Memorial Day Parade!

Yesterday, us, the R's, and many other people went up to Surprise for a Memorial Day Parade! We went all out in decorating red white and blue, and had such a fun day. All the horses behaved great, and everyone loved us!!

Mom, Joy and the Chick-fil-A cow!!


Our mini farrier with her handmade Roman outfit, and hand-retrofitted chariot!! Talented!


My stallion, Warrior, meeting one of his sons for the first time!




You know who...and, no, I'm not grumpy, I'm just tired and spacing out!


The chariot in action

Beautiful Joy...who loved all the attention!

Jessie with her electric scooter all decorated and hooked up to Zig Zag.

David with Sawyer. This was Sawyer's 6th time in a cart, and he was AWESOME!!

You know who again...

Me with Warrior - he looked so handsome!

And, finally, the movie! Of course, we made a movie of it. So, here it is!!! If you click on the TV symbol in the bottom right corner, the movie should blow up full screen.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!!

Lisa

Videos

The videos of the Recital are on their own page. You can find the page by clicking on "Spring Recital Videos" at the top of the blog! Let me know what you think. I have been teaching the first two (Noah and Emily) for the past couple months, and they are both doing great!

OOPS! Just realized that the video of me playing never came through! It works now...

Sing To The Lord

For those of you who have been reading my blog, I have posted way to much silly stuff on here and not nearly enough "good" stuff! So, here's what's been on my mind lately.....

I have been struck lately with how many times the Bible commands us to "sing." About a year ago, Iwas listening to a tribute to my favorite artist, Rich Mullins, and he made the comment that "the command to sing is the most repeated command in Scripture." Since then, whenver I am reading my Bible, I am really aware of this because at the time, I doubted the veracity of Mullins' statement. Well, what do you know - he was right!

Reading through the Psalms is where this is most evident. In most circumstances, the writer is singing out of a joyful heart, but there are also times when he sings even though his world is crashing in on him. Psalm 13 is a rather short psalm compared to some, but in it, David starts by showing that he is in anguish. His life is being threatened. He's in less than ideal circumstances. Things aren't good. But, even in the midst of all this, he says in the last verse, "I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me."

One incredibly striking example is in Acts 16 - the story of Paul and Silas in prison. Imagine it: These two men have just freed a young girl from an evil spirit. Instead of rejoicing for her, her masters see that her "money-making abilities" are gone, and, enraged at that, drag Paul and Silas to the authorities who strip and beat them. They are then thrown into prison where, despite being bloodied and bruised, the jailer locks them in the stocks. After he leaves, the two prisoners do the most extraordinary thing ...they start singing! And, they weren't just humming quietly to themselves. They were locked "in the inner prison," and they were singing loud enough that "the other prisoners were listening to them." What a testimony of faith! Here they are, they've been tortured and are locked in jail, and they're singing at the top of their lungs. Incredible!

I have found it to to be true in my own life that if I can sing, my attitude will change. Whatever is going on - if I'm sad, angry, afraid, discouraged, or even just tired, singing to the Lord really helps me get a new perspective. The Lord "inhabits the praises of His people." (Ps. 22:3) One of my favorites to sing is All For Jesus by Robin Mark. I love the part where it says, "All of my ambitions, hopes, and plans; I surrender these into Your hands." Our ambitions can range from merely wanting to go riding with some friends to big things like college, life goals, etc. If we can surrender ALL of our ambitions (big and small) to God, He will take care of them.

Oh - and just because I was curious, I counted and found out that "sing" appears 121 times in the Bible, and goes up to 209 in the New English version. It is also the most recorded command!.....just kidding, I googled it and found out. No way I could count that :)

So...how many times did I use the word "sing" in this post? (That includes sang, singing, sung, etc.)

I will hopefully be putting videos of all of us at our piano recital last weekend on here sometime soon.

Lisa

Pictures from today

Jessie and I were supposed to be filming the puppies today, but afterwards, we got kinda side tracked and started having Anna take pictures of us. Ok...we were being really silly, but it was also really fun :) This new camera is great, but it's also a time waster!

Me trying to be "cool"....and totally failing!!!

Best Friend's Graduation/Party

Well, my best friend, Leigh Anne, had her high school graduation on Thursday night! She graduated from Verrado and is going to be going to Grand Canyon University this fall...the same place that I will hopefully be going to next year!

We went to her graduation and then to her house for ice cream cake and a "party" afterwards. Then, she came home with us, spent the night, and left the next day. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures

At the graduation

Getting ready to cut the cake!


But, it was frozen too hard, so my dad had to do it!

Her dad is a big game hunter, so their living room looks like a trophy room!

Jessie with the crocodile rug

And the hippopotamus (sp?)

I know that it is the "norm" nowadays in America, but the way that the kids acted and dressed out at the high school was appalling!!!..to say the least. Makes me sooo glad that I am homeschooled!

Lisa