Thursday, August 28, 2008

Hurdles

It's a bright sunny day outside and I've been working on images for a new website. I've gotten ideas from different places: Urban Outfitters' catalogue, other websites...it's nice how you can find inspiration from different sources.

We've been tentatively planning for the last three weeks to drive down to Aunt Pam's and drop off Lanier's Crown Vic so Uncle Arnold can sell it for us, but something always seemed to come up. This week, my car had some health issues which finally came to a head and now she's going into the shop. Lanier's going to have her towed to the mechanic in San Marcos tonight. Two words: water pump. Two more words: timing belt. Well, it's about that time!

Lanier and Jake spent three days working on it themselves. They replaced the spark plugs and wires, a gasket which stopped oil from leaking into the gasoline, and the thermostat which wasn't working. Now the car just plain overheats but at least now we know, whereas before, the faulty thermostat was masking the trouble down below. Praise God I never blew it up!

Here's where I give kudos to Dave Ramsey and his "Financial Peace University"--because we went through his class, we had $1,000 in savings for our "emergency fund," so we're able to pay for the car without charging it! Woohoo!

Anyway, so it's been a hurdle to get over this week--sharing one car (translation: Lanier has to take us to work and school and then we catch a ride home), moving money around to pay bills and not stress over no time together because Lanier's been working on the car all evening after work. Good thing Jesse Blanco preached on Romans 8:28-30 last Sunday.

Meanwhile, I've been researching printmaking and scheming on how to assemble materials and sketch up designs to start relief printing at home and I bought another canvas to do a big painting of an ice cream sundae from TJ's Burgers for Hannah. I made a goal to do six paintings by the end of this year. I'm nearly finished with the first one and have begun the second. Hannah's ice cream will be #3.

Hannah's having a great week in school. She had her braces tightened yesterday so today she's in some pain. And they pushed back the date for getting her braces off to December. Rats.

Saturday I am hosting about 20-30 ladies for my friend Ginni's baby shower. It's a girl! Cynthia is the main one throwing it, I'm just letting her use my house. Ginni goes to Tree and has two delightful boys, Kurt and Kyle. Then Sunday we'll head on down to Aunt Pam's anyway for BBQ and hanging out with her girls and their children. I haven't even met Elizabeth's daughter, Marlie, and the child is a year old! (Mom I'll try to get photos.)

Monday we all have the day off. Maybe I'll finish my painting and get the other really rocking. One thing's for sure--we will NOT be on the Comal River! Everybody and their cousin will be there, tubing.

I'm reading "The Radical Cross" by A.W. Tozer right now. Good grief what a powerful book. Every Christian should read it; it cuts deep! Then I'll read "When Heaven Invades Earth" by Bill Johnson.

I watched more Olympics events this year than probably in the last 10-12 years. I was a huge fan of gymnastics and track. Watching the men and women run those 110-meter hurdles was amazing!! They barely had time to get themselves over those hurdles because they were running so quickly. Lolo Jones clipped that second last hurdle and it slowed her down enough for the entire pack to catch up and she finished in seventh place instead of the predicted first.

I thought about those races when Lanier, on the third day of car work, said, "Why is this happening to us?" I replied, "Baby it's just a hurdle. When you clip one you've got to jump higher the next time. And keep running!"

I hope you're doing well and enjoying life. We are, even while we're jumping hurdles!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Getting Creative


For the past few weeks I've been doing some creative projects outside of regular work. Since we went to St. Augustine this past July, I have had in mind to do 3-4 paintings based on sketches and photos I took there.

Yes, I did sketches. Aunt Evelyn and I went in search of a local art supply store which turned out to be nothing more than a custom framing shop (huge disappointment!). So we ended up at Hobby Lobby and I purchased a couple of pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener and a 8x10 sketch book.

What a blast, sitting on the beach, sketching kids as they ran around and did their kiddie thing on the sand! Why don't I do this all the time?? Because I don't live on the beach?.....

Anyway, painting no. 1 is nearly finished. Painting no. 2 is underway--I put the first wash of color on it after drawing it out. #1 is of seashells and measures around 20x30 inches I think, and #2 is smaller and is from a photo I got of Ruthie digging in the sand. She's three years old.

All of this is being done in hopes of having a small display of art at our local Starbucks. My sister-in-law, Bess, works there and can get me in. Hannah and I went by yesterday and got a banana chocolate smoothie (yum) and Bess told me she booked me for July 2009. That was the earliest date available. Well, no rush to get these paintings done, I guess! :)

Hannah and I worked furiously on a mural for River City Vineyard Church last week. We did a garden scene in the babies' room. There are two other classrooms and hopefully I'll get to them soon. It took longer to do sketches and come up with a game plan than it did to actually execute! Everyone loves the mural so I'm thankful to have made that contribution to our new church.




Meanwhile Hannah, in an effort to do her part in raising money to go on a mission trip, has begun making and selling notecards. Again, thanks to Hobby Lobby, we've found blank cards and purchased a few stamps and worked together in the evenings after work. You can see Hannah's blog about it on www.bananablog101.blogspot.com.



Hopefully I'll get photos of the paintings up early next week or this weekend. Tonight I'm going to Night of Worship, an informal gathering a various believers in the area at Landa Park. Hannah is going to a Girls' Lock In sleepover at Tree of Life tonight. Fun! And we'll celebrate Bess's birthday Sunday (actual bday being Monday). Lots of fun things to do.

If you're interested in Hannah's cards, they come in packs of 4 and they're $5. It's a variety of designs and I need to photograph her newest ones. Check her blog for updates!

--Rachael

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