I. Bought. A. Car.

A 2000, Audi Quattro.

The Lord worked out this amazing car in ways ONLY HE could have made possible.

I never thought my first car would be this amazing.
Ok Lydia, now we really do need to take that road trip!

"The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless the work of your hands." ~ Deuteronomy 28:12

"Bless the Lord O my soul, and forget not His benefits." ~ Psalm 103:2

Oh Yes.

I got it.
After passing the test with a score of 90, I'm a licensed driver!

She'll Never Do It....

"She's too wimpy. She's a wuss. She'll chicken out. No way. When pigs fly"....

These are only a few of the brilliant attributes given to me by my wonderful family when I told them I was considering having my ears pierced.

But I must have a bit of a stubborn streak in me.

So today, when we were in Bellingham, I bravely marched up to the jewelry counter in Walmart, and told the lady I wanted my ears pierced.

She cheerfully mosied over behind the counter and had me pick my earrings. I plopped myself down on the low stool (it was low, but my feet still didn't touch the ground. sheesh.) and resigned myself to my self-brought -on fate. "Oh come on," I said to myself, "you probably won't even feel it."

The lady took her own sweet time filling out the paperwork, and I confidently scribbled my John Hancock on the dotted line, and resumed my seat. After much ado about making sure the dots were even, she placed the thingamajigger up against my ear, and after an eon or so expired she asked,

" Ready?"

"Yes." I squeaked, looking at the four piercing in her left ear.

BANG!

At least that's what it sounded like to me when she finally squeezed the trigger.

Me: blink, blink, gulp.

" Well now, that wasn't so bad. In fact, it really doesn't hurt much."

Nice Lady with the gun: "Oh good, that's what they all say! Ready for the next one?"

Me: Bring it on.

BANG!

Oh bad, that hurt. I mean really hurt. Come on Em, suck it up, bite the bullet...

Nice Lady: "Ok?"

Me: "Umm, actually, that one hurt alot more."

Nice Lady: "Oh, that's what they all say."

I didn't think I wanted to know what else "they all" had to say after that second one, and I'm sure I wouldn't repeat it on a blog.

I stood up and my loving mother said that she thought I was going to pass out.

Determined to do nothing of the kind, and really feeling quite well, (except for having just had spikes driven into my ear at lightening speed,) I snatched up my bottle of disinfecting solution, thanked the lady, and triumphantly exited the building.

Five hours later, I feel almost no pain, and am everlastingly grateful that I had it done. So far.

:P

I got it! I passed the test with only one wrong! I would have been embarrassed beyond mortification if I hadn't passed again. But now I've got the permit for a short while, and then the driving test which should be comparatively easy. Mom's not going to get in that driver's seat again for awhile!

Happy Day!

My Favorite Fall Things

Orange and yellow leaves.

Leather boots.

Walks in the rain.

Scarves.

Pumpkin pie lattes from Woods.

Leather gloves.

Bible time by the fire place early in the morning.

Rain and wind storms.

Apple butter toast.

Sweaters.

Flannel sheets

Pumpkins and squash on the front porch.

Lynden's Harvest Festival (I still love the hay maze and tractor trailer rides like when I was a little girl!)

Hot apple cider(not drinking it, just the smell it makes in the house!)

Thanksgiving.

Grandma's pumpkin pie bars.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms."

Last night, daddy took me up to Dave's, so I could finally get my new gun! I am so excited to finally have a hand gun again, it felt SO odd not to have one! (My other one is on consignment at Dave's) It was like... missing my right hand, and it was even worse when we'd go shooting!

This gun is will be my carry-gun when I'm 21, and in the meantime will be a target gun. It's also a "pretty gun" (Now we both have "pretty" guns Mrs. Weese!!:) It is a light, silvery lavender color, and I just LOVE the name.

It's called the Lavender Lady. Isn't that just so feminine? :) It's a .38 special, for my fellow gun ladies that read my blog, and hope the weather will be bearable so I can put at least one box of rounds through it on Sunday!

As I type, Eloise has been in her bed snoring like it was going out of fashion! She is so funny, and just now I called her name, look at that sleepy face!

Well I hope you're all having a lovely, windy Thursday!

Love,

Emily

Music

My board of blogging advisers, (That's what my sisters call themselves :) were "reviewing" my blog, and Ali mentioned that I haven't mentioned that I play violin. I can't believe I missed that, because music is a big part of my life! I was introduced to music (specifically violin) by a very special woman. Her name is Nancy Benning, and her life is dedicated first to our Lord, and than to music. We met her during our time in Mexico where, every other month she packs music, violins, music stands, and homemade cookies for her students, in her car, and makes the long trip from her home in California, down to the orphanage where we were, to teach violin to the children and adults who live there. She started teaching me about about six years ago, and I probably would have quit many times if not for the encouragement from my mom and Mrs. Benning. I love playing music, and have taught myself some piano, and have just picked up the littlest bit of guitar, ( I want to learn more of that.) My sister Ali plays viola, my mom, and Samantha play piano, and I teach Brad violin, and he takes piano from mom. Our house is filled with mostly beautiful music :) on and off all day, and everybody enjoys it so much. We all like to play as a group, and we often take our instruments to nearby nursing home to play for the residents. They are great audiences! I now take lessons from Mrs. Gaye Davis here in Lynden.
I can't imagine my life without music now, and I'm very thankful that the Lord chose to bring just the right people at just the right time into my life so that I too can enjoy the blessing of playing an instrument.

Our Gun.

This Summer, Ali and I bought our first gun! It's a .22 lever action rifle,


and we've had a blast with it! Dad gave us several long lessons on gun safety, and then we were set to start practicing. But I don't really know what we're practicing for exactly, since niether of us intend to ever go hunting. But we've heard duck hunting is fun, so we might have to try that someday.
In the meantime we just enjoy "practicing"almost every Sunday out at our grandpa's property, and spending time with dad.