Confusion About War, Etc.

Last night was a lot of fun. For some reason Sunday's are the days I feel the most homesick. I think it's because you know that's when you usually saw everyone. Anyway, I had children's meeting last night. For those of you who know what I'm talking about I graced them with a Bobbobliwink story. It's been a long time since I did one of those I think I pretty much wore them out at home so that was fun then we stayed afterward and played games to celebrate Cousin Randy's 30 b-day. fun!

Today I am home alone, ;-( but my hubby just called to tell me that he is done with wiring the speck house for Gospel Echoes. Yippee, so he should be home in like an hour and a half. He is the best!!! Even though I didn't really enjoy the fact that he chose to work over the weekend. I have to admit I am very proud of him. It was all volunteer and he just plugged away at it even though I am sure there would have been other things he would have rather done. He is such a hard worker!

Tonight Tom and Jewel are coming over for supper, that should be a lot of fun. But I am sort of nervous because I am making this big meal and ....what if it doesn't turn out Oh well, I'll just do my best, but hey Tom's a good cook ... yike... they may just have to stop at Mickey Dees on the way home. Well, I need to go start on my dessert and finish a little clean up.

One more thing...even though I am a strong believer in the "Thou shalt not kill, and "turn the other cheek" and I personally could never kill another human being and send him to eternity, I must say on this day Memorial Day...I am thankful for the men who gave their lives, so that I can be free, but I am thankful a lot more to my Saviour who set me free spiritually, and it really is He ultimately that gives us our physical freedom too, but He did use people to do it, didn't He?

I love the freedom that I enjoy here in America, and I have to admit when I hear the National Anthem my heart does this swelling thing inside of me that I can't quite quelch. Am I being hypocritical? I'm glad we went to war with the enemies of freedom, but I am sad about the many souls that are dying without knowing Jesus as their personal Saviour. I am glad that the people in Iraq are finally being delivered from the cruel oppression of an evil dictator, but I am not glad that we had to kill precious human lives to do it. I'm glad that there are people like President George W. Bush in office who believe that God is to be the ultimate ruler of us and our nation, but I could never go into politics myself, my conscience wouldn't let me.

Just some thoughts....sometimes to be honest I get a little confused about this area of my faith it just seems a little hypocritical, maybe some of you can help me sort this out a little. This is a discussion I had with a man I cleaned house for last summer...Maybe you all would have some better responses than I had... I really never felt good about it. It went something like this...

Man: So you think it was good that we went to war? Good!
Me: Well, politically I do.
Man: What?
Me: Well, the Bible tells us that we need to turn the other cheek and that we are not to kill.
Man: That word kill means murder, to kill without a cause. Plus those verses mean in our personal lives not as a whole nation. There is a verse that says that God sets rulers in authority for the punishment of evil doers.
Me: Well, I dunno, I just know I could never send a person to eternity with out Jesus.
Man: How do you know you would do that? Your not the judge. They might go to Heaven.
Me: Well,...(why is it when your in a conversation like this your mind just goes blank)
Man: How can you say that you are thankful for your freedom, yet you would never defend your country.
Me: Well, I believe I am a citizen of another country.
Man: So do I that's why we have to stand up against the evil that is trying to come in....
Me: Well, that's not my responsiblity. God is the judge.
Man: Yeah, well so we can't punish anyone for doing wrong? Imagine what kind of chaos that would cause. I have a video for you to watch,"You have time to watch it?"
Me: Um, no I got to get home
Man: Some other time then?
Me: Maybe...(oh brother what did I get myself into, I have a horrible time saying, "No" to people.)
Maybe you all would have had some better responses then I did, it's funny later I thought of all these things I should have said, but I just felt a bit tongue-tied at the moment... well gotta go,

Books and the Flu and Stuff


One of the many things I am greatly enjoying about my life right now is the fact that I have a lot more time to read then I used too. For fun my hubby and I cuddle up together each reading a good book. Yesterday, we road bikes to the library in Sheridan. It really is a cute little place. I have no idea why we need to go to a library though, between the two of us we both have more to read then we can handle. In fact the book that I'm reading now is the last in a series of six...wow I don't remember the last time I read that much in what two months time, or even a year for that matter, and that doesn't count all the other reading I've been doing...I think maybe I need to put the brakes on that, but I have an excuse...

See, One of my goals in life is to write a book someday. I don't know that I will ever accomplish that task, but now more then ever I have the time to do more writing and I greatly enjoy that. One of the key things that my writing instructer told me in writing is to do a lot of reading. So I have... I guess one of these days though I need to take another piece of advice from my instructer and that would to put the pen to the paper;-0

Well, enough of that.... I was feeling pretty under the weather yesterday. There is a flu bug going around I hope I didn't pass it on to my hubby. So today I am actually a bit behind in my work. I did manage to get the wash mostly done yesterday... Anyway so today I got a lot more work to be done....so this is going to be a shorter... post.

Love you all thanks for the encouraging comments. I look forward to that part of my day every day...seeing if I have any new comments. We are running out of things and I need to go to town. Tonight we are going to mow the cemetary, mom and dad Nice are going with us. I'm looking forward to it. This weekend Justin is working on a Gospel Echoes house. I was really dreading the fact that He would be gone all day, but now I am going with him, and we are staying at a motel for the night and mom and dad Nice are going with us too, so I am looking forward to it. OK I like really got to get going...so long, I'm outta here

God cares

This weekend was a tough weekend for me.... In DE we had our annual spring school Festival. I had decided earlier, that I was not going to sit around and mope all weekend. I started Sat. Morning pretty good. I made my hubby a Festival breakfast, sausage gravy and biscuits, eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, Ok so it wasn't quite a Festival breakfast, but I tried...:-) Then I went over to a neighbor's garage sale got some toys for the children when they come over. Then we both went into town to get the pick up, on the way there I got a hankering for a good ole strawberry pie, I was like I wonder if I could make some strawberry pies for tonight's BBQ. I decided to be brave and go for it. I couldn't find fresh strawberries, so I ended up just grabbing some at the grocery store. Needless to say my pies actually turned out pretty good, Oh, and I have a first,... The first time my husband said, "Yup, they were as good as moms" If you know what kind of a cook my mom-in-love is you be like wowzers ;-)

That evening we had the family over for a BBQ a lot of fun we played this game called Imagineif. It's the kind of game I get a real kick out of playing. So the day went fairly well Sat. I prayed for the Festival whenever I thought of it, and I thought I was doing pretty good. Although, there was this nagging pain in my heart all day long, like this isn't right, today I'm supposed to be working and playing hard with people lots and lots of people, people that I loved that loved me. Well, night came and my hubby asked the question ....(music cue--dun..dun..dun) I don't remember exactly what he asked,but that nagging pain that was kind of there all day, but being pushed down into the corners of my heart, all of a sudden came bursting forth, bringing with it an onslaught of torrential tears ;-)

Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night. I was struggling with questions like, "Is it always going to be this way? Am I always going to feel like a foreign alien from another country? What is my purpose here anyway? To cook and clean? ...Yeah there is nothing wrong with those things I enjoy those things, but I want more, I want to use my gifts... Why did you bring me here God? I had a ministry at home...I felt fulfilled, needed, used...Am I ever going to stop missing the little traditions and especially the people that I loved so much" OK, so know that I know a lot of the thoughts and feelings that I was feeling that night were unreasonable as they usually are at 12:00 at night... but well, I now know that homesickness can actually be a sickness, soon my stomach began to feel queasy, but my dear husband bless his heart just held me, let me cry, encouraged me once again not to stuff all my feelings inside, but to talk about them, and then he prayed for me...

Sunday, I did not feel like going to church...I was so tired due to the fact that I had gotten very little sleep the night before. But I was so glad I went. God once again reached down like He has so many times before, and did little things just to let me know that He cared. He spoke to me in so many little ways, but ways that He knew I would be spoken to. Sunday school, the message, through my dear brothers and sisters' in Christ's love. I was even asked to have a children's meeting next Sunday. I felt connected I felt loved. Even though it doesn't take away from all the pain of homesickness it just helped to know-- He cared!

Casting all your care upon him; for He careth for you. -- I Peter 5:7

Your Own Guided Tour of the Nice House

Since many of you dear friends and family will not see our house, at least probably not for a long time I decided to take you through your own guided sort of miniture tour. Please keep in mine that the housekeeper knows it still needs a lot of work and well she is changing it bit by bit, and slowly we are adding the furnishings needed, but for only being in it together a little over two months ... it's coming. The picture above is our master bed room I really should have taken more pictures of that because this picture really doesn't do it justice; so I guess I must say that mostly that is a picture of uh ... our bed oh and the beautiful cedar chest that my love gave me for an engagement gift. He is working on making a bedroom set, so we are borrowing Quinton and Amanda's until he get's it made.
This is our living room...most of the furnishings made by an expert craftsman...my husband
Our dining room... sort of notice the other book shelf in the background. I OK this is a view from our kitchen you see the dining room ahead and beyond is the living room I really like the way it's set up because you can get a lot more peoples in it.
This is our guest bedroom we're you will have the privilege of staying if you grace us with your prescence
This is my kitchen..
My laundry room...
I couldn't get good pics of the bathrooms...sorry really all you can see is like the comode...so your not missing anything ;-) Anyway so there is the house. I enjoy it very much and think my hubby did a wonderful job with it. Hope you enjoyed this little mini tour, if you want to see more you know what you have to do... come on out.

Ok, so after my long epilogue yesterday. I really didn't mean for it to go on and on. I thought today I would just give a little update to what we have been doing with ourselves the past couple weeks.

Two weekends ago we went on a business trip to southwestern OR. It was beautiful this is just a little portion of the scenery along the way. The business part of it was a little boring ;-) I'm just not really into that, but I was glad to be there for my husband's sake. Saturday we went on this wonderful trip up a river on a jet boat. It was a two hour trip and I wish I could show you pictures neither of us took our camera's on the boat for fear we would them wet. When we got on we found they did have bags to put them in. On the trip we saw a bald eagle and it's nest...a few mountain goat's and several auspreys. It was really alot of fun this boat carried like 60 people and it still could do a great 360 in the river.

We had our own little church service on the way home. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed about all the strange new people I got to meet that weekend, so I had to shed a few tears along the way. I'm not exactly sure why I am that way. I remember growing up even though I was the most talkative of my friends get me around a group of people I didn't know, and I would just feel like clamming up inside. Through the years I think I have gotten a little better at that...but I still need to work on it. It's just like after a long time being around strangers and out of my element I just start feeling overwhelmed. I suppose it means stepping out of my own comfort zone. By the grace of God I can start to overcome that aspect of my personal life.

Married life is wonderful. Far beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. It also is a great way to learn unselfishness. I still have a lot to learn, but I have a very patient man who just loves me! I praise God for him!

Last week was fairly busy, Tuesday, we had a woman's conference sort of thing with the Brownsville church. In the morning we heard some very encouraging words from wives and mothers on various topics then we ate lunch, and I got to quilt again. Here's a first for you. They took an offering in the meeting, and I got to be an usher. It felt kind of funny. ;-) They also had some ladies doing cards for the prison men for Christmas, and they had a few comforters going. I think quilting is just in my blood. I could hardly peel myself away from it. I don't know if I could do piecing though that would be a little scary. Wednesday was some for men's committee meeting, so us women went over to Mom Nice's. Lot's of fun just chatting and drinking tea, and playing with my neices and nephews. I love being an aunt by the way!! Thursday, we had planned to go to the hospital to be with mom and dad Nice, but found out the church's cemetary was needing a mowing since someone passed away Mon. The Sheridan church has a rather large beautiful cemetary that they take care of. There are a lot of people from other church's who have bought a plot in their cemetary. Anyway, so we went over, and got it done in about 2 and a half hours. By that time it was like 7:30, so my dear husband took me to a little Mexican Restaraunt in town here. Friday night, we had a hotdog roast with some of the community youth. It is a ministry they have here that I am really excited about. It was good getting to know the youth, I look forward to getting to know their dear hearts even better in the future.

Saturday we planted a huge garden. It's actually mom and dad Nice's garden, and we did it for mom for mother's day. We had a lot of fun with Quinton and Amanda and Kaysha and Brant. We actually will be using the garden ourselves, so I guess we were helping plant our garden. It would have been fun to have mom and dad n there, but dad n was in the hospital, so we went up to see him in the evening.

Dad Nice seems to be doing good surprisingly he really hasn't gotten real sick yet from the treatment and Justin said he was back at work yesterday. Thanks for your prayers they mean so much. Well, this blog is already alot longer then I had first intended I miss and love all you peeps in DE. Hopefully this will give you a little idea of my life out here...

Cheap kites and tea bags

Here are some pictures of the wedding reception in OR. To the right is our cake made buy Ross's I think it actually turned out pretty good.

Notice the beautiful background scenery. That's just the way it is here in OR. Everywhere(ok not everywhere) you look there is so much beauty. It takes my breath away!

Ok these next two pictures have a funny story. Trevor is running along the beach here with...

A kite! A rather cheap kite, but one thing about the OR coast, you can seriously fly almost anything, because it is really windy. Well it was really funny because this kite was the cheapest I think I have ever seen, and believe me I've seen cheap in my life(remember my maiden name is Nissley :-) and proud of it) Anyway, so we open this kite and like half of the pieces were missing. My mom being determined as she is, yeah she has a little bit of that in her as well. Now, you know who I got it from. ;-) Yeah so she ties a few things together and walah, the kite is ready to fly, Dad's like , " That kite is not going to fly." and Mom is like "Yeah it is. " and mom and I start giggling. We get like this sometimes. Ok so we take this kite out onto the beach, and mom stays in the car because it is really cold. So we take it out and tada before we can say.... Well, anyway the kite went up. And mom's in the car just smiling. And we are on the beach just laughing at this cheap thing in the air. The kite's string is made up of about the weakest string of thread you could find. I don't remember how long it was up in the air when all of a sudden pop the string breaks, so me being cut from the same determined cloth as my mother tie this and this and that, and there you go, there is your kite, Trevor Ha! I obviously did not get the kite fixing expertise from my mother. Because this kite gets a little ways off the ground, and just spins frantically, and then it breaks again and shoot's out across the beach. You just had to be there it was a comical site to behold. We all had a good laugh at that kite, and it made great memories.

I'm finding out more and more that life is what we make it. There is that saying,"When life gives you tea bags, make sweet tea," Ok that's not exactly right, but that's the southern version. :-) We really have to make a choice I think, day by day, moment by moment, to look at the best of our situation, sometimes that means choosing to laugh when we want to cry, praising instead of whining-- becoming better instead of bitter. Now, granted I believe with all my heart that there is a right and appropriate time for grief and crying(ask my hubby I do plenty of it so I must believe this) , but sometime along the way we have to dry the tears, pick up where we left off and choose to praise. Most times in my life if I would have just chosen to look at my circumstances from another angle, I could have been enjoying myself instead of moping around in a self pity party. Now when we bought that kite that day and found that it was missing pieces we could have stewed and huffed and angrily, taken it back to the store, and demanded our 2 dollars and 25 cents back( When I say cheap I mean cheap:-), but we didn't. We made the best of the situation and laughed at it. Now trust me, that was a fairly easy decision to make, I mean what's a kite, but what about the times when the choices get a little tougher. When supper plans get changed at the last moment, when you get stuck in a two hour traffic jam, when something you were working at all day long turns out worse then when you started, when your not feeling good physically, when your lonely, when you move far away from your family and friends ;-) , (I had to add that one). Yes, most times if we just choose to look at it from a different angle and make a choice to focus on the good, we are surprised with the joy that God blesses us with. Really we can't do it on our own strength. However when we choose Joy and turn to God for help, and just praise Him for who He is and ask him for His Joy which is our strength, then He miraculously steps in and fills us with His JOY!

There are those times when no matter what angle we look at it, it's just bad, so we cry, and that's a good thing, but we don't stop there, we go to Jesus and sit in His big comforting arms and yield to His comfort, His plan, and His healing Love. Here again it's all about choices. I've seen both. I've seen people let the bad things that happen to them in life turn them bitter and away from the only One who can help them, and they turn around and hurt the ones they love and mostly themselves through their bitterness. Then I've seen those people who have just cried out to the Lord in their suffering and let it draw them closer to the One who knows what it's all about, the One who knows the ending of there story and promises "It will work out for the good..."(Romans 8:28)I've seen this choice turn them into beautiful people, people whose light shines so bright with the light of Jesus that it reaches out to those around them and touches them with the light of His love.

You know bad things are going to happen to us. It's just apart of the life we live, but we ultimately we make the choice, sometimes through weeping and grief, but we make it! God helping me I want to always choose Him, and I trust you all do to. So when life gives you a Cheap Kite -- make a memory....

The Vacation of your Dreams

Just-La's Nice Bed and Breakfast
Located in the loverly town of Sheridan
You will be treated to the breakfast of your choice along with LaDonna's famous 90 dollar doughnuts. Eat them at your own risk.


Choose from the wide (and I do mean wide, this is one of three bookshelves that we have--and we are in need of another, that's what happens when one book worm meets another book worm and says, "Will you share your books with me for the rest of your life?) assortment of books and tapes to keep you entertained, specially picked by your distinguished host and hostess.











Eat lunch or dinner at the famous Mo's seafood restraunt, and ride in their own luxerious transportation.






Actually, your host and hostess are such "Nice" people they will be happy to transport you to and from this oceanside wonder, so long as you pay for their Meal(kidding, I'm just kidding you don't have to pay anything)













Breathe in the soothing healing powers of the crisp coastal breeze, and numb away your aches and pains as you plunge into the frigid depths of the Pacific Ocean.








Yes you will never find yourself bored or unwelcome at Just-La's Nice Bed and Breakfast,for a long time only we will be open to the low price of $OO.OO. A great place to meet old friends and mow their lawn. So come out west to the vacation of your dreams. :-)

Two of our satisfied customers who have decided to make this place their favorite vacation spot. Notice the happy and peaceful expressions on their faces.So come on down to the little town of Sheridan, and you will find true happiness in making others (us ;-) happy.

Ok, so I was in a goofy mood I guess that's what happens when you try to write a blog at 10:00 at night. Wow it seems like such a long time since mom and dad and Trev were here. We had so much fun!!! I apologize for not posting for such a long time a lot has happened since. We have been really busy...I'll tell more tomorrow, I think...so long for now, missing you incredibly

Ok, I guess I have time to write a short post. I actually only got like two and one half hours of sleep last night, so I am really tired, anyway, but just felt the need to post a few things.

Said good-bye to my dear parents and little brother. Bawled my eyes out on the way home from the airport. OK slight exaggeration...The house seems so empty and quiet.

The most important thing is a prayer request I have. I had posted on my blog a while back about Dad Nice and for a little while things were looking up. However, the latest news is not good. It looks like there's going to be some rough months ahead for all of us, but especially for Mom and Dad Nice. Please keep us in your prayers. Dad Nice, we just found out does have an aggressive type cancer. He will be going into the hospital for about four chemo treatments and then will need to have a bone marrow transplant, in which case he will be in the hospital for a month.
We don't know what's up ahead, but we know who holds our hand all the way. I'll try to give you an update when I hear more news. Love and miss you all--LaDonna