Breaking news!!

Andrew, my [ahem!] blogging brother has finally posted on his blog. If you have followed with his blog lately, you may have noticed that he hasn't been posting lately. Okay since August. :) Go visit!!!! Maybe he'll humor us and post at least a little more regularly if we leave more comments. :)

A side note: I finished The Penny. It was really good!! I stayed up reading it for about six hours straight. I just couldn't put it down. And I don't know if I should tell how late I stayed up. :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, Christmas is almost over, and I can't help but think how many blessings I have. And according to White Christmas, we are supposed to "count our blessings instead of sheep." To name a few: family, friends, fellowship, food. (I didn't even try to get everything to start with the letter f :-) Oh, and then there is faith! :D We opened our presents last night after the Christmas program at church. We've never opened them before Christmas, but we figured we can celebrate Jesus' birth when we want, right? ;-) Speaking of presents, I got the Hiding Place and another book about Corrie ten Boom (and The Penney by Joyce Meyer) from Trisha. So I'll be reading those for a while. :) Thanks Trisha!!

And don't worry about the background, we weren't drinking wine, just white grape juice. :)

It is so much fun to get people's reactions when they open their presents. =D

Recitations at the Christmas program

Joseph

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas full of fun enjoyed with your loved ones.

Bowling

Trenton was so cute! He would go back and forth, asking if he could bowl at Shanon or Gabe's turn. :)

It gets boring doing the same thing over and over. You have to change it around every once in awhile. =)

Can we go bowling again?

Too sweet not to include!

Recap

Okay, it's been a little while since I've last posted. But as you can tell, I'm back safe and sound. I waited around in the airport for about four hours, because my plane wasn't there when it was supposed to be... oops! :D It went by quickly though, no troubles.

Since I've been back, we're always doing something. Always. We have made caramel corn at home; Trisha and Amanda came over-- we went to one of Paul's games, watched movies, made the best chocolatiest (spellcheck doesn't like that, wonder why) brownies ever, and stayed up way too late. Let's see, what else? Scott's school Christmas concert. Last night we went bowling with Susan, Robert, Gabe, Shanon, Teagan, Trenton, Alyse, Nathaniel (he has a beard now! :), Elisabeth (okay, she didn't do a whole lot of bowling ;), Linda, Ron, Ronda, Tim, Miranda, Carol, and Ray. Yup, that's a lot of Erbeles!! Linda and Ron sure must have felt left out. :D =) I'll have to post pictures of that later. Today we made LOTS of caramel corn at church. Lots and lots. I would have taken pics, but I left my camera at home (I know, I'm not a very good photographer yet :). But my fingers were a little sticky anyway. :) It took a long time, but it was still fun... after some rest. :)

And Kendra is back in the state of North Dakota, if only we could figure out how to get her a little closer to us! :-/ :) And give her presents (bribes, Kendra? :)

A belated birthday

With all of the festivities, horror of all horrors, I forgot about my post dedicated to Susan!! [shock!] Time for reminiscing. Ah, so many memories...biking up to piano lessons in the summer, making sure to pick (at least one!) flower; homemade pizza; Chocolate chip KUCHEN!!! and the joy of horseback riding back in the good ol' days. The list goes on....

Thank you Susan for being such a great aunt! I hope you had a happy birthday!!! :)My cup when I go to Susan's.

I'm ba-a-a-ack!

In fact, pretty soon I'll be back home!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! I don't know my grades yet except for drawing, C+. Pretty happy about that, since it was my first artsy class. The teacher was awesome and I learned so much from it. If I had a choice whether or not to take it as a requirement, I would take it again in a heartbeat.
I just came back from my design studio, and I got a C+ in that too. YIPPEE!!! This is a good day! I'll write more later. When I'm home! =D

A heads up--

I probably won't be blogging anytime soon. I'm trying to stay as far away from my computer as I can (not succeding right now :). Anyways, the reason for my future lack of posts is one word, finals. They are cRaZy!! I have my drawing and design finals already. My drawing is due on Wednesday at 4, design due at Thursday at 4, Psych final is at 10:30 on Wednesday, New Testament final is at 10:30 on Thursday, and my faith and learning final is at 8 (in the morning!!) on Friday (the 14th). I have to do a five minute presentation, not too excited about that. Eek! So, you can pray that I will find time, effort and energy to study wisely and not procrastinate. :) Leave a comment, but I probably won't get back to you for awhile.

We rearranged our room, now there is sooo much more space. Hooray!

Snow!!!

It actually does snow in Illinois! YAY!!!

Part 2

.::View part one first!::.

Teaching Andrew to relax :D

Working on the puzzle...

Still working on the puzzle...

The puzzle did get finished though! A word of advice: Think twice before getting a custom puzzle of land where your house is!! If you are comfortable with becoming insane, then go ahead.

Pictures.

262 to be exact. One doesn't realize how hard (and easy!) it is to take them. But then come the responsibilities. Finding the cord. Connecting it to the computer and camera. Praying that the 6-yr old computer recognizes the camera. Uploading the pictures. Figuring out which ones are already on the computer. Coming up with an excellent title for the folder (i.e. 'Thanksgiving 07'). Downloading the rest (I'm not sure what the difference between uploading and downloading is... :-/ :) Getting the pictures to all go the right way. Narrowing the selection. And then, and ONLY then can one start on the post. Oh the woes of a blogger! Now for a peek into what the Pauley side of the family does during the holidays, in no particular order...

Arm wrestling

Believe it or not, swimming!

Making some amazing food
Walking, to hopefully lose some of that amazing home-cooked food. ;)

Working on an endless puzzle...

Still working...

And obviously growing!!!!

Quite the day!

We went into Chicago on Saturday to give out brown-bagged lunches to homeless people. An eye-opening experience. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with the homeless, but generally you avoid too much eye contact with 'them.' Well, after handing out those lunches, I found myself looking for homeless people. A couple people didn't accept it (one said he was just broke, not homeless), but most people readily accepted it. One man even asked if we would pray with him. =)

After the lunches were gone, we were free to do what we wanted. First, we waited for the other group in Millennium park. So we went to the "Bean" aka the Clouded Gate. Then we walked to the Field Museum and saw some really neat exhibits. After that, we walked to Giordano's for some am-mm-mazing pizza. Then we went to the Festival of Lights where floats went by. And lots of fireworks. I would have taken pictures but I couldn't move. So it was basically impossible to get to my camera (which was in my backpack that I was holding). Then we went back to the train station on the Metra and got in a VERY crammed car. Then I collapsed.

How NOT to write an encouraging note

"The Bean"

A man-eating dinosaur?

Extreme "Fear"

The unwritten code of the police was clear: If you catch the Khmu or other tribesmen converting to Christianity, arrest them. If you catch anyone evangelizing the tribesmen, kill him.

After “Lu” had been shackled at the hands and feet and shamefully marched through the village, the Communist police threw him in a pit. “We will let you go,” they said, “when one hundred Christians in your village renounce their conversion to Christianity.” But they were unable to find believers willing to turn their backs on Christ. Then tragedy struck the police. One officer’s son broke both legs in an accident. His other son became critically ill. The officer who had beaten and harassed new Christians suddenly died of a heart attack. Other officials fearfully pulled “Lu” from the pit and allowed him to return home. Government authorities were too frightened to take action against the Christians in the village after seeing what happened to their leader. Seeing God’s show of power, more Khmu became believers. Where there had been one hundred Christians, now there were seven hundred. They even sent Christians out to tell other villages about Jesus. While the Laotian authorities were controlled by their fear, the Christians in Southeast Asia overcame theirs.

The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? -- Psalm 27:1 Fear is one of the most basic human motivations. It drives stock markets and fuels wars. Its unruly energies can be used for great harm or channeled for great good. Professional boxers are often told fear is their friend. Fear can make them better fighters. It keeps them alert. It sensitizes their determination. In the same way, God can use our fears and make us better fighters for his cause. Whenever we are afraid, we have the potential to do the impossible. Why? That which is impossible in our own strength is made possible with God’s help. Fear makes us more likely to forsake our own resources and rely on God instead. In this way, extreme fear can lead to extreme faith.

How I long for June...

Oh dear! This is not good! I am so anxious for camp already! It is 210 days away (not that I'm counting or anything) and I am so ready for it. I just finished looking at posts on the Wissmann's and Bethany's blogs about PBC. Why, oh WHY?! can't it occur at least twice a year?!! [sob]

I'm still here!

Okay let's see. What have I been up to? Homework. I was in the studio for 7 straight hours painting. Until security kicked me out at 1:40. It was worth it though because Prof. Carl surprised us. If we got our homework done (about half of the class), we could watch a movie (about art, but still!) and eat food. And for homework all we had was reading a chapter and finding an image with an interesting use of color. Aside from that, doing a couple photo shoots [huge smile], helping someone start a new blog, going to open mic night. And hopefully tomorrow I will be able to do another photo shoot. YAY!!!

My 'Blog-iversary'

Has it really been a year?!! It doesn't seem possible, but I guess it is.

I didn't intend to get sucked into the blogging world. I didn't intend to become obsessed with posting regularly. I never thought that I'd find so many blogger friends. In fact, I actually got to meet a blogger. And eventually turned a friend into a blogger (who hasn't been faithful in posting lately). But I'm sure glad it happened! It all began with reading the Wissmann's and Bethany's blogs. And then, well,... I think you know. I eventually became obsessed! Thank you to all those who faithfully comment. It truly makes blogging worthwhile and I know that people actually read what I write! So, I encourage you most thoroughly to comment on this post. PLEASE don't be a lurker (aka a person who makes blogging more difficult by not giving their input)!!! After one year of service, don't you think that I deserve some comments?! ;)

Also... are there things you'd like to see more/less? Do I bore you? How did you come to start reading blogs? Or start a blog? What is your favorite subject(s) to read about on someone else's blog? What have you learned from my blogging? How did you find my blog?

:::Questions summarized from
Bethany's blog post from quite a while back. :) :::

So human

We have an awesome speaker here at Judson. His name is Mike Yankoski and is the author of Under the Overpass. We have been reading a couple section from his book. It's incredible. He and his friend chose to be homeless for a summer. That's right, they temporarily chose to be homeless. He shared in chapel today about some of their experiences. One Saturday morning they sitting outside a church reading their Bibles and journaling (in all their smelly glory). A man with a white polo shirt on came out and said that they couldn't stay because the church was hosting a breakfast. Mike and his friend decided to stay. After all, what could they do to them? The man returned with a couple other men and insisted that they leave. After much resistance, they left. While walking about a mile to a place where they knew tacos were 49 cents, they prayed for the man.

The next morning the went to church. Guess where? The sat down in a pew, people avoided sitting next to them so that the 3 pews in front of and behind them were empty. After church they heard a man yelling to them. It was Mr. White Polo Shirt! He ran up, hugged them and apologized for what he had said. They replied with saying that they were used to it by now.
"But that's thing, you shouldn't be."
"We know. But we are."
"You know guys, this is really sad. I actually am the director for the homeless ministry. (I don't think this is exactly what he said)

Terry (Mr. White Polo Shirt) did not think to help out because it was not Tuesday (homeless ministry day). It is so easy to judge. How often do I do it? More times than I realize. It is so easy, so effortless, so... human. My eyes have really been opened to this. Granted, I am not now automatically considered perfect and will never judge anyone ever again. But I hope this post challenges you as reading the section of the book did for me. I hope you read it!

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

~Matthew 7:-5~

It's finished!

During fall break, I finally finished crocheting my scarf that I have been working on forever. But it's finally done! YAY! I used the whole thing, so it's really long! :) And, yes, I did intend it to be wavy. ;)

I'm done?! Now what?!!

I just don't know!