Here comes a New Year. New joys, new troubles, new love and new enjoyment.

Wow, it’s amazing how much can happen in one year, sin’t it? I was looking back in my journal from Dec. 31st 2010, to now, Dec. 31st 2011.
It might sound silly, but I honestly feel like I’ve changed a lot, during a short span of time. I mean, these past journal entries show some immaturity, and things I dealt with that seemed so huge and life-changing at the time. Now it doesn’t seem so huge. I feel older. Weird thing time is, yeah? Some things seem so very long ago, and other things seem like they were just yesterday.

I saw on Timothy’s blog ( http://geniusincorporated.wordpress.com/ ) that he made a list of some things that he did (for the first time) in this past year of 2011, and I thought that was a neat idea, so I also made a list. So, I thought’s I’d share it with ye all.

Nearly (probably did…) cried over a site ending. (Jibe Now)
Talked to Flossie on the phone.
Got rid of 99% of my books by request of my Lord. (And have since gained back more!)
Watched a young man propose. To my sister.
Ate a Galaxy Bar sent to me from Northern Ireland. (That’s some real chocolate.)
Led a Bright Light’s Group using my own written material given by God.
Was a bridesmaid. In my sisters wedding.
Met some friends from Jibe Now.
Brought a kitten inside to stay.
Was (jokingly) called ‘Jesus’ by someone for a week.
Talked on the phone to RaeAnne for an hour and a half.
Stood outside and watched an almost-tornado.
Found out I’m going to be an aunt of a wee little boy.
Had a Walmart employee young man talk to me, and ask how old I was. (And saw his dissapointment at my not being college age)
Wrote a complete letter in German. (Mayhaps cheating some…)
Wrote a song. (more followed)
Grew closer to Mum.
Worked. (at neighbours)
Got a ‘real’ closet of my own.
Got a Twitter account.
‘Quited’ Twitter.
Had a very life-like dream of dying.
Got my long-awaited sword.

Yes, that is quite a long list. But a lot happened. Even more than that, but get real, I won’t bore ye all that much. ;)

Another thing that happened was I watched two horses die. :( Well, technically only one. Dolly died in the night. Last night. Dolly was Dallas’ first horse, and she was so sweet. She was 26 years old. And she wouldn’t pass until she said goodbye to Dallas. That was so sweet… But we are left with only memories. And 8 horses. Which will be weird.

On a happier note: my goal for tonight is not to stay up till midnight, but to stay up as long as it takes me to finish the book “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun” by J.R.R Tolkien. (Lent (?) to me by my not-so-good blogstalker, Toby.) This goal shouldn’t be too hard, seeing as I’m almost done with it!

So, are we ready for the New Year? Maybe. Probably not. But it’s coming; whether we like it or not.

Swimming Around

There’s some irony for ya. I must confess: I do not like swimming. Or rather, I only know how to swim to save my life – no more than that. One would think I’d be a wonderful swimmer, what with having a grandmother who lives right on a lake, but in that lake there are fish. And when I was about 7 or so, I was under water, just at the end of the dock, with goggles on, and what did I see right below the dock? A big fat cat-fish. It really was a huge one. I kid you not. If I had been thinking I would’ve hopped out and got my fishing pole (I am an excellent fisherwoman) and got that awful thing, but no, I was young, and frightened by such a creature so close to my ‘zone’.
Now you know a secret of mine. Okay, so it’s not really a secret. But whatever.

That was a complete bunny-trail, and really has nothing to do with this post. This post is going to be a bunch of thoughts, random, and not so random, just because. So prepare to either stay in fascination as you get a partial tour of my brain (that’s a big thing you know) or run in terror.

Swimming Around. That’s what I’m doing in my thoughts. I’ve got so many of them, one could drown.
I’ve had two different dreams, with the same theme-line the past two nights. Only difference is the setting, and the person I’m with. Though the first was a little more…serious and..oh I don’t know how to explain it – or rather I don’t want to explain it because it’s private.
I will also confess that I was almost distraught over the first one, and so unfortunately was preoccupied with it for a time on Christmas Day. Even now I ponder it. And now with a second dream, I am caused to wonder if I should chuck both out the window, or do ponder them.
Something I haven’t told anyone, besides my Mum really, connects to these dreams, and I wonder if God isn’t just trying to show me not to fear ‘it’, but to trust Him. But that seems hard, and almost dangerous. But then another part of me hopes it’s that, because I don’t want to have to say ‘no’, if it isn’t that.
Are you confused yet? That’s okay. And know that I am most likely over-dramatizing. But as a writer, my thoughts are better sorted when typed or written out, and are then clearer to me. There’s no need for concern. I’m only putting my thoughts into words to help myself think clearer! Emptying the brain a little ;)

So yes, there are my thoughts. Pardon if they don’t make sense to you – they shouldn’t really, because they’re mine own thoughts. So, there it is!

And a Merry -day-after Christmas to you all!

(P.s Funny enough, after I ‘published’ this, the quote WordPress gives on the side was this: “Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.” Haha.)

Merry Christmas :)

Merry Christmas!
I hope y’all have a extremely blessed day, filled with happiness and joy, remembering the reason Jesus Christ was born for us this day!

You Might Live in Minnesota if…

I’m sure I’ve probably shared this before, or you’ve seen if before, but I was reading it again, and it makes me laugh every time. So many are so true. And I would know, because I’m a Minnesotan the the bone :P

Jeff Foxworthy on Minnesota :

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through
18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by,
You might live in Minnesota

If you’re proud that your state makes the national news 96 nights
each year because International Falls is the coldest spot in the nation,
You might live in Minnesota

If you have ever refused to buy something because it’s “too spendy”,
You might live in Minnesota

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March,
You might live in Minnesota

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don’t work there,
You might live in Minnesota

If your dad’s suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead,
You might live in Minnesota

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time,
You might live in Minnesota

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches,
You might live in Minnesota

If you know how to say…Wayzata. ..Mahtomedi. .Cloquet . Edina ..and Shakopee,
You might live in Minnesota

If you think that ketchup is a little too spicy,
You might live in Minnesota

If vacation means going “up north” for the weekend,
You might live in Minnesota

If you measure distance in hours,
You might live in Minnesota

If you know several people, who have hit deer more than once,
You might live in Minnesota

If you often switch from “Heat” to “A/C” in the same day and back again,
You might live in Minnesota

If you can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow
during a raging blizzard without flinching,
You might live in Minnesota

If you see people wearing hunting clothes at social events,
You might live in Minnesota

If you install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked,
You might live in Minnesota

If you think of the major food groups as beer, fish, and Venison,
You might live in Minnesota

If you carry jumper cables in your car, and your girlfriend knows how to use them,
You might live in Minnesota

If there are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at Mill’s Fleet Farm at any given time ,
You might live in Minnesota

If you design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit,
You might live in Minnesota

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow,
You might live in Minnesota

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and of course, road construction,
You might live in Minnesota

If you can identify a southern or eastern accent,
You might live in Minnesota

If your idea of creative landscaping is a plastic deer next to your blue spruce,
You might live in Minnesota

If “Down South” to you means Iowa,
You might live in Minnesota

If you know “a brat” is something you eat,
You might live in Minnesota

If you find -10 degrees “a little chilly”,
You might live in Minnesota

If you actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Minnesota friends,
You might live in Minnesota

—————————————————-

C’mon people. MN is awesome, isn’t it? I am proud to be a Minnesotan :P Not so proud that there still isn’t snow. What’s with that? Not okay. It hasn’t even reached below zero! Whatever.
Anyway, hope this made you chuckle, as it did me.
(and in my opinion going “up north” is the best vacation ever.;) )

Christmas Concert by MN Teen Challenge and Mac Powell from Third Day.

As I mentioned briefly in the previous post, my family and I attended a Christmas Concert in the cities done by MN teen Challenge, with Mac Powell.
It was AMAZING. Seriously. I figured it’d be good, but it was beyond that.
It was held at a Mega-Church. I’ve never been in a Church that big. There were honestly a minimum of a thousand people there. The MN Teen Challenge Choir was superb, beyond astonishing. They sang Joy To The World, Angels We Have Heard on High, then there was a video, then a Welcome from the President of MNTC Then a lady from MNTC had a solo and sang Go Tell. Then a couple of them gave their testimonies. And oh my word, a lot of them were tear-jerkers. After that a guy had a solo and sang Mighty to Save, then there were some more testimonies that were amazing as well, then Born Again was sang, the first two parts were solos then Mac Powell came out and started singing! He was amazing too. His voice is grand and it was all awesome. Plus he didn’t take the spotlight – he brought it always back to MNTC, which was very cool. He sang some songs then. Born in Bethlehem, O Come All Ye Faithful were the first too. And on the O Come All Ye Faithful song, he asked the audience to stand up and sing with him. That was really cool. Then there was a video of a testimony, the gal in the video came on stage and talked a little bit with her husband as well. Then another song was song titled Jesus, Born On This Day and a lady from MNTC had a solo in it.
Then the Mission Pastor of the Church it was at came on and talked. If anyone there was not somehow convicted or extremely encouraged, then like he had said, they don’t have any switches. His message was hugely powerful, and you knew he meant it. And he just kept saying Bible verses that came to mind, and it was spectacular! When we prayed, I was crying. It seriously was an amazing time last night. God was there so strongly, and it was so up-lifting and encouraging! Some of the people in the choir of MNTC had only been there a couple days! In fact, there was a lady who had only been part of MNTC for 48 hours, and she was still there, part of the choir!
I can’t even begin to express how amazing and moving it was. You had to be there to understand. It left you feeling awed and inspired, amazed and hungry, wanting to pursue God like you never have before.
After the Pastors Message, they closed with Silent Night, and Mac Powel came out, and the audience sang with them again.
I am so glad we went. It was beyond any words.

Narnia, or Lord of the Rings?

What say you?

Yes!! This is my cloak…and bum..bum…bum…my new SWORD! Isn’t it astonishing? That’s what I was waiting to post about with my cloak, because it is just so awesome. More on the sword later.

Anyway, to come back around to my title – I’ve been wearing my cloak every where pretty much, and that includes church. Last Sunday I got so many comments on it. “What are you?” “Are you from Lord of the Rings?” “Are you part Elven or something?” “Are you Lucy from Narnia?”  Make up your minds people! Which is it, LotR or Narnia? In all actuality it’s not really either. I am just me. Raechel. Who is actually now officially a Lady:

That is what the blade says.  I love it.  I can finally be a Knight. Whaat.

(Have you ever seen the show ‘Jane and the Dragon”? It’s on tv, channel qubo? Well we altered the song to fit me: “There once was a Lady in waiting…Let’s call her Rae…that girl wasn’t ordinary!…No way for me, a lady stuck in waiting, I’d rather battling fire-breathing dragons. I knew I could prove that a girl could be a Knight, but my friends all laughed at. But I wouldn’t be defeated, and I trained in secret, met a firebreathing dragon, and everone was freakin’ so I went alone to the dragons home…to slay the dragon….Hey now, hey now now, Rae & the dragon are best friends now…” okay, I think you get the point now ;) )

This above photo kind of shows it’s length and whatnot.

This above photo is the cloak w/o the hood up (obviously).

My cloak was finished…November…22nd I think…the day before (actually the night before) we left for Duluth for Thanksgiving. I really love it, and it’s quite warm. The outside is green as I’m sure you can tell, with gold specks sort of, that shimmers when I walk. And the green is the same colour of my eyes, to that’s a major bonus ;) The inside is purple. Why purple? Well, at first I wasn’t going to do a lining. Then we decided it’d be best. What colour did I want though? Well, I liked how maroon looked inside the green, so we were gonna get some maroon coloured dye (we had white fabric already from something else) and dye the white fabric. But when we bought it, and tried it the fabric came out pink…and it honestly didn’t look the greatest (thankfully we only dyed the hood that colour, which we didn’t end up using anyway) and so we were gonna come up with something else. How about black? Black it is. But the dye wasn’t very strong, and since we had a lot of fabric it didn’t really dye black, but rather purple. So we just stuck with that. And it turned out nicely, I think. I am very happy with it.

Here, in this following photo you can kind of see how the cloak matches my eyes:

And the pommel of the sword reads: “The King reigns and His Son” because it is…a Knights of Arrethtrae Sword which makes it even better! Those are some of the best books ever. I adore that series, and was thrilled to find out they offered real swords. This sword was a bit more expensive then the original one I was going to get on the KOA site, but this was is also supposedly significantly better quality. (Inside joke there…) And so in honour of this significantly good quality sword, it’s name shall be…Significantly! Woohoo!

Oh and because this is semi similar to this topic, yesterday morning I was listening to some of the music from How to Train Your Dragon (ahhhh. I do so love that movie) and I found this site where a guy was offering the piano music for some of the songs for free! I printed one of them off, because I have high hopes that Noah will be able to play it someday. (She’s learning piano, to those of you who don’t know).

Alrighty then. There is my uberly exciting news!!! I am so in love with my sword, as well as my cloak, and of course Toothless. I will always love him.

Hide and Seek & The Stockade

Last evening, I finally agreed to playing with Noah (I had been working on something all day; I’m quite happy with the results of the project too. But anyway) and the game we settled on was Hide and Seek. Mum played as well, and for once it was loads of fun. I don’t normally care for that game, but it can be fun. And this time it definitely was. We were only hiding in the downstairs part of the house, so we soon exhausted our resources, but we did find some great spots. Noah, being the smallest, had the hardest spots to hide and find, and Mum would hide in obvious spots, which made me laugh all the harder. At one point I hid under a tiny table, curled in a ball, accompanied by spiders. O what one will do to hide.
Once we were a little tired of running around and hiding/seeking, we stopped for a bit while Mum finished dishes. Then we moved upstairs and played again. One thing you must know about me, is that I am superb at moving around without making noises. For some reason if I try I can be utterly silent. It’s awesome. I hid right behind Mum while she was counting, and she didn’t even find me right away.
So that was our evening of game-playing.

The Forest City Stockade was this past weekend again. They have a summer one and a winter one. Since Dad and a handful of other guys were out here at our house roofing, just Mum, Noah, Noah’s friend and I went. Dallas was at our house as well, but she wasn’t feeling well and so she stayed home – er, I mean, our house.
The Stockade was enjoyable as usual. Mum got me a lovely Christmas present. I kept telling her not to, but she seriously was ignoring me. Oh well, the present is amazing. I’m sure some of you could most likely guess what it is.

And more exciting news I shall be posting about later on this week hopefully, provided ‘it’ comes. (RaeAnne, I know you know what it is, so don’t say here! ;) ) Oh and I know I said my next post (this one) would be about my cloak that is completed, but I am going to include that with the next post with what should have arrived by then. It’ll just work better, you’ll see :)

And just a quick note on writing. I am so.. stoked seriously. I just found out the current book I am writing in, will have sort of a sequel. Oh it’ll be so perfect!!! God showed that to me last night, gave me a title for the sort of series, and the beginning of this next book. It will be about Brynn and Ezra’s first child, who has a seriously awesome name. I was just thinking about how sad I will be when I finish Brynn’s story, because I love her and Ezra (and Brendan, and Mira, and Judah…oh I could go on. Oh! And Judah will have his own story too) and after writing in that story for so long (almost a year now) it’s a part of me. But I am nearing the end somewhat. And now I have the lovely thought of continuing with Brynn and Ezra’s daughter.
This may not make sense to you, or be a surprise to you, as I realize I don’t talk about my writing a lot, but it is a HUGE part of me, seriously. I can’t imagine life without writing :)