Just Stuff ~ 2

So, I've decided to do another "just stuff" post. These posts might become more common in the days and months to come.... who knows??? :) For more clarification, a "Just Stuff" post is a post on what my days have been filled with....

Let's see, on Friday evening Scott, my friend Kelsie, myself, and a couple of K's friends, drove to Cincinnati to go Ice Skating on their square. It was lots of fun. However, the women's skates weren't regular figure skates, and made it more difficult for me to "get the hang of" so after about 10 minutes, I along with a friend got off the ice and put our boots back on (it was VERY cold out!). The ice was not very smooth and the skates were very dull, and I think I was just nervous about falling or getting hurt, with the baby. I think if it would have been regular figure skates, I might have been more comfortable, but I was NOT used to the skates we had. Scott had a blast though! He and everyone else skated for another hour and a half and my friend and I walked around the rink for about half that time, then we went and stood in the heated tent that was there, watching everyone skating. It was lots of fun.

On Saturday we left to go look at an apartment and just as we were about to get on the highway, our car died. We ended up replacing the battery and the car worked fine. Then yesterday, we were on our way to church and just after got off the highway, our car died again, right in the middle of the road (we were about a mile from church). Praise the Lord, no cars were coming and we were right across from a gas station. We got the car parked in the gas station (Scott had to push it, and he did it! :) ) and then decided to walk to church because we knew someone there would be able to help us or know of someone who could look at the car. God worked everything out. Our new friends jumped the car for us and we got it to a garage and they gave us a ride back to where we're staying. They were so nice. The car needed a new alternator and it will be done this afternoon. Thankfully that's all that is wrong with it. God is so good!

Between Thursday and Sunday we got a good amount of snow. It is just beautiful! Snow is so white! It reminds me of the song "Nothing But The Blood"

".....O, precious is the flow,

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know;

Nothing but the blood of Jesus...."

You can listen to the song and read the words here. Snow is so white and pure. When the sun comes out just after a snow storm, it can be blinding because of the sun reflecting off of the snow. To think that Jesus' blood makes me white as snow, is quite the thought! It is overwhelming!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Blog-readers! Yes, I know I'm a day early, but I won't get on tomorrow. My week is flying by, but I've gotten everything done so far that I need to get done. Tomorrow morning we'll finish up our packing and get the trailer all set up to go, so we can hook it up when we get home from my parents tomorrow night.

In all the bustle of cooking and visiting this weekend, remember to give thanks to God for the little things too. I challenge you to think of something you can be thankful for about every person you come in contact with tomorrow. God placed that person in your life, and although we are thankful for the people in our life, I know that I don't often take a moment to thank God for something specific about that person. So there is my challenge!

Many blessings to you all this holiday weekend, and just think, Christmas is in 1 month! :) I love the Holiday season!

Stay tuned for a post about our departure on our 5-month journey!

Niagara Falls, NY

Finally, here is the long-awaited post...

Niagara Falls was BEAUTIFUL! We drove up to New York on Friday. The scenery on our way there was beautiful as well, even though it started raining at some point and rained the rest of the day. What a perfect time for travelling, this last month has been. As we've been travelling through Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York (which included parts of Pennsylvania as we crossed the border for awhile) we've travelled over many mountains and the trees are changing their colors. The bright Red, Yellow, Gold, Orange, Brick red/brown, and still Green leaves have made for very pleasant travelling. It is impossible to describe the beauty in all the scenery we've seen. We serve an AWESOME Creator!

(Notice the Falls directly to the left of the Rainbow, in the background)

Our original plan was to visit the Falls Friday evening when we got up there, but we got a later start in the morning than we had planned, and by the time we got to the area, it was almost dark and it was pouring. We spent the night in an "interesting" motel. :) It was pretty dingy but it was cheap, we were tired and we figured we'd stay at a nice hotel on Saturday night (which we did, and it had a heated pool and jacuzzi! :) ). So we decided that we'd go to bed early and get up to go to the falls for 8am. We didn't have to be at the book signing in Buffalo (20 minutes away) until Noon, so we had 4 hours!

On our way to the Falls we ate the rest of the fruit I had brought from the day before, and we figured we'd stop for breakfast after we had gotten our fill of the Falls. :) I brought my little "Point & Shoot" and Scott brought his nice Camera with all his nice lenses! Scott took a couple hundred pictures and they all are beautiful, but I haven't put any of those on my computer yet, so you'll have to be satisfied with the ones from my camera for now. Scott did post a few pic's on his blog though.

There was a constant rainbow the entire time we were there. And, you could see both ends of the Rainbow! It was breathtaking! :)

When we woke up in the morning, it was cloudy out and looked like it might start raining any minute, but nothing was going to stop us from going, so we headed out. As we started driving, the sun started breaking through the clouds, and by the time we parked our car, the sun was shining brightly and the clouds we starting to completely disappear. By the time we left it was cloudy again, but we felt so blessed that the Lord gave us bright blue skies, and let us see the Falls in all its splendor!

In this picture (below) you can see the mist rising up from the Falls behind me. When you walked down the "steps" in the second picture below, it was as if you were walking into the rain (but there were ZERO clouds in the sky), because of the mist.

We had to do a lot of walking to get to the "observation walks" (below) but I LOVED it! Because it had rained during the night, the Sun was shining through the trees, and you could smell the freshly fallen, damp leaves. I love that smell! Fall is my favorite season, and walking through the park that morning, I was reminded of all the reasons why I love it! :) We know our God is an awesome God and His creation is incredible, but we couldn't stop talking about it as we were walking to the Falls and then again on our way back to the car.

This was another "Fall" (or whatever you would call it) that you can see from where all the above pictures were taken.


Here's my handsome Husband doing one of his favorite things.... taking good pictures! (He's really good at doing it too! :) )

As for other news, we are completely out of the apartment. We gave the keys back yesterday. Our storage unit that seemed so big when we got it, is now completely stuffed! I still have some stuff to organize, here at my parents. Some of the things that I brought over here are stuff that I didn't have time to organize and consolodate before we left the apartment, so I will be working on that this week, as well as going through the stuff of mine that is still here from when I got married. It's great to be spending more time with my Family right now. I'm really going to miss them while we're gone, but I know it will go by quickly. :)

We are enjoying a quiet weekend, the only weekend for some time that we have had no book signings. We left it open because of the moving, and we're so glad we did! Not having the apartment now, is a relief because we're another big step closer to leaving for the tour. We're so excited! We can't wait! We leave in less than 4 weeks now.

I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Now here's a question for all my blog readers: What is the most beautiful place you've been to, or the most beautiful day you remember?

Leave a comment with your answer! :)