Star Trails

Yesterday, to celebrate Mother's Day, the three of us had a great time camping at City of Rocks State Park.  Usually when we go camping, we head to the tent early.  This is due to the fact that it's easier for Caleb to get to sleep that way, as well as the fact that, apart from making s'mores, there usually isn't a whole lot to do after dark.

That was definitely not the case last night.

I have never seen such stars.  This park is far away from everything and has very little light pollution.  I seriously wanted to cry several times looking up and thinking of the One who made the universe...and me.  One of the very best ways I can meet with God is outside in beautiful places.  He has been doing a lot in my heart over this past week,  and so the opportunity to stay up after Brandon and Caleb went to bed was beyond precious.  I spent time stargazing, reading Counterfeit Gods (amazing) by Tim Keller, praying in my journal, and playing with my camera.

The above shot was one of two I took of the sky.  I have been wanting to learn how to capture star trails, and after a few attempts I learned how to keep my shutter open long enough to capture half an hour's movement of the stars in the sky.  I couldn't see anything, so the composition was pretty blind.  But, I LOVE how they turned out.  I smothered some screams and jumped up and down around our campsite when I saw that it had worked. I can't wait to try it again.

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you had set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4)  Thank You, Father.

Catching up...

Over the past few months, we've...

*had a great time in ministry. We are so grateful that God has placed us where He has.  DCC was great for us, and it has been so fun seeing Him work in lives around us.

*been to our fifth marriage conference. This year, we went to a Weekend to Remember conference again and loved it. Such great stuff!! For our date night, we rode the NM RailRunner up to the Plaza in Santa Fe. It was a favorite Valentine's Day. :-) Next year, we hope to go to a Love and Respect conference.

*thoroughly enjoyed college basketball season...with K-State being ranked 6 and Purdue 3. Robbie Hummel's devastating accident last night may have ended the potential to go to Indianapolis in the Final Four, but one can still hope.  It makes me sick to my stomach to think about it.

*still loved living in New Mexico.  This place is so beautiful, and after spending a month traveling throughout the Midwest...we're not missing the cold at all.  I just wish our family and friends would move out here too.

*prayed through infertility.  I hope to update more on this relatively soon.  It always seems to be hard for me to put into words what has been going on here, and several started posts have not been completed.  Maybe now that I am putting this in writing, I can follow through with an update.  We'll see.

*seen Caleb's eye doctor.  He has complained of pain in his eyes.  So, we took him in for a check-up last Friday.  His eyes are still much improved and surgery is still not needed.  Thanks, God.  I was also concerned about Caleb's vision.  We checked it, and he has eye sight that is better than a four-year-old's.  We're so grateful.  The pain in his eyes were attributed to possible allergies or just occasional blurriness or double vision.  We'll see as he gets older and can communicate better what he is seeing.  The doctor's not worried about it though.

*dropped our external hard drive with countless pictures and files on it.  Okay, maybe it was me who dropped my external hard drive...but I couldn't change the subject of my original sentence.  I am hoping to be able to recover a lot of files, but many pictures are gone.  Bummer.  Word of warning:  be very careful with your EHD.  Dropping=Data Loss
 
*busted a power door on our minivan.  Okay, again, I can take responsibility for that one.  I was frustrated because Caleb wasn't listening to me.  He shut the door to the car just as I was putting some stuff in the car.  It is automatic, so I pushed the door back open with my hip as it was closing on me.  I heard it snap, and the result was a $1122 price tag.  Ouch.  And, it was because I was angry and not responding well.  Stiff consequence for my sin...but God is using it for growth in my life.

*been praying for Haiti and asking God how He would have us help.  That, along with the trials that so many of our friends are going through, give us perspective and remind us that "in this world we will have trouble.  But, take heart, I have overcome the world."  John 16:33

Geaux Saints!

We are definitely Colts fans around here, and we're elated to see them in the Super Bowl. But, I am more than anything a Boilermaker! So, watching Drew Brees and the Saints make it to the Super Bowl last night was too fun. Brees was the quarterback at Purdue while I was there, and we graduated in the same class.

A friend of mine, Connie, sent me the link to this video just now, and I had to share it. In this interview, Brees talks about his faith in God and how much the Lord has done in his life to get him to New Orleans. And as far as the Super Bowl goes, I am definitely rooting for the Colts, but I won't be disappointed if New Orleans wins. NOLA needs this.



And I will update this blog someday...just need to get caught up on a few other things first. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Tonight as I sit at my laptop in the dark with my son sleeping on one side of this room and my husband on the other, I feel so very grateful for all that God has blessed me with. We have had an incredible time with Brandon's family and look forward to more great times tomorrow when we travel to Indiana.

I read Randy Alcorn's post tonight and wanted to share it. I am not sure what the blog ethics are for doing this sort of thing, but I am copying and pasting here in case you don't want to travel to his blog.

As a child, my favorite part of waking up on Christmas morning was the first waking realization that it was Christmas, which was the best day of the year, even in our nonchristian family. My first move was to jump up and look out my bedroom window to see if it had snowed last night. Usually not, but several memorable times it did. After the snow-check, my brother Lance and I would run to our stockings hung by mom in the living room. I would open the contents slowly, including the ever-present Whitman's Samplers, stretching it out, not wanting it to end.

We got the big presents on Christmas Eve, but there was a special joy in the little treasures wrapped up in the stockings. I didn't understand then that these little gifts represented the greatest gift ever given—God's Son. Now, as an adult, a father and a grandfather, I feel those same childlike feelings, a warmth and anticipation. But what I feel now on Christmas that I didn't many years ago is anticipation for a New Earth, without sin and curse and suffering—a redeemed earth where I will live and work and play and worship and serve with Christian family and friends, and countless new friends besides.

I feel a spirit of adventure not just for the passing joys of Christmas, but for an eternal Christmas, a great story where—as C. S. Lewis put it at the end of the Chronicles of Narnia—every chapter will be better than the one before.

The prayer of my heart this Christmas is that people would understand that Jesus is the person they were made by and made for—that they would understand that He loved them enough to go to the cross for them and pay the price for their sins so that they could live forever with Him on the New Earth, the eternal Heaven.

There's a true story of a Christ-loving man who lay dying. His son asked, "Dad, how do you feel?"

His father replied: "Son, I feel like a little boy on Christmas Eve."

Christmas is coming. We live our lives between the first Christmas and the second . We look back to that first Christmas and the life of Jesus on the earth for some 33 years—but we look forward to the Christmas in which the resurrected Christ will return and we, his resurrected people, will live with him forever on the New Earth. And right when we think "It doesn't get any better than this"....it will!

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas as you celebrate the Savior's birth.

Randy Alcorn

From our family to yours...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Snow in the Desert? What?

We live in the desert.  And just about everyday is sunny.  So, I get excited whenever it is cloudy...simply because it is out of the ordinary.

So, you can imagine how excited I was when we all got out of Cru and saw that snow had blanketed the campus last Thursday night.  We made quite a scene...with students making snow angels, having snowball fights, and taking lots of pictures.  It was wonderful.

When we got home, I (along with our friend and babysitter, Naomi) immediately woke Caleb up.  There was no way he was missing out on this...even if it was 10:30 at night.  We bundled up and quickly went outside to play.  We built a little snowman, threw snowballs at the wall, and just had a really great time.  It was past midnight before Caleb got to sleep again, but it was entirely worth it.  It's the stuff memories are made of.

I am taking a photo for every day of December...and I am trying to scrap them for the Holidays in Hand class I mentioned earlier.  This is the layout for the third day.  Click on it to see it larger.

I won something!

The year Caleb was born, I bought two books with the most beautiful scrapbooking pages I had ever seen.  The author, Cathy Zielske, has design skills that create serious eye candy, and I have learned so much from those books.  While I really haven't done much scrapbooking since then (just one album and several random pages), I have used all that she teaches in lots of design work for the ministry.  And, it was her photos and photography tips that encouraged me to get my dslr.  I am a big fan.

So, tonight I made a comment on her blog for a giveaway she was doing for two free spots ($100 value) in her upcoming class, Design Your Life.  Out of almost 1000 people, I got one of those spots!!!!! I am so excited and cannot wait to learn more from her.   

What a sweet blessing!  I will be so glad to be a little better trained in this stuff...especially as designing printed materials for Cru has become a part of how I am serving the Lord now as a mom.

You can see her post here.

Christmas Card Grammar

It's that wonderful time of the year again, and a lot of us are working on our Christmas cards.  So, I wanted to pass along a grammar tip that I think many people don't know.  There is more info on this website as well as on this website.

When signing cards, it is grammatically correct to write "Love, the Peltons."
Is is grammatically incorrect to write "Love, the Pelton's." 

See the difference?  It's not possessive and doesn't need an apostrophe.  I notice it a lot when we get cards in the mail and thought it might be helpful to share.  Brandon reminded me that he had been doing this until we signed our first Christmas cards as a couple.  He had to see it on the internet before he believed me.  Seriously, what did we do before the internet?

I am kind of a nerd and really enjoy proofreading newsletters and such.  So, stuff like this just jumps off a page at me.  

This makes me happy...

The following little dialogue (written in Caleb's own language) took place just now as Brandon and Caleb were working on building a fire.  Caleb doesn't like being in the backyard by himself these days because he is afraid of the neighbor's cat.  So, Brandon had brought a load of firewood inside and left Caleb for a moment.  The little man followed soon after with a sad look on his face.  

Caleb:  "Daddy, you keep not staying with me."
Daddy:  "Oh, did I come inside without telling you?"
Caleb:  "Yeah, you walkeded away from me.  You got away from my love."
Daddy (smiling):  "I did, did I?"
Caleb:  "Yeah, I love you."
(and as they were on their way back outside...)
Caleb:   "You're my best friend." 

Caleb and I have this ongoing thing when I am affectionate to him and he wants to be playful.  He turns to me grinning and says, "I get away from your love." And, I say something like, "You can't get away from my love."  And then it goes on from there...something like The Runaway Bunny story by Margaret Wise Brown.  Until now, Daddy hasn't really been a part of it...so we both thought this was pretty funny....and random.

I really like these two.

Caleb's Eye Update

Yesterday, we had another eye appointment for Caleb.  We went in sure that Dr. Simmons was going to tell us that Caleb needed surgery to fix his eyes.  For more info about his intermittent exotropia, read this post.

We have seen Caleb's eyes improve...over all.  But, one day after we had forgotten a few days of patching, he was really tired and one of his eyes went so far out that I know he was seeing double.  He was crying and covering his eye, and I could do absolutely nothing about it.  It was heartbreaking.  Apart from that day, things have gotten better...but we have been pretty certain he would need surgery.

And it seems that for everyone we have talked to who has had the surgery (or knows someone who has), multiple surgeries have been required.  So, we really didn't want Caleb to have to have this surgery.  Although the crazy hard things our friends have been through lately have given us perspective, we have prayed that this step would not be necessary.

Yesterday, after the doctor examined him, he looked at us and said, "good news."  Caleb's eyes had improved considerably since the last visit.  He said he was "tickled" about it, and he wouldn't need surgery.  In fact, we don't even need to continue eye patching.  We will have a follow up in six months.  We are so grateful that God answered our prayers in this way.  Thank You, Lord!

The Lies We Believe

Every woman (and man) should see this. And how can a program such as Photoshop be so wonderful and despicable at the same time?

Tonight's Prayer

Me: "...and thank You for this little boy and his daddy..."

Caleb: "...and Mommy.  Thank You for Mommy.  She's cute."

Me: "What did you say, honey?"

Caleb: "You're cute.  And thank You for our friends...and for guitars...and my guitar...and drums. And, I play guitar.  And I pray for someone to play drums while I play guitar.  Amen."

"Hey babe!"

So, if I counted how many times those two words are shouted in our home, either by Brandon or me, it would be a surprisingly large number.  "Babe" is just what we call each other, and "Hey" is the word we use to get the other's attention.  What is the even more surprising number, however, is the amount of times we hear "Hey babe!" yelled from the mouth of our little boy.

Caleb, I think, has determined that it must be my name.  So, when calling "Mommy" doesn't work, he soon resorts to "Hey babe!"  I haven't yet stopped laughing enough to correct him.  If only you could hear how funny it is with his little voice.  It's just one of many things he does that entertain us.

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse.  Last year, 7.6 million shoe boxes were collected and sent all over the world to children in need.  That means that 7.6 million children experienced the love of Jesus in the form of dolls, stuffed animals, coloring books, soap, toothpaste, cars, etc.

We are big fans of OCC, and this year has been even more fun.  Caleb is enjoying buying toys for "little kids who don't have toys." Stuffing shoe boxes is a great way for Caleb (and us) to learn to share what God has given us. Check out their website to find a location near you.

White Sands Balloon Fiesta

We love our hot air balloons down here!  A while back, Caleb and I braved the ridiculously early morning and headed out to White Sands National Monument.   We both thoroughly enjoyed all the colors floating over the endless white, especially when the sun decided to make an appearance.  What a beautiful place we call home...and what a wonderful God to create such wonders!

During the fiesta, it wasn't too long before Caleb was distracted with driving a little Matchbox car in the gypsum sand.  Unfortunately, the small toy got buried and lost forever.  The dunes are always shifting, so I don't think it will turn up anytime soon.  So much for "leave no trace."

Katie Pertiet Frames

Fight for Feuille

I realize that my blog has been full of prayer requests lately, but I fully believe in God's power to heal.  And, so I am asking you to ask God to heal another friend.  Robert Feuille was a student here at NMSU, then an intern here with Cru, and now a graphic designer/photographer in El Paso.  Lately, however, his full-time job has been fighting testicular cancer.

After a surgery in which part of his liver and many lymph nodes were removed, Robert and his wife Aimee got bad news tonight.  The surgery was a failure, and the doctors have given him a 10% chance with another round of chemo.  Robert and Aimee have two little girls and a baby boy, Egan, who was born just weeks ago.  Please, please pray for them.  You can read more about his fight here or here.

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."   Psalm 68:19

Arrrrghhh!!!

Caleb really has no idea what a pirate is, and he most definitely did not request to be one for Halloween. Our original plan was for him to be Peyton Manning of the Colts. He has a jersey that his Uncle Patrick and Aunt Hannah had bought him for Christmas, so we just needed a helmet and some padding. The helmet, however, proved to be more difficult to find.

So, because the little guy didn't care one way or the other...and Liz had just recently been sent this costume in a box of clothes for her kids...of course he had to be a pirate. We have heard countless pirate comments over the past few months so I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. So, I colored in his eye patch with magic marker. The result was the cutest little pirate ever! He loved dressing up and was even willing to pose for an incredibly long thirty seconds. While both visiting friends and at our church festival, he walked up to most everyone and said, "I'm a pirate."

Sorry, Peyton. You'll just have to wait until next year. Please try to stay undefeated.

Free Jessica Sprague Class

I love her classes. I got hooked through a free one she did this summer, and she is offering another free one in a few weeks. Registration is Monday. Check it out.

My classes have been taking up most of my internet time,
but I hope to start blogging again soon.

post-it: Gunhild Storeide.

Fun Homework

I am having a lot of fun with this class, and I have learned a lot. This summer, I finally figured out how to use the manual setting on my camera and get consistent results. During the course of the last few weeks, I have been practicing using the shutter speed priority and the aperture priority settings on my camera. I am really enjoying them...and it all seems to be clicking. Below are the first two weeks assignments:

The windmill was spinning in both photos. The top photo was shot with a higher shutter speed, making it appear stopped.



The poor quality of the photos is due to a save-for-web attempt I tried. Saves space, but I am not a fan of the quality. Learning as I go...