My Constant Lesson

You show me the path of life. In your PRESENCE there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forever more. Psalm 16:11

If there is one thing I know for truth in this world it would be that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and when I am seeking Him my life is a grand adventure....when I am wrapped up in myself and not making time for Him it is one dreary task after another.

Daily tasks are the devil's greatest weapon, they preoccupy my time, even when I am doing one I am thinking about the next one. When I finally sit down for some quiet time with God all I can think about is what I haven't accomplished that day. This invasion of the mind starts small. I can be firmly rooted in God and nothing bothers me then before I know it I have let my guard down just a little (that is all it takes.....just a smidgen) and I hear one little whisper, then another, then another and then before you know it I am engaging in a time wasting conversation with myself and I am weighed down with burdens (usually self imposed). This is the tricky part...how long do I carry these burdens?

Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation. Psalm 68:19

That is just it.....I don't have to carry the burden or burdens, I have a Saviour who will carry it for me, it is my choice to hold on to those burdens. How do I overcome such a curse?

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus in the above passage reveals to me that I need to rest in Him. I seem to go around the same mountain over and over but my hiking boots are wearing out and I am in need of a spiritual alignment. I will stop and find rest in my true love for He gave His all that I might have life....not a puny life but a life more abundant.

Seattle Adventure

One of the perks of my husband traveling is that he builds up points for free plane tickets, another perk is that when he goes some place fun I get to join him by using those free tickets!!!! The weekend of October 10th I got to go to Seattle, WA to spend some one on one time with my honey (he had to work part of the time so I got a little me time...that was nice!!!)

What a Happy Fella....I seem to really like birds.
I had lots of pictures of them....who knew???

Donnie has been to Washington State several times and absolutely loves it. The Donner is one of those people that could live anywhere and be happy, he doesn't have attachments........that was until he went to Washington State......it happens to be is one of those places that he would like to move to......ummmmm that is a LONG ways from IOWA!!!! I will have to admit I can understand his infatuation, the scenery is beautiful and the people are beautiful (very friendly and laid back) just the way we like it.

Downtown Seattle

don't be looking for the Space Needle I didn't take any pictures of it

I am not a very good tourist

A little vertical action for your viewing pleasure

By the farmers market there is a park that has this view....Wow!!

I left MCI (Kansas City) on Thursday morning at 6:45 a.m. (I know....very early) and arrived at SEA (Seattle/Tacoma) at 9:30...first thing I did was get me some coffee....I was in the land of the highly caffeinated......when in Rome!!! The Donner picked me up we got some breakfast at Jack-in-the-Box (only the best for the Donner's woman) and then met Mike (The Donner's co-worker) and went to where they were going to be giving their training. Once we had established where they were going to set up Mike thought I needed to see Downtown so he dropped me off at the original Starbuck's (it is located at the Pike's Peak Farmer's Market) and left me to fend for my self among the bohemians. I must say I have never seen so many dreadlocks (now saying that, you would have thought I would have taken a picture of them.....wrong) it had a very artsy feel and I loved it. There were stands that had big bunches of flowers for $5 and all kinds of yummy looking fruits and veggies (I wish I would have had a kitchen), booth after booth of jewelry, t-shirts, and any kind of craft you could think of but my favorite ones were the fish marketers. The fish stand workers were putting on a show selling their wares in the most vocal ways...singing, yelling and giving each other a hard time....the energy in the whole market was so exciting.

Pikes Peak Farmer's Market...not quite like my hometowns that is for sure



Still the farmer's market...they had this lush foliage on over the city

The Fish Marketers

Hello little crabs, you look yummy

Park view of the Farmer's Market

One of my favorite things to do is to peruse through antique shops and boy did I have a lot to choose from. I strolled through a book store while I was there picked up a book and a journal.....I needed something for documentation of that great weekend, I was so jacked up on coffee I wasn't going to remember with out help.....that being said I ran through Starbucks....again (yeah I was bouncing off of the walls) then headed to a park by the ocean and jotted down a few thoughts and read my book as I sipped a Pumpkin Spice Latte (I love fall....you get to enjoy yummy things like Pumpkin Spice Lattes!!!) while I waited for the Donner to come and get me.

The Original Starbucks

The inside of the original Starbuck's

Some functional park art

What I call a perfect day

Friday I had the day to myself and Mike told me of this lovely little town north of Seattle (thank God we had a GPS in the car) called Snohomish (Sno-ho-mish now run it together.....Snohomish....very good!!!) and it was a Junk shopping girls dream!!!! There is shop after shop of exciting things to look at.....Antiques, home decor, wine, CHOCOLATE!!! It was very quaint and everyone was so friendly, in fact I met some people whose daughter is living in Fairfield, IA (that is about 30 min east of Ottumwa...my hometown). What a small world!!!! Snohomish is just the kind of town I would like to move to; small, quaint and colorful. After a great day of adventure I met the Donner at the hotel (by the ocean.....I was living the high life I tell ya) and we walked up the hill to have the best seafood dinner I have ever had.....I am ruined for ever having fish in the Midwest.......even the Donner liked it and he doesn't care for fish.

Downtown Snohomish

could you see me walking down the streets?

The River walk in Snohomish

I had to have a picture of the giant chicken

Sign by the hotel showing the Puget Sound

Our hotel was in Mukilteo right on the water

What a pretty name for a place to rest our heads

The scrumptious restaurant Arnie's

We got to sit by the sign

You have to love a restaurant that has a giant metal crab on the side of it

Seared Ahi......ahhhh YUMMY!!!

This was my first experience with raw fish...it was a good one!!

The best Salmon I have ever eaten

Donnie thought I was nuts because I was taking pictures of my food

after 3 glasses of wine I needed documentation that is wasn't a dream!!

Key Lime Pie...........not only was the food tasty it was pretty

What a view of the Puget Sound

The ferry docked right by our hotel

I had to have a picture of the mossy rocks

Saturday I got to sleep in and boy was it great....I had a morning of cable, a good book and cat napping.....I was in heaven. The Donner worked until noon and then we hoped in the car on a grand adventure. We headed east via the Northern Pass (Snoqualmie pass) and drove to Yakima, WA and the changes in the terrain were amazing...we saw everything from lush greenery and mountains to desert valleys (what an amazing country we live in....it can change in a matter of miles). We stopped at the Yakima Visitor Center and visited with the lovely ladies manning the place, loaded up on chocolate covered cherries, maps and brochures then headed for the Southern Pass (Chinook Pass) and that is where I fell in love (I am a mountain girl) with Mt. Rainier. It was so beautiful covered in snow with clouds looming around it as it stood there in all its glory....I told Donnie over and over that I was done taking scenic pictures then we would go around a bend and I would scream "STOP" I need a picture of that (I wish we would have had Donnie's camera mine did NOT do the things I saw justice). After 6hrs in the car oooohhhing and aaahhhhhing we made it to a hotel where we spent the night then got up the next day puttered around Seattle then headed home.

The valley east of the Snoqualmie Pass (don't you love these names??)







Striking a pose in front of the valley view....what is up with my hair???

I was glad I had the wrap, it got colder as our trip progressed

West of Yakima.........first of many stops to adore nature

Something about running water.....ahhhhh

This picture does not do this view justice

More running water......aaahhhhhhh

What a handsome fella...he is all mine

That is the road we were on....

yeah it was a little scary but nothing compared to where we were going

This is a hill compared to our next bend in the road

Mt. Rainier.....that is beautiful!

Look at the SNOW.........I LOVE SNOW!!!!!

The silhouettes of the trees make me giddy they are so pretty

That my friends is some majestic beauty!

Thank you Jesus!!!

What a great time we had enjoying the beauty that our glorious God created and reconnecting as a couple. Life has a way of taking those most precious things and making you forget how important they are by filling your time with duties and obligations. I discovered that I need to make trips like that mandatory, an obligation to what is really important in life.

The Kitchen

I am so fickle!!!!


I have decided that it is time to change the kitchen again....it has been 5yrs and that is about the time limit on my decorating time line. I love colors....all colors...I do not discriminate. Red is my favorite color whether it be bright red, orange red, purple red, dark red and every other RED in between. Tomato Red was the color of our kitchen when we lived in Warrenton and Summer Pudding (RED) is what our current kitchen color.



The Donner lets me make the majority of the decorating decisions and goes along with my ideas (he hates when I have "IDEAS" that means more work for him and goodness, I have lots of "IDEAS"). There are those times when he has gone rogue and made some major changes while I was away from the house. For instance the first day we took possession of our house (keep in mind our movers were lost in a snow storm somewhere in Indiana so we had nothing with us....I know it doesn't make sense we moved from the St. Louis area to Kansas City....its all good) I went to get some food and came back to my new home all excited to have our first meal in our first home together and the Donner decided he didn't like a wall so he had proceeded to take an iron bar used for horseshoes too it and tore it down. Then there is the day that I went to buy handles for the kitchen cabinets and he decided that he didn't like one of the walls in the living room so he started to tear it down (do you see a pattern here?). Oh we don't want to forget the weekend I went to Iowa to have a Girl's Weekend and I came home to orange gold walls in the living room....the list goes on. Most of the The Donner's projects are happy surprises but on occasion I have to call the girls and say it is time for another weekend before I ring The Donner's neck!!! Now to his merit the living room paint has grown on me, it has all come together and The Donner is a perfectionist (that is why I am not allowed to paint anything in the house) so it looks good when he is done doing his thing.....really it his timing that I have the biggest problem with.


I can't tell you exactly when I got it into my brain that is was time for a change, it could be because every time I pass paint samples I go into a trance and start picking every color chip I can find (my purse can have up to 20 paint colors at any given time.....lets not even talk about fabric, that is a post in its self!!!). Have I mentioned that I love colors......ALL COLORS??




I am the Queen of antiquing things......give me a new piece of wood and I will make it look like it is 100yrs old (OK maybe 50). It all started with the bead board that my husband installed on our back room, we were just going to paint it a light color and be done (maybe this is where my neurosis comes into play). I couldn't handle the plain painted bead board.......BORING......so that is when I took the sander to it (much to my husband's chagrin) after I was finished doing my "work" on it, there was a big sigh of relief from The Donner and that was like giving me permission to continue on in my quest to antique the world. I did not stop in the back room I moved to the kitchen with the greatest of ease, sander in hand, I took to the cabinets with a new found passion...then there was the trim......the back splash......oh don't forget the outlet covers (I couldn't stop!!!!!). But like all good things it had to come to an end, The Donner unplugged me and locked up the sander (I WILL have you again my little sander!!!!).


Look at all of the pretty COLORS!!!!

I really like the yellows and the taupes..........right now anyway

Countertop Choices

I think this is what I have decided on, the straw color will go on the walls, the white color the ceiling, the brown will be added to the cabinet doors and red trim in the back room but I will antique that finish (I am coming for you my little sander!!!) and the red will be a countertop finish...it will not be plain red The Donner has some great ideas for that, it is an epoxy coating and you can throw specs in it to give it some pizazz!!!

What do you think Henny????