THE PAST
We are thankful for all of the blessings the Lord bestowed on us in 2008. None of us experienced any serious illness, we enjoyed the company of family and friends, we were able to take an extended vacation with our RV, and despite the suffering economy, Tom has a job that he enjoys. We continued on with our homeschool journey and are thankful for all the experiences and people that God in His providence crossed our paths with. There were a few trials that came our way, and we stand on the other side of them, grateful for how the Lord made Himself known to us and guided us in His wisdom in the midst of each one. To Him be glory for preserving us!
Some events of our recent past:
Christmas dinner at Mom and Dad's in Florida -- Mom set a beautiful table and served a scrumptious dinner!
Sarah opening up a pair of sweet , fuzzy pj's from Nana and Papa
Christian and Andrew with their new air soft guns from Nana and Papa
Jeff, Mom, Dad and I
Andrew, Christian, Aunt Jennnnnnnnnnn, Sarah, Uncle Jeff, Nana and Papa
Sarah performing her first public solo at His Master's Voice Christmas concert.
For the third year in a row, we spent New Year's Eve at the Hawkins' house. Following the evening's festivities, the boys stayed at their house and Kristin came home with Sarah. Here they are enjoying homemade cinnamon rolls on New Year's Day. Later on in the afternoon, we went back to the Hawkins' where we were served a traditional New Year's Day meal of ham, black-eyed peas, and collard greens for dinner. Mmmm good!
Bryan Anderson and Christian entered their pH Robot 2.0 in the local science fair and won 5th place.
THE PRESENT
Presently, Tom is on a trip and will be returning home Monday (19th) evening. Christian, Andrew and Sarah have been a tremendous help to me as I recuperate from some surgery I had this week to remove some painful endometrial adhesions. They made Greek Chicken Pasta for dinner tonight -- yummy!
While I've been taking it easy the past few days, I have been learning to use Photoshop Elements 7.0. So far, it has been very easy to learn, and I've transferred all of my photos (all 3,500 of them) from the EasyShare photo managing software I have been using for the past couple of years. I am very impressed with the editing tools that Photoshop has, and I have barely scratched the surface of what this program is capable of. Here are a few photos I found in my files and touched up:
Here is a photo of my brother Jeff and I from many years ago. The original photo was yellowing and I used the Auto Correct Color function on Photoshop. If only it could restore my little kitty to me! Shortly after this picture was taken, Mom got all of the kittens adopted out that our outside cat, Tigger, had given birth to. The one that I am holding was my favorite, and I remember it being put into a bushel basket in the trunk of someone's car for a ride to its new home. I'm sure it was much happier with its new owner than it was with a 5 year-old girl mauling it all the time!
One of my favorite pictures -- Jeff and I with Grandpa Umbaugh with the catch of the day. Grandma and Grandpa Umbaugh lived on the greatest property ever, with two big, stocked ponds to swim in, row across, fish in, catch tadpoles in, hunt for frogs in, and even get baptized in if they were holding a church meeting. Photoshop picked up on the variation in the grass between the undisturbed dew on the ground and the areas where we had walked.
Here is the photo I am most excited about. This picture is of my Grandpa Vermillion (standing on the right) with his two cousins, Paul and Walt, during WorldWar II, when they were all serving in the Army. As you can see, the original has taken a beating through the years.
Here is the photo after I touched it up with Photoshop -- wow! I am really going to enjoy using this program!
THE FUTURE
What 2009 holds, we don't know, but we know Who holds all things in His hands, and we rest in His perfect will for each of our lives, come sorrow or joy. In the short-term future, we are planning on leaving Wednesday for a camping trip to St. Augustine, Florida this week, providing I can pull everything together Monday and Tuesday.
Plans for this year's garden are in the works! We will be trying a different planting approach this year -- "lasagna" gardening. Google it to find out more!
We pray that the Lord abundantly blesses each of you with all things eternal in 2009.
The next updates will be coming to you from St. Augustine!
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