Some Great Books that You Should Read

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe

"The God I Love" by Joni Eareckson Tada

"Sanctuary" by Beverly and David Lewis

"The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom with Elizabeth and John Sherril

"Knowing Scripture" by R.C. Sproul

"The Treasure Principle" by Randy Alcorn

I attached links that go to the Chesapeake library or Amazon.com's entry of the book so you can read what the book is about. All of these books can be found either in the Chesapeake library or the church bookstore (and other places as well of course)

Let me know if you have read or are planning to read any of these books!

SGC Women's Summer Book Club

I had my 1st book club meeting last night. It was great! First each person in the group shared their testimony and then we talked about the 1st three chapters of "Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart" by John Ensor. The meeting was great! I though it was neat when one of the married ladies would offer advice and/or encouragement to the single ladies (its basically what SG was hoping would happen). I am looking forward to our next meetings! If you are in a book club, please post a comment on what your 1st meeting was like (when you have it) :)

Eye Test

I got this in an e-mail recently, try it and let me know how you do!

Subject: Test Your Eyes!!
Can u find the B (there are 2B's)? RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRBRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRBRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Once youve found the B
Find the 1
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Once you found the 1..............

Find the 6
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999969999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999

once youve found the 6...

Find the N

MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMNM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMM

once you've found the N...

Find the Q...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOQOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOO

Under Construction

I am currently working on transferring my blog links from a regular list to a blogroll. Some blogs will be in the new blogroll and some will be in the regular list until i get everything straightened out.

Got em

A few weeks ago, Alexandra, Moriah, and I got these new comforters for our beds. We share a room and it looks so nice to all have new matching beds! The sets came with the comforter and one sham pillow-case. We are hoping to paint our room with colors that go with the colors in the bedspreads (we are thinking of a lighter brown and a different shade of pink).

Surprise Party at Lake Christopher

Today I went to a surprise party for Jessica at Lake Christopher. She had no idea her parents were planning something; in fact, she was thinking they had forgot about her b-day! We had lunch, shared encouragements with the birthday girl, and then we swam in the lake for a long time. Later, we did cake and Jessica opened all her presents. Then we went back into the lake for a little more swimming. It was so much fun!

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Independance Day Party

Yesterday my parents had their care group over for a 4th of July cookout. It was a lot of fun. There was lots of eating and visiting. The kids even had a water balloon fight! I didn't join in in the fight, but I still tried to sneak in a few water balloons on the kids. They did, however, manage to sneak a few on me as well :)



Later in the afternoon, we cleaned up, most of the people left, and my family and a few other people left to go see fireworks. We went to the same spot where we have been going for the past few years. It is an area on the Elizabeth river and people come and sit near the water, in the median, and on the other side of the river. We like to get there early enough to get this nice big spot right on the water (we have gotten it every time we have gone). We arrived and spent the time relaxing, eating snacks, giving out glow-sticks for the kids, and waiting for it to get dark. At this place they eventually close off the road to cars and my brothers and sisters like to ride scooters and skateboards. Then we began to see lightning. It got worse so we decided to leave; we had a stop to make on the way back and by the time we got home it was pouring! I am glad we didn't have to walk back to the van in that! We found out today that the fireworks had been canceled because of the bad weather. Despite not seeing fireworks, I still had a wonderful 4th of July.

Lunch

I would normally have worked today, but because my boss is out of town I was off. Alexandra and I met Kaitlin at Tropical Smoothie Cafe for lunch. I got a yummy Buffalo Chicken wrap and Alexandra and Kaitlin each got a smoothie and a half salad. After lunch we went over to Target for a little while to do some shopping. While we were there Alexandra and I saw these really pretty comforters and we got the idea to get them and paint our room in the same colors and also to accessorize in those colors! We still haven't decided for sure if we will do that, but I like the idea a lot. If we do it I will post pictures! If you would like to see the comforters we are considering click here to go to the Target website were they are shown and let me know what you think!

Great music and lyrics, and a great way to listen to Scripture

My Dad showed me this band. They play guitar really well and their songs are right from the Psalms- really cool. Enjoy!

They are called Sons of Korah

House-sitting

Well here at last is a post about my house-sitting with Lyndsey. It was a lot of fun, but it is good to be bcak home. We stayed up late every night! We each kept our normal schedules as far as work, church, and Access go. One night we had some girls over for a nacho dinner, and that was lots of fun.

Free Fish Anyone?

I have a red Betta fish that I am looking to give away to someone. Is there anyone who is interested? He comes with his bowl (possibly two), some food, some water conditioner, and some rocks and a fake plant. This fish is pretty easy to care for. If you are interested leave a comment and let me know. It will pretty much be 1st come, 1st serve.

Enter This Contest!

This is a contest for a new name for my blog. Although I like the name I want something more unique. So submit your entries now!

Rules

1. You may submit as many as you like

2. The winner wins...well nothing :) but I will announce the winner's name on the blog!

3. If I do not like any of them (which I hope will not happen) then there may not be a winner.

5. The entries must be specific ideas. In other words, don't say something like "find a name that shows what hobbies you like". "Natasha's Notes" is as specific idea.

6. Have fun!

House-Sitting Post Coming Soon!

Impromptu BBQ at Kaitlin's House

Liz and I went to Kaitlin's house on Sunday night to do a walk down to the river. On the way to the river we smelled someone grilling something (it smelled like steak). We kind of forgot about it until the walk home when we smelled it again, yummy. It smelled so good we decided to grill some burgers when we got back to Kaitlin's house. It was a lot of fun...thanks Kaitlin!

Lets Eat Italian!

Last night was our church's singles groups Italian night! Everyone brought a dish to share and the church provided desserts and refreshments. The food was sooo delicious! They also had some fun contests. The first was one were each table sent up a girl representative and they each competed to draw a picture of Eric (the pastor who leads our group). The pictures were hilarious. Then they had a contest were one guy representative came from each table and they had to compete buy singing opera. This was funny to watch! Then they gave announced the winners for the food. They had a most creative, best dish that a girl brought, and the best dish a guy brought. Then they had a prize for the worst food, which they judged by its being the one that was the least eaten.

This night was so much fun.

How do you read your Bible?

By now the New Attitude messages have kind of blended together; in other words, I have a hard time remembering who said what when. I still remember several main points and overall themes to the messages however. A main area that I learned in and desire to grow in as a result of this conference is my attitude and treatment of the Bible. I need to be studying it and loving it-not just reading it to check a box as I do sometimes. Also,I need to be memorizing verses to use when I am in temptation-these can also be used to help another person.

I am curious, what do you do for your quite times? Do you just read or do you take notes? How do you take notes? When you memorize verses how do you choose which ones? Please let me know via a comment so that I and/or other readers of this blog can get some ideas of how other people have quite times and I/they may even use some! So give your ideas even if it does not sound very "wonderful" to you...it may still help another.

Neat Video...

Guides

The New Attitude website has two guides posted on their website. Click here to access them. One is on applying Na messages and another is on questions you can ask yourself as you read your Bible. Let me know if you decide to use them and what you think!

Summer Contest- Win a Free Book!

The Girltalk blog is holding a summer contest. Check it out here The deadline is Friday June 6th

Community Groups and House Sitting

Community group tonight was great. I went to Katy and Clay's (sorry if I misspelled your names) group. We met at her parents house and went out on the dock and had a time of worship and then a time for those who had been to New Attitude to share about it if they wanted. After that we had a fire and toasted marshmallows to make smores and we had a great time of fellowship.

I have an exciting plan for this summer....Lyndsey and I are going to housesit for a couple in my church for about two weeks! I am so excited, I think it is going to be so much fun! Maybe I will write about it and post pictures

More Na!

Here is a video that I found on Youtube.

New Attitude 2008

Well I just got back (Tuesday night) from my very 1st New Attitude (Na) conference. It was awesome! We learned some great new songs in worship, the teachings were amazing and hanging out with friends all day long was so much fun! So much was packed into each day of our stay there!

Saturday

On Saturday I had a 9:30 AM flight, a layover in Charlotte, and then I arrrived in Louisville about 3 PM. There were lots of Na people there to direct us to the Na shuttle! They were very nice people. I arrived at the hotel before any of my roomates and stood in the looong line to get checked in. Soon after two of my roomates arrived we went with some other people to get checked in at the hotel. Then we pretty much just relaxed until it was time for the 1st main session.

Josh Harris spoke on Jerimiah 15: 16 ("Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts") Josh Harris spoke on our response to God's word and he read about 3 different men and their responses to God's word (Josiah, Jehoiokim (sp?), and Jeremiah). One of his final points was that the Bible is not about what we must do for God(although that is included), but about what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

After the main session we had our first community groups. We stayed up very late talking in our hotel.

Sunday

Sunday started with 9 AM community groups and then a main session. Mark Dever spoke on the authority of scripture. During the first part of the message he established that the Bible is reliable and then in the second part he discussed why the Bible should have authority in our lives. Something he said toward the end was that we do not know how long we will have the freedom to read the Bible openly as we do now...things could change very quickly.

Several of us decided to go to Subway for lunch (we wanted to go to the one outside of the foodcourt thinking it would be less crowded). We walked all the way down there only to find it closed :( Then some Na Ninjas (married couples who volunteered to walk around handing out candy, and willing to help you if you need it) offered to go back with us to the Subway in the food court and buy us lunch! anyway we walked back only to find long lines....soooo they offered to buy pizza so we walked all the way to a Papa Johns where the Ninjas left us with some money for the pizza and went off to buy some more people lunch. Despite walking all over the place it was a lot of fun (and we got free lunch :)

For the afternoon session Al Mohler did a Bible Q & A session. People asked questions of all types. During the evening session, C.J. Mahaney spoke on God's Word and Our Feelings. He said that we nee to start talking to ourselves more and listening to ourselves less. We need to remind ourselves to trust in God. We also need to talk to God, C.J. said that God loves for us to remind Him, humbly and boldly, of His promises.

Monday

We had community groups again and the in the first main session, Eric Simmons spoke on why we need to study the Bible. His 3 main reasons were 1. Scriptures reveal Jesus Christ. 2. Scriptures give life (he made the point that God's word is living and active and it affects us even if we don't realize it). 3. Sciptures equip us for God's mission. His main passage of scripture was 2nd Timothy 3:14-17

I went to lunch with some freinds to a Chinese place, it was pretty good. Then we went back for the afternoon session where John Piper spoke about William Tyndale. A man who suffered very much trying to get an English translation of the Bible so more people could read it-he was killed for it.

During the evening session John Piper spoke on using God's word to fight for faith. He emphesized the importance of studying and memorizing scripture and using it in our fight. Piper said that the fight for faith is a fight for joy,a fight to the death, and a fight to see Christ (with the eyes of our hearts).

Tuesday

I ended up missing community groups because of sleeping and then having to get everything packed up. In the main session, C.J. gave a great message on the doctrine of adoption and ho much God loves us.

My trip home went well and I arrived home almost on time.

Kaitlin R. jumped in front of my camera :)

Walking to the convention center
There were lots of horse carriages in Louisville

Me, Shannon, Lyndsey, Courtney, Micah, Caitlin H., and Liz

A group of us during one of the sessions

Lyndsey and I
Jessi and Jenni taking a break in between sessions
Two Na Ninjas towards the left side of the pic

There were around 3500 people at the conference! This is just a small section

Walking (again)

One night several of us went to walk by some water (a river I think)

Uhhh....

We found a plunger in the middle of a parking lot and Caitlin H. posed by it

Courtney and Shannon looked up at a plane just as I snapped this pic. (notice Caitlin H. in the background!)
Walking by the water

Rach, Kaitlin, Me and Jap

Katy L. and I
Caitlin H. and I

Off to find some lunch
The choir that sang during the worship before one of the sessions

The Na worship band

This movie's title is Uh...wrong button

New Attitude was such a wonderful time. I hope that I can attend New Attitude 2009 in Baltimore Md! That's all for now.

P.S. If you want to listen to any of the Na messages you can get them and more info on the Na website.

Alexandra started a blog!

http://www.xandrasspot.blogspot.com/

My Sister Has a Blog

Moriah just started a blog. Check it out here.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I leave for New Attitude tomorrow morning! I am soooo excited!!

Shopping for New Attitude

On Sunday Kaitlin R., Liz D., Courtney C., and Rachael M., and I went out to lunch after church to Five Guys for lunch. It was so yummy! After we spent time eating and talking all of us except for Rachael (she had already made plans to do her shopping with Jessi and Jenni) headed over to Wall-Mart to get stuff for New Attitude (which is less than a week away!!!!) It was such a blast. We decided, however that it may not have been a good idea to go shopping with friends. this is because if one of us finished on an isle they would keep looking around while waiting for the others to finish and end up finding more stuff we"had" to buy! :) :) :) Our cart was so full by the end of our shopping and we even ended up not getting some of the stuff we originally put in the cart :) By the time we finished shopping it was about 5:30! I had so much fun...I can't wait until New Attitude! Only FOUR DAYS LEFT!!!!!

And now to figure out how to pack all the snacks I bought :)

Seven Days and Counting

After today there is only one week until I will be going to New Attitude! I am so excited! We made a last minute decision that I will be taking a plane to Na instead of carpooling and that makes everything even more exciting because I like to fly. From all that I have heard from those who have been before the conference will be filled with great worship and teaching as well as lots of fun and talking and very late nights! I cannot wait, and I will definately be posting pictures and telling you all about my trip!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the world's best Mom-Mine! I love you Mom. You do such a great job taking care of all of us and loving us. thanks!

Summer is Here!

I have just walked out of my Biology exam and I am done for the semester! I am so glad that now I can relax and not worry about classes, homework, and tests (until August that is :) Today is pretty busy as I had my exam this morning and then I am working from 1-4. Tomorrow will be so nice as I will not have classes and I will not have to do any studying as I do not have any more exams!

Here is an update on my weekend

Last Saturday I went and watched my sibling's baseball games. Then came Sunday. Sunday was very fun and very busy! I went to my church and the pastor spoke on the passage in Matthew about not worrying about what we will wear, eat, or where we will live and to seek the kingdom of God 1st. The pastor said that this does not mean seek God's kingdom 1st and then we can go seek everything else. but we need to always be seeking God's kingdom. After church I went to my friend Kaitlin's house because she invited all the singles over for a yummy Mexican lunch. I had a great time eating, playing bocce ball, and talking with friends. Liz and I ended up staying a lot later than everyone else and I ended up staying until it was time to leave for community groups (thanks Kaitlin!). Kaitlin and I both went to the same community group that night. At community group everyone went around saying a verse that was their favorite or that God was using to speak to them. Then we had a time of prayer and then a time of food and fellowship. I had a great time last Sunday. I am thankful that God has given me a great church and great friends!

New Blog Item

Hey everyone. I have added a list on my blog where I will put some of the books that I read this year. If you are intrested keep checking it as I will be adding to it!