A Real Life Fairytale!

Anyone who is related to me, has worked with me, met me, or even just read this blog should not be surprised to know that I got up and watched the royal wedding live. I have been counting down ever since Prince William and Kate Middleton, now Princess Catherine, announced their engagement. I couldn't wait to see the dress. Now don't get me wrong -- the popular, sleeveless, modern wedding dresses can be beautiful, but I was just dying to see a true princess dress with lace and sleeves and timelessness. I was not disappointed! Her dress was stunning -- very classic lines, and a Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor style that I just love. the simplicity of her entire style, with the light veil, delicate tiara, and overall elegance was exactly what I hoped to see. It was perfect!

A lot of my friends and family couldn't have cared less about the wedding and I can understand to some extent. But, personally, I see things a different way. This was a moment in history. Prince William is the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, a direct descendant of many royal families in Europe. Kate Middleton was a "commoner." And, one day, they will be king and queen of England. With all the turmoil and war and strife, the recession, economic stress, unemployment, etc, it was wonderful just to celebrate a joyful day -- a marriage of two people who seemed to glow with happiness. It was also awesome to so see a ceremony seeped in traditions, Scripture, and history. America doesn't have anything like this. The closest thing we have to royalty are president's families and movies stars, but in both cases, the weddings are practically always private with a few pictures released to the press after the fact. I really appreciated the way Prince William and Princess Catherine went the extra mile to include not just Britain but everyone in their ceremony and joy. I was at my house sitting on the floor in front of the TV in my bathrobe, but I felt like I was an invited guest!

Anyway, I just had to post about the wedding of the century. And I wish the prince and princess many, many happy years together!

Finished!

My last final to complete my career diploma in Medical Coding and Billing consisted of 12 projects -- making records, filling out insurances, scheduling appointments, writing business letters, etc -- and a three page research paper. It was a miserable experience. Every time I thought I was finished, I discovered another "job" that had to be completed or a typo in a paper I thought was finished. And I had a limited time to complete it. And as I printed the final copies of all my work, Scout decided to entertain herself by attacking each paper as it came out of the printer, resulting in large holes, itty bitty teeth marks, and several re-prints. And the post office couldn't get there "overnight" even if I paid the "overnight" price. And I was late for work because it took so long to get it mailed. BUT I found out yesterday that, the paper was on time, I received a grade of 96, and my career diploma is complete! I am so glad it's over. There is more work to do to get certified and complete my degree, but the first step is finished. Yay!!!!

Last Final!!

I have officially packaged up my final project for my medical coding and billing career diploma!! It was rough. Twelve projects, which involved creating medical records, writing business letters, creating patient brochures, data entry, coding, etc, etc, plus a three page research paper. I thought I would never survive it, but it is finished. It may not get a good grade, but it is finished. I am so excited. I had planned to finish this in nine months. That didn't happen. But, it only took 15 months, and I am over halfway to an Associate Degree! Yay!! Now I can take a deep breath, slow down, and relax a little.

Happy Birthday, Princess

Even at eight, you'll always be my baby! :)

Amanda and Shane's Wedding

My cousin got married this weekend. She and Shane met when they were sixteen and have been dating for six years. And last Saturday, they got married.

My cousin Kristen and I were honorary bridesmaids. (See last pic. Somehow these pictures posted completely backwards.) She asked us to wear formal black dresses. I knew immediately which one I wanted. Kristen had to search for a while to find one she liked and ended up in polka dots.

All her bridesmaids wore clover green with bright pink sashes and carried bright pink flowers. It was a long day. Kristen and I got to the church at one. We took pictures until the wedding began at four. Then the wedding was about half an hour long. Then they took pictures for another hour and a half while the guests waited at the reception.

Finally, we got to the reception, the bridal party was announced, and we got to eat. It was the first time I had eaten all day, except for a quick snack on the way to the church! My mom had been worried she wouldn't be able to go, but she did really well through the ceremony and reception.

It was a fairly emotional day, too, of course. She's my first younger cousin to get married. And even had all had plenty of time to get used to the idea of them getting married, it still brought back memories of her going to Grandma's with her hair in a braid and singing off-key duets with her. Yeah, I teared up. :)

But I know she's happy. And that's the important thing. And we're all happy for her.

A Thanksgiving Proclamation....

We all know the story of the first Thanksgiving, but I thought it was interesting today, when I saw this link posted on Boundless for the original proclamation that set apart the last Thursday in November as a day to give thanks. I imagine that I had read this in my history books at some point in time, but I had forgotten that Thanksgiving was established during the Civil War, when times were so difficult for soldiers and civilians alike, as reminder that even then, there was much to thank God for. I have a habit of complaining. I complain about having asthma, my aching legs, about standing on my feet all day, etc, etc. I forget that I have a lot to be grateful for. I have medicine for my asthma. I have a job, a roof over my head, food, clothes, and family, not to mention so many other things. God is good.

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,

Thanks for all Thou dost provide!

Thanks for times now but a memory,

Thanks for Jesus by my side!

Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,

Thanks for dark and stormy fall!

Thanks for tears by now forgotten,

Thanks for peace within my soul!
Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,

Thanks for what Thou dost deny!

Thanks for storms that I have weathered,

Thanks for all Thou dost supply!

Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,

Thanks for comfort in despair!

Thanks for grace that none can measure,

Thanks for love beyond compare!
Thanks for roses by the wayside,

Thanks for thorns their stems contain!

Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,

Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!

Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,

Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!

Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,

Thanks through all eternity!

Lyrics by August Storm

source: www.cyberhymnal.org

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally finished my artwork website!! For so long, I have worked on this a little bit at a time, but I have finally got all the pages in place, all the pictures sized, and everything in order. The worst thing was the "About Me." I always hated those "tell about yourself" papers in grade school, and this was even worse! But, anyway, my artwork is finally all in one place on the Internet, sized, priced, and sorted. Here is the link:

www.amandas-art.bravehost.com

Independence Day

It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace! But there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! --Patrick Henry

The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent—of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters. -- Thomas Paine in Common Sense

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. --Thomas Paine The American Crisis

The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance. -- George Washington

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. -- The Declaration of Independence

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Right now I'm posting from........

My brand new laptop!! Thursday, I decided to draw some money from my savings and purchase a very long-wanted laptop. I had to stop by three stores before I made up my mind which one I wanted, but I finally made up my indecisive mind and brought home a beautiful, wide screen, HP laptop. Then the real fun began. My original plan had been to wait a few weeks to purchase the wireless router, but in the store, it made more sense to go ahead and buy it. It made sense until I got it home. The guy at the computer store had told me they would come set it up for me for $300. I thought that for the sake of $300 I could figure it out myself. Let's just say yesterday goes down in history as one of the most stressful days of my life. Though I called every help line, and read every instruction, I could not figure out how to connect the router so that our desktop and my laptop would both have Internet. I was almost hysterical at some points. Thankfully, a guy from our church found out I was having such a hard time and offered to come over and set it up for me. Now, my laptop is up and running -- with Internet!! Yay!!!

I can't wait to get more accessories to go with it. I have always wanted Photoshop, so that will definitely be something to get soon, but I also need a memory stick to save my files on, a carrying case, maybe a printer...........

Anyway, for now I'm just excited to be using my very first laptop!

A Friend's Wedding

Saturday, I attended the wedding of two friends. I have been friends with the bride for over two years now and the groom was the brother of one of my good friends. I was so happy to be able to go to their wedding.

The wedding wasn't held at our church because it is being remodelled, but a large modern church nearby. Several lighted columns decorated the altar and the flowers were white, green, and pale lavender hydrangeas. The prelude was played on the piano by the groom's sister and on the cello by a family friend. The music was so nice. My favorite part of the prelude was when both the piano and cello played "Moon River." The music seemed to soar to the rafters of the church.

The bridesmaid dresses were so sweet and simple -- sage green, with little ivory jackets, and coming just a few inches below the knees -- and the junior bridesmaid and flower girl wore ivory dresses with lavender flowers embroidered over them. So pretty. Then the ushers unrolled a white carpet and the bride walked in. Her dress was beautiful and simple. She wore her long blond hair up and a veil over her face.

I didn't know this until then, reading the program, that her father passed away when she was fourteen. It amazes me how we can be friends with people for long periods of time and still know so little about them. One her dad's best friends walked her down the aisle and gave her away on behalf of her family. She wrote a beautiful tribute to her father on the back of the program that made my eyes fill up with tears as I read it.

The ceremony was simple and beautiful. This was one of the very few times I have seen two people take their vows so seriously -- the groom promising to love her even as Christ loved the church and live with her in an understanding way, the bride promising to submit herself to her husband and honor him as the head of their home. The song they chose for their wedding was "How Beautiful":

How Beautiful the hands that served The Wine and the Bread and the sons of the earth

How beautiful the feet that walked The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross

How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

How Beautiful the heart that bled That took all my sin and bore it instead

How beautiful the tender eyes That choose to forgive and never despise

How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

And as He lay down His life We offer this sacrifice That we will live just as He died Willing to pay the price Willing to pay the price

How Beautiful the radiant bride Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes

How Beautiful when humble hearts give The fruit of pure lives so that others may live

How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

How beautiful the feet that bring The sound of good news and the love of the King

How Beautiful the hands that serve The wine and the bread and the sons of the Earth

How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

Twila Paris

Happy Birthday, Princess!!

My sister started the whole idea of her. She had always wanted a dog. I wasn't too enthusiastic. After all, we were living between two states (like we still are). It just didn't seem practical to add a dog into the picture. However, she convinced our parents to let her get a Shetland Sheepdog.
We don't remember now how it was that she chose this particular breed. She probably saw it on one of her favorite Animal Planet shows. At any rate, we searched the classified ads until we found an advertisement for sheltie pups -- at a town an hour away. We almost didn't find the house. It was in a complicated subdivision and the directions we'd been given over the phone were confusing. After we circled the same section for half an hour, my dad was ready to give up, when I had the idea to turn down one last road. We did and found the right house at last.

My sister was only ten years old. She all but ran out of the car and into the house -- and if you knew how shy she was, you'd know she was really excited. I heard her squeal "Awwwww!" and followed as fast as I could. The furriest little cream colored fuzzball with floppy ears and little white paws was bouncing all over the living room. Gabrielle and I ran in circles trying to catch her, but she wiggled away every time. She was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen and I was as happy as Gabrielle when she went home with us.

She was so cute playing in the yard that day. Anytime she was still for a minute, she would curl up and start to nod off to sleep. Then, before two minutes had passed, she was bouncing away again. That night, of course, she cried and cried. We were trying to train her to stay in one particular room at night by herself, but somewhere around three in the morning, I had to go get her. I went downstairs, sat on the floor and put her in my lap. She immediately curled up in a little furry ball and fell asleep.

That was seven years ago. She went through all the chewing, digging, can't-possibly-stay-where-I'm-supposed-to stages and now she's just a good little dog. She loves to go for rides in an old doll stroller and she always wags her tail when she sees me. When she senses I'm feeling blue, she sits down beside me and lays her head on my knee. When I go for a walk, she runs after me to go too. Now I'm really, really glad my sister wanted a dog seven years ago. :)

101 POSTS!!!

I've reached a blogging milestone -- 101 posts! I can't believe it. I only started this in July. It seemed like it would take forever to even make fifty posts. Now, seven months later, I've reached 101. There are two sad things about this, though. The first one is that I had so many more posts in my head that I wanted to write but never got around to. I should have closer to 150 posts. The second, is that a read in a blogging article that you should delete the first 100 posts of your blog, because one day you're going to look back at them and be totally embarassed. So, I guess I should delete everything and start again. Hmmm....maybe after the next 100. :)

22 Birthday

Well, my birthday is over already. What's funny, is that when I was little, it seemed like forever before my birthday came around every year. I would always say it took my birthday longer to get here than everybody else's because mine was in fall. All my friends and cousins' birthdays were in summer, so I had to go to all of their parties and then wait another two months for my birthday. It just did not seem like it took the same 365 days to get to my birthday that it did to theirs -- it felt like theirs came every 100 days or so. That's not true any more! It seems like October comes sooner every year.

Yesterday morning, we went shopping for new clothes. I chose a dressier outfit at one store -- black pants and a satin shirt with a burgundy and black print. I also finally found a really colorful dress. It's bright pink and purple with really big bold patterns and flowing sleeves. I like dresses and shirts with bold prints on them. One day, I'll probably look back and wonder what I was thinking, but for now I really like them. At another store I found a nice pair of jeans and two simple tops in bright fuchsia and blue. I love bright colors. When we got home, my mom made one of my favorite desserts for after dinner, a rich chocolate eclair, and then we went out to eat at a great Mexican restaurant. I love all kinds of cuisine, but Mexican is my absolute favorite. Everything is delicious at this restaurant. Even the chips-n-salsa appetizer is great. I ordered an enchilada combo plate and it was sooo good. When we went home, I opened a couple more presents. Gabrielle gave me a DVD of one of my favorite musicals, My Fair Lady, and my mom gave me a little crystal piano figurine that was so pretty.

So, you can see, I had a really great birthday. By the way, I tried to post pictures, but blogger's picture thing isn't working today for some reason. :)

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'm 22 years old today! We're going to go shopping this afternoon and out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. I'll write more when we get back. :)