my apartment]. We've never had a fire, and we've lived there almost a year. In fact, there was a half burned log in the fireplace when we moved in. That logged got burned today. We probably would still have not had a fire if my wonderful boyfriend hadn't decided that he was going to build us a nice toasty fire for us when he came over for breakfast this morning. Thanks David! He worked a good while and managed to build a really nice homey fire. It was nice sitting by the fire, drinking hot tea. I hope this is the first of many cozy fires this fall/winter! It sure was a good day for it. It is chilly out!

Easy as Apple ____

I am in a place of complete and total happiness.....

I made my first apple pie of 2006.

I love, LOVE, L.O.V.E. making apple pies. I think it is the highest form of cooking therapy for me. I don't know what it is....if its the smells, the fun of rolling out my own pie crust from scratch, or the challenge of creating the perfect lattice top, but I find so much happiness in making apple pie. It relaxes me and makes me feel just all peachy and peaceful. And very "Susy Homemaker", haha!

Tonight's pie, which has 30 minutes baking time left, was extra fun for me. I have not made an apple pie in I think over a year. :( It completely slipped my mind last year. Also, I got to bring out my all-time favorite kitchen gadget: my apple peeler/corer/slicer.

OH! The awesomeness of this particular gadget is indescribable! This little gadget peels, cores, and slices at the turn of a handle. I had completely forgotten that my apple peeler/corer/slicer was a peeler/corer/slicer. I thought it only peeled and cored. So, you can imagine my excited surprise when I discovered that it was slicing my apples into beautifully thin slices, perfect for apple pie. It made my pie making experience so much the more joyful. :)

This particular pie is for my co-workers. We had BAGS of leftover apples from an event last week, so I told them I would take some home and make one for work tomorrow. One of my co-workers is going to bring CINNAMON ICE CREAM as a delicious addition to the pie. YUM!!! :)

I have plans on making one more apple pie in the next few days, and hopefully will get the chance to make a few more this Fall.

Apple Pie! Apple Pie!

heehee!

Summertime....and the Living's Easy.... SUMMER 2006: An Index

As Fall has "officially" arrived on the calendar, I thought it appropriate to give a little summary of my exciting, blog post-less summer.

OK....so this whole "index" thing is taken from ole Rosco, but imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? And besides, how else am I supposed to get a whole summer's worth of happenings into one post? Exactly..... So...let us begin:

number of birthdays celebrated: 1

number of car accidents I was in: 1

the result of above mentioned car accident: one completely totaled car, 2 very unhurt drivers

the two finest words in the English Language after car accident: Total Coverage

amount of time I was "without" a car until a replacement was found: 5 days

first thought of replacement car: incomparibly better in so many ways than the old one. It is a complete and total blessing from God

person responsible for finding this gem of a car: Dave

what the insurance check covered: the entire cost of the new car, plus the cost of the ticket received in accident [yeah, my fault]. almost to the penny!

color of new amazing, wonderful, blessing of a car: purple...no...grey... no blue....uh......depends on who you talk to ;)

number of trips taken to Silver Dollar City: 1

number of fanny packs seen while sitting in front of SDC for 45 minutes waiting for the rest of our group to arrive: we lost count at 78

# of times my hair was colored this summer: 6

time span in which hair was colored above mentioned number of times: 2 weeks

amount of time I let go by before going to my stylist after the 'unfortunate hair coloring experience' so she wouldn't find out my faux pas: 2 1/2 months

number of seconds it took her to notice what I had done: .000003

number of weddings attended: 2

number of wedding anniversary celebrations attended: 1

number of baby showers: 2

number of funerals: 1

number of summer movies watched on the big screen: 3

best movie I saw on the big screen this summer: Superman Returns

number of ticks that attached themselves to my body in the Unfortunate Seed Tick Incident: 147

what number I lost count at when trying to count the red dots left behind by above mentioned seed ticks: 65

number of walks or hikes taken in the woods this summer: 2, one at the beginning, one at the end

how many weekends my roommate was out of town, causing me to spend my weekends home alone: all but 3

number of times I got "anxious" over being home alone: 4

cause of two of those 4 anxious times: watching a scary movie before bed

what I did to "protect myself" while I slept when all alone: wedged a giant framed Monet print underneath the doorknob of my bedroom door.

number of awesome conversations had and wonderful memories made: countless!

Ok....so I am sure a lot more went on, but I am running out of creative things....

And now.....ON TO FALL!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Blood Sucking Monsters

Yesterday I went on a very lovely walk in the woods with Dave. It was awesome. The woods are on a nice piece of land owned by his sister and brother-in-law. It was a perfect evening for a walk. The temperature was just right, and the air had just the right amount of crispness in it. I took several deep breaths along the way to savor the woodsy, fall scents. We saw a few deer and found ourselves whispering for quite a bit a time after that. The sounds and silence of the woods were too natural and sacred to ruin with our human chatter. Afterwards we sat on his tailgate in the adjacent meadow and talked as the afternoon faded to dusk and dusk faded to that wonderful "gloaming" and it became too dark and chilly to enjoy [as much].

While we were sitting, I had noticed I started to itch quite a bit. I figured it was because I had gotten chilled, which caused the prickly hair on my not-so-fresh-shaven legs to stand at attention and irritate my skin as they rubbed against my jeans. When we returned to his house, I was still itching, so I decided a trip to the powder room was necessary in order to investigate. I looked at my legs, and they did not look normal. I looked either very freckled, or like I had a bad case of razor burn. On closer inspection, I discovered the tiny brown dots all over my legs [and I mean ALL OVER] were TICKS. And not only were they ticks, they were SEED TICKS, itty bitty blood sucking creatures the size of one of these: [.]. That's right. The size of a period at the end of a sentence. And that is true to scale. These vile blood sucking parasites had already bedded down for the night and were feasting on Sang de Sarah. What was most interesting was how my whole body began to itch once I learned I had seed ticks on my legs. Of course, I did begin to find a few on my arms that gave me evidence that I might in fact have them all over.

So my evening ended with a shower in an attempt to scrub off the offending blood suckers. Scrubbing did not work, so I ended up having to scratch them off a few at a time in the shower, and take a second look over everything after to pick off what I missed. My roommate Jamie was a trooper and thoroughly checked my back and removed a few from there. The only place left unchecked is my head. There is NO WAY I would be able to find them in my hair. I can only hope I scrub them off as I wash my hair.

Seed ticks and all, it was a great evening, and one I won't soon forget [or ever forget for that matter]. When I woke up this morning, I found myself chuckling at how funny the Unfortunate Seed Tick Incident, as it will now be called, truly was. Memories were made, and I really like that! :) Of course, the next time Dave and I go for a jaunt in the woods, the DEET will be accompanying us!

Just Breathe

Still breathing! Just thought I'd check in..... :)

To The Faithful

Its been a long time.... I really didn't intend for this much time to go by. But a week faded into a month, and then a month or two went by. I bet there are some out there who don't even bother to come here anymore to see if I've updated, because they have given up on me ever returning, believing I have let this Green Eyed View fall into the shadows of blogging past.

So this post is dedicated to the faithful few who still come to view my View in hopes that maybe one of these days I will come out of blogging retirement. Thank you for your faithfulness. My hat goes off to you [if I actually wore a hat, that is...].

Its a late night for me. I can't sleep. So you will have to excuse my random thoughts. I thought I'd share a few:

Sometimes I wish life was scripted. I think I would find conversations much easier if I knew what my next line was was going to be, and could have advance notice of the direction the other person[s]'s lines were going to take. I don't deny that I feel very inadequate in regards to verbal communication. I don't feel like I am a good communicator. I feel awkward. I don't know how to respond sometimes. I don't have time to think my thoughts through before I am expected to respond. My thoughts come out of my mouth jumbled. I feel like I am stumbling and stuttering over every sentence. My sentences don't come out of my mouth the way that I thought them in my head. And so on. However, I must say, with recent practice and help, I think I am getting a tad bit better. Much thanks to my helper/ teacher. Thanks for enjoying talking, and for being so good at it.

Does life ever slow down?? I mean, seriously! For the past, oh I don't know, 2 or so years now, I keep thinking, "Oh when this happens, things will slow down", or "When I get past this [season, event, holiday, project, set period of time, etc.], life will get simplier and ease up a bit", or "Maybe when I hit this age, it will all get much slower and I will have time to do this, this, and this". But, none of these things ever happen. When I thought that when the fall was over things would slow down, then winter came and things were busy again. The same thing happened with spring, then this summer, and now fall is almost back around and I think it will be just as busy, just in a different way. Its always busy in a different way. There is always another "season", always another "event", always another..."another". There are things that I so want to focus on, that I feel I can't focus on, until "life slows down". But I am realizing its probably not going to, so when can I focus? Ok, so I am getting a little dramatic here [big surprise]. Prehaps I am not as busy as I think; maybe its just time management that I need to work on. That wouldn't be a surprise.

Why is it that insomnia hits me at the most inopportune times? Its always when I feel like I need sleep the most, haha. I know I will be very tired tomorrow. I will not want to get out of bed. My morning schedule will be cut short as I try to pare it down to "what absolutely needs to be done in order to get ready, and not a thing more". My morning routine will suffer, and I will suffer from cutting down my morning routine. There is a chance I will have a case of the grumpies in the morning. Even now, I know I am tired. My eyes are feeling heavy, and my body is aching for rest. But as soon as the light officially goes out, my mind starts running a marathon of thoughts. It. Won't. Shut. Down. It has to rehash much of the day, every detail of my evening with mi novio [which was quite delightful, I might add... :)], play through a few "daydream" stories which will probably involve a combination of car chases, secret agents, missionaries, secret Portuguese Royalty and/or abductions [I have an extremely overactive imagination...], and go through a few to-do list and calendaring items that I have on my docket for the next week or so. I will toss and turn and pray for sleep [beg God for it]. This has all happened before. It used to be a "once in a blue moon" event. Not so much anymore. I feel like my insomnia is getting more frequent. This will be the second or third time in a 2 week period, I believe. I think I need to change my daytime schedule and routine in order to make sleep more possible at night. Maybe....eat better? Drink more water? Exercise regularly? I don't know..... Those are things I want to do. I have no clue if they will help my sleep pattern. Just thoughts. Random, muddled thoughts coming from a mind that is up past 12 am......

Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice! Today is the longest day of the year (meaning the most sunshine we will have all year long). Also, today just happens to be this Green Eyed Gal's Birthday.

Yes, Thursday, June 21, 1979, at 6:18pm I made my grand entrance into this world, after my mom's horribly long labor of......18 minutes. I kid you not. The woman was in labor for 18 whole minutes. She can't really complain there. Daddy said it was a good thing we were already at the hospital [they induced], or I would have been born at home or in the car. I weighed....a lot, and was short, fat, beat-up looking, with jaundice. Yep, a pretty baby I was NOT. I'd post a picture if I had one, but unfortunately they are still in physical form and have never been scanned for digital use. I was named Sarah Jean after.....well....the Bible Sarah....I guess....and Jean after my Granny, who's middle name is Jean as well [but she goes by her middle name]. Sarah is Hebrew for "Princess" [yes, yes I am, thank you very much ;) ], and Jean is Celtic/Gaelic and means "God is Gracious".

So, there's a little information into my birth. And... that's all I really have to say! Its been a fun journey. I can't believe I've been alive this long. Time seems to go faster and faster the older I get. God has been and is still so amazing and good to me. I am blessed beyond anything I could ask for or imagine.

Daddy

Its Father's Day, and I wanted to dedicated this post to my daddy. I have been asked to speak at church tonight about my dad, which has my nerves all worked up b/c I just do NOT like being up in front of people. For any reason. Anyway, I have been working this morning typing up what I want to say about daddy, and I wanted to post it here in its entirety:

In honor of Father’s Day, I want to tell you all about my dad, the most incredible man I know. I don’t think I will be able to fully do him justice and fully describe to you how neat he is, but I hope to do my best.

My dad, whom I still call and probably will always call “daddy” more than I do dad, is in my opinion the best dad a girl could have.

I am the youngest in my family, and am the only girl, having one older brother, so I am probably your stereotypical Daddy’s Girl. I admit it. I am a daddy’s girl. I have successfully mastered the pout in my years on this earth as my daddy’s daughter, and am pretty sure that from the time I was born my dad has been securely wrapped around my little finger. One of my favorite father daughter activities growing up was sitting in my dad’s lap. I used to do all the time. And, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I still to this day, still occasionally sit in his lap. There are just certain times I need my daddy to hold me. And, he told me once I have permission to do it until I am 40, so I need to do it while I can.

My dad was always the better discipline giver in our house. I was an extremely strong willed child. I know some of you who know me might find that hard to believe, but trust me. I was strong willed. And I needed that strong will to be in a way, broken. My dad successfully did that, I think. He was always so calm about punishment. He told me about his one time when I was really small where I had done something that was deserving of a spanking. I don’t remember this at all, but he said when he had finished, I immediately screamed, “I hate you daddy!” So, he had to punish me again. And, I said it again. I am not sure how long this went back and forth. My dad told me that he remember thinking, “She is going to win. I cannot keep beating this child.” I am not sure what he did exactly in the end. I am so thankful for his loving discipline. I know that I needed it. And it made me develop a healthy fear of my dad.

A lot of my friends were a little scared of my dad. They saw him as this quiet, serious, guy who was super spiritual and incredibly intimidating. But I see him differently. I think my dad is hilarious. He is weird in his humor sometimes, but humorous all the same. He has a weird, dry sense of humor and thinks the strangest things are funny sometimes.

On a more serious side, my daddy is the most Godly, God fearing, wise spiritual man I have ever known. He has led our family and brought us up to fear and know God.
One thing that will always stick in my mind when I think about my dad’s relationship with God is his prayer chair. In my parents house, the house I pretty much grew up in, my dad has a chair in the living room that is referred to as his prayer chair. That is where he sits when he reads, studies, prays, or listens to worship music. I can remember countless times coming home and finding my dad sitting in his chair, headphones on, arms raised, worshipping God with tears streaming down his face, or stretched out on his face in the floor. I remember times when I was sat in the prayer chair so my parents could pray over me. It’s a part of my dad.

He is passionate about worship and what it means to truly worship God. He is passionate about personal holiness and living a life that is holy and pleasing to God. He will talk your ear off about Missions and especially missions to India, which is where his heart is. He has gone on and led several short term mission trips to India for about 6 or 7 years now, and is involved in a ministry over there. He is a missionary, and his calling is for short term missions and motivating other to get involved in missions. He gets so emotional sometimes when he speaks of God, and what God is doing. It’s amazing.

I think that God has used my dad, my earthly father, to give me a picture of Himself, my heavenly father. My dad is not perfect, and is human and sins, and makes mistakes, so the picture isn’t perfect, but it is a glimpse, and a picture nonetheless. I know my dad loves me. I have never doubted that. I know he will always love me. He is proud of me and excited about what God has done and is doing in my life. He couldn’t love me more or less. I love my dad. I respect him, I fear him. I want to be like him in so many ways.

My heavenly father loves me. He loves me unconditionally. He can’t love me any more or less. I fear God. I want to be like Christ, and God works in my life and disciplines me and refines me to make me more like Him. He is delighted with me and rejoices over me with singing. I know that is b/c of Christ in me. And it is Christ in my dad that has made him the father and man of God that he is today. I hope that by honoring my earthly father today, that I honor and glorify my heavenly father.

I know there a lot of people out there who don’t have the kind of earthly dad that I have been undeservingly blessed with. I wish with all my heart that it could be so, but its not, not on this earth. But regardless of how your earthly father may be, my prayer is that you can truly know and understand that God is your father. Your heavenly father is good. He never changes. He is not passive. He is never absent. He will not walk out on you or ever leave you. He will never harm you, or manipulate you. He is just. He disciplines when we need it, but with love. He loves us unconditionally.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy. I love you.

I'm Here

Yes, I am here. Sorry I've not posted anything in a while. I am planning on posting about Oaxaca.

More to come.....

Oh....Mexico!

Well, I am Mexico bound. I leave tomorrow night for Tulsa, and then fly out EARLY Saturday morning for Oaxaca, Mexico. I will be part of a mission team of 20 people from my church, The Grove. I am very, very excited. Our team will be doing a medical clinic, construction work, and other ministy opportunities. I will be part of the team going into the mountains, which is where the medical clinic will be. I am not sure how exactly I will be serving, but I am so ready to serve the Mixteco and minister however God wants me to. I want to be His hands and feet, and be used by Him. It is going to be a GREAT trip, and the team is made up of GREAT people. Be praying for us. I will be gone all next week, so don't expect to hear from me until later. I hope to have many an exciting tale to share. I am preparing for an AWESOME ADVENTURE, and want to be ready for anything and everything God has in store!

Mom

Its mother's day, so I want to dedicate this post to honor my mom. I know this won't do her justice, but I am going to try....

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mom. She is my best friend, my confidant, my teacher, my prayer warrior, my devil's advocate [;) heehee], my sounding board, my level head, my momma. She is also an INCREDIBLE cook. Yum, yum.

I am so proud of her. She has made some awesome and healthy lifestyle changes in recent months and has been working hard at keeping it up.

She has been a good example to me of what a godly, Christian wife and mother should be. Like all of us, she isn't perfect, but that is ok. I still hope that one day I can be half as good a mother as she is. She is beautiful both inside and out.

Mom, if you still read my blog ;), I love you. Thank you for being my mom, for putting up with me during my strong willed childhood and especially those horrible teenage years [sorry for that, by the way...:P]. Thanks for loving me and disciplining me and loving me while you disciplined me, haha. Oh, and thanks for listening and then setting me straight when I start to overanalyze everything to death.

Thanks for being the example you have been, and for always pointing me towards Christ.

Oh, and please don't be mad at me for posting the picture... you look beautiful....

The Little Cinder Boy

I came home yesterday evening to this:















Jasper stuck his nose where it DEFINITELY did not belong. The Palace has a fireplace. Jamie and I have never used this fireplace, but it has old ash and soot from a previous tenant. Not a lot, mind you, just enough to show that the fireplace has indeed been used in the past. Anyway, Jasper decided to investigate said fireplace, getting soot and ash all over the "hearth" area, his face [as pictured above], the carpet, and THE COUCH. Mad does not describe how I felt. I was beyond grumpy. I wanted to cry. I couldn't punish him. The deed had been done, and he probably wouldn't know why he was in trouble. He didn't know he had a mask of black on his face. I can tell you, he didn't get any attention. I don't remember even talking to him for a while after I got home. I may have, but I don't remember....

Anyway, a little while later, I changed my clothes and tackled the mess in the living room. Part one complete. Part two was cleaning Jasper. Jasper does not enjoy bath time. He especially does not enjoy having his face washed. Well, too bad for Jasper. I think he thought he was going to suffocate or drown or both. I had to put his face under the faucet to wet him down, then really went to town scrubbing his eyes, nose, mouth, and chin. I thought I was pretty nice to him--I used his tearless puppy formula shampoo. I do not think Jasper would have agreed....

After the whole ordeal, I was mentally and physically fatigued. I went to bed shortly after eight, not even worrying about doing my normal bedtime routine. I did not even wash my face. I was beyond caring. Those of you who really know me know how big a deal that is. For those of you who don't know: I N.E.V.E.R. go to bed without first washing my face. And yes, I used the "N" word. I do NOT go to bed without first washing off my make-up. I am pretty rigid about my skin care routine. Even if I am not wearing make-up, I must wash my face. But I did last night. WOW. First time ever. I'll probably pay for it...

I slept a good 10 hours. It. Felt. Great.