I thought that today I would post a "how to" for a hair bun that I really like. :) I even photographed the process for y'all. :D

Step 1: Start with well brushed out hair. You need to have hair that is at least as long as mine. Any shorter and the end doesn't go into the right position. There is a way to do it on shorter hair though....I'll post that later. :)

Step 2: Gather it up as you would for a ponytail. Position it a little lower than halfway between your neck and the crown of your head. (As you can see, mine was a little high. I had to reposition it after this pic was taken)

Step 3: start twisting it all the way out to the end just as you would for a bun.

Step 4: Wrap the twisted pony around it's base, again as you would for a bun. Make sure that the loops "stack" on top of each other.

Note in the last one how I'm positioning my last loop. It's underneath the first one.



Step 5: Make sure that the end of your hair is on top of the bun, like this:

Step 6: Take hold of the loop that is on top of your bun and fold it over, like this:

Step 7: Fasten the top part with clips or bobbypins; I use clips because they hold much better. I still have to use a bobbypin or two to keep the end where it's supposed to be. As you can see in the above picture, they stick out. :D

That's it!! The finished "do":

Hope you enjoyed it!!

In Christ,
~E

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

My grandma just sent me this email concerning what happened this Friday:



Just wanted to give a praise report on the prayers of you and others concerning the Islamic Prayer event in DC on Friday.



At 7AM Central Daylight Time, Fox News reported "perhaps two dozen" there.


Today, we were at a luncheon where Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman stated that she walked


through the area yesterday and said " maybe, a couple of hundred were there"!


Thank you for standing. We stand for righteousness which comes only through Jesus Christ! When we stand "as one", we see victory in Christ.


Thanks to all who prayed! The Lord can do marvelous things when His ppl pray. :)

In Christ,
~E

What's going on today...

Does anyone struggle with being irritable a lot? I do.....it's hard to admit, but I do. It's not that I walk around all frowny and upset, it's just that little things upset me. Little sister doesn't come into the kitchen to help me when she should; I get upset with her. Little brother is being foolish (again. ;D) and I snap at him. I've really been trying to ask for God's help with my weakness there....and He does help me when I ask Him. But how often do I ask for His help? Not as often as I should. How often do I just try to do things in my own strength? WAAAY too much. Sadly, I'm pretty stubborn. I want to justify myself for getting upset with my siblings and therefore eliminate the need for God's help. Really, the battle is half won when I"m willing to admit to God that I'm wrong and need His help in something. In my own strength, I am nothing. But "I can do all things through Christ which stregtheneth me" (Philippians 4:12)





Today is cleaning day....oh boy, that in and of itself could get me down. ;D Our cleaning always seems soooo overwhelming at the beginning!! Thankfully, we're almost done. Just have to vacuum/mop my room. Really, it wasn't as bad as it looked at the beginning. You know how when you sit and talk about what needs to be done that day it all seems almost too big to handle? Once you get going, it seems to get less. Once the cleaning and other necessaties are done, I'm going to work on our latest home movie!! I came up with it. Here's the story line (disclaimer: it's meant to be excrutiatingly corny. That's my family's style with stories we make up!).

The two fastest pacers in the land are going to have a match race.




It's all arranged, and the owners are training for it. M knows that


her horse is slower, and knows she has to do something about it or


she will lose her fame. She researches ways to pump a horse up,


and decides on purple grape jelly. Meanwhile, D is training her


horse for the race; twenty miles a day at a fast gallop. Patsy is in


top form; she isn't even blowing after those twenty miles and


wants to run more. D knows she has a great advantage.


The day of the race:


Minutes b4 the race, M secretly feeds Pepper several spoonfuls of


jelly and sends her out to the wire. D straps her horse to her jockey


and sends Patsy out, too. The crowd cheers wildly. The horses are


ready and prancing. The bell clangs and they are off!! The horses


power down the track, both striving for the lead. Patsy is ahead by


a nose. Pepper tries harder. For a minute, it looks like she'll make


it!! Then, the jelly wears off and she falls back many lengths. Patsy


is the champion of the race! !






After the race:






M congratulates D. Suddenly, D sees a spoon with purple jelly in


M's purse. M is mortified. The officials penalize M heavily and


take away her racing privileges. M pleads for a lighter sentence,


and promises never to cheat again. The officials relent: she only


has to pay the $1 million but still gets to race. M is radiant!!


The end.


This afternoon I hope to get a lot of it filmed; I already got Patsy running for her workout. I loaded her up in the car, drove her to a spot in the neighborhood that's a ways away from our home and let her out to run beside the car. She loves it!! We average about 20 mph; I'll take her out again today to get a few more shots at different angles. (BTW, I'm not the one filming; I drive. ;) Sis' takes a video....) Then I'll get all my siblings together and we'll get the rest of the movie done!! ;D We've done several already. It's a great way for us siblings to spend constructive but fun time together. And it creates lots of good memories. I mean, some of the bloopers we get are hilarious!!

In Christ,
~E

Something to think about...

Today mom was checking up on us about our Bible reading. I must confess, I haven't really been reading my Bible. I mean to, but forget/have to go to work, etc. Anyway, mom said something to the effect of: if you can't stop long enough to read your Bible for a few minutes, you're too busy. I'd never thought about it that way; but she's right!! We must make time for God and His things.

Prayer is another thing that one must make time for. I personally don't set aside a time of prayer, but instead pray as I think of ppl who need it and as I think of specific prayer requests. After all, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says:

"Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing
In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

I definetly don't make the "pray without ceasing" mark, but one can't reach a goal without trying. ;) Like everything else, it's an on-going discipline.

Needless to say, I will be doing my best to read my Bible daily and pray without ceasing before I do other things. :) After all, if I put "other things" before my Lord, what am I saying to the rest of the world? If I were one of the world and saw a Christian putting the things of God after his other obligations, I would probably assume that that Christian wasn't truly a Christian. I certainly don't want to appear as a Christian in name only. ;) I'd actually appreciate prayer in this discipline. :)


Tonight we're going to be having a prayer meeting with a family and my grandparents. Evidentally, President O'bama has invited some Muslim leaders to the White House for a day of prayer to Allah. That will take place tomorrow. Here is a quote I found off of here: http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/2347019/posts

QUOTE: "American Muslims have also enjoyed the direct support of President Obama. In April, he traveled to Egypt where he told the Muslim world that America no longer considers itself a Christian nation. He later traveled to Turkey and announced that America was one of the largest Muslim nations in the world (despite the fact that 78% of Americans claim to be Christians but only 1% claim to be Muslims). Then in May, President Obama refused to invite Christian and Jewish leaders to the White House to participate in the National Day of Prayer (as former presidents have done), but in September, he did invite Muslim leaders to the White House for a special Muslim Ramadan celebration to commemorate Allah delivering the Koran to his prophet Mohammed.




Heartened by this new encouragement, Muslim leaders have called 50,000 observant Muslims to come to the Capitol this Friday, September 25, for a day of Jummah (Friday congregational prayer). The sponsors promise that from 4AM to 7PM, “the Athan [the call given five times each day for Muslims to participate in mandatory prayer] will be chanted on Capitol Hill, echoing off of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and other great edifices that surround Capitol Hill.” The goal of this event is that “the peace, beauty and solidarity of Islam will shine through America’s capitol.” In fact, their website:





Please let's be in some serious prayer!! Our nation is in dire need right now.

In Christ,
~E

This week, I found out that I get to go to grooming academy on October the 12th!!! Petsmart decided they wanted to do one more before the end of the year I guess.....
I only have a few wks left before it starts. Today I bought a good part of my expensive equipment, such as clippers, blades, and scissors. Today or tomorrow I'll pick up my brushes/combs/mat breakers, etc. Those are fairly easy to find and not too expensive to purchase. I also have to find one snap-on comb (it goes on top of a clipper blade to leave the fur longer)...for some reason, it is a very elusive one! I looked and looked for it....guess I'll have to do a more thorough search tomorrow. :)

The Lord really blessed me in this....I wasn't too happy about having to wait 'till January. ;) I'll be going to school for a month, then come back to my store, groom 100 dogs, take a test, and become an official groomer. :D

In Christ,
~E

On Friday, God once again showed me how much He cares for me. I was driving my sister and I to HEB and Supercuts and noticed my red temperature light was on in my car. Hmmm....was that thing on all the time as a normal light or was something wrong? (Forgive me good ppl and have patience; I'm no car expert! I barely know how to put gas in it. :D) I kept drving. Then it was time to go to work. The light didn't come on when I turned the car on. SO, that light WASN'T supposed to be on. About halfway to work, it came on....and the temperature in the car was getting high, even to my inexperianced eye. I knew that thing had a radiator problem, and figured I was running out of water. I planned to call my brother when I got to work. Sadly, the car never made it to work that day It quit on me about 1/8-1/4 of a mile away. Just died at a stoplight. WHAT DO I DO NOW!!? Lord please help me! I called mom, and a very kind gentleman (who, BTW, had run out of gas at the same time. Like I said, God once again showed how much He cares for me. :D) came to help me push it off the road. Thankfully, seeing as I was so close to work, I was able to just walk there and was only a few minutes late. Mom and dad came to get the car and take it to the mechanic. (Dad put some water in the car and managed to get it started and running again...) The mechanic replaced the water pump (I think....) and also repaired the right turn signal, which for some reason decided to conk out when dad was driving to the mechanic. All in all, I spent about $450, which is waay better than the $650 we were told it was going to cost!!

So, lessons learned? 1) Watch the tempurature gauge and know when the temperature is getting dangerous (I knew to watch it, but didn't know what was dangerous....until it was too late and that light had already come on. I also regret not pulling over....:P) in your car, especially when it has a known radiator problem. 2) Keep some distilled water in your back seat or trunk just in case. 3) God always provides for us, even when the predicament we're in is the result of our stupidity. (As is usually the case. :D)

This weekend we also went camping, as I posted last. We had sooo much fun!! Ate some treat foods (chips, soda, granola bars) waded around in the veeerrry slippery river (which right now isn't much of a river. :P It's too dry!) hiked and also rested! Here are some pics of my sisters climbing trees:

Take a look at the video I embedded at the bottom of the page...it's pretty cute, especially for we horse lovers. :D

In Christ,
~E

camping...

Today, I don't have to go to work until 3...so I had some time to spend on here.

This weekend my family's going to go camping!! The rest of my fam will leave on Friday; I'll be going at about 9:30 or so, seeing as that's when I'll be home on Friday. (Closing night. I'm going to get it changed soon, hopefully!!) We'll stay through Sunday. It should be lots of fun! The weather is pretty nice; we had 5" of rain last wk, and that cooled the temp down considerably. We'll still get to go swimming there though. It's not too cool for that yet. The park we're going to also has hiking trails. And, of course, the boys will fish. :P They always do; it dominates them. heehee. Oh well!!

This morning I did a lot with my fish; changed some water in the 65 gal, treated a betta spawn that seems to be dying (ugh!) and fed them all frozen food. Cleaned a couple betta tanks too. Oh, and then I altered little sister's skirt; it was huuuge on her. :D I don't enjoy altering. :P It's kind of tedious. At least skirts don't take too long....

In Christ,
~E

It's Monday again.

Monday....they always seem like the hardest! I went to work at 8 this morning. Had a super boring day though. :P I think I bathed all of 4 dogs. I'm supposed to do 10. :o Yeah, not good! But, one of those dogs was the cutest 4 mo cockapoo!! Stank to high heaven, (dog pee) too...I felt queasy at my stomach. He'd just been adopted, and you know how dogs up for adoption don't get cleaned very well. Even though I used probably 5 different shampoos and washed him about 10X (yeah, two washings with each shampoo. :D) there was still an odor. That stench was as tenacious as skunk smell!

We have a new market in my city called New Flower; it has the best produce prices, and the produce is wonderful!! I bought 3 bags of their peaches today. Mom will make a peach pie with them. Yum!!

In Christ,
~E

Some news...

Today, two of my brothers and my dad went to a friend's home to remodel three of their rooms. Yesterday, they painted and ripped up carpeting. They'll be laying flooring Today. I just hope they can get it all done before tomorrow!! It's supposed to be a surprise for the mother, who is out of town. We girls get to stay home, clean house, and take the guys lunch. :D I'd much rather stay home, anyway. I was out Mon-Fri working this wk, and I'm ready for a break. ;) Pray that everyone stays safe!!

In Christ,
~E

Hi everyone!!

This is the first post on my blog. Here's a bit about me.

I am the oldest of 10 kids and was homeschooled from k-12. I just graduated this year. I currently work for Petsmart as a professional bather in preparation for becoming a groomer. I feel that this is what the Lord has commanded me to do. After that, I will probably get a associates degree in vet technician. Hopefully, I'll eventually get married and have a family, along with my own grooming business.

I have many hobbies. Dogs and things related to them being on the top of the list. I especially love the grooming and feeding of them. Both aspects fascinate me. In my family we have 3 dogs: an Australian Cattle Dog, (11 yrs) a mutt that I think is part whippet and part foxhound with some other stuff perhaps, (10 yrs) and a Lhasa Apso. (3.5 mo) All three are fed a species appropriate diet. And of course are groomed according to their needs...:D

I also love fish, especially bettas. I own 13 bettas currently, and seeing as I also like to breed bettas, I am raising 100 babies. Did I mention I like bettas? :D Along with the bettas, I have four 5 gallon tanks, 1 20 gallon tank, and 1 65 gallon tank.

I enjoy other things, too, such as crocheting, knitting, embroidering, beading necklaces/bracelets, spending time with my friends and family, taking photos of the babies, dogs, and kids, reading books (horse books are a favorite! I love horses, too. Just don't have one....yet. ;)) and chatting via email with friends who don't live close to me.

Hopefully, I'll be able to share more about me and my family as time goes on....I just scratched the surface. :D

Love in Christ,
~E