~Loodles~

In the books that Eric and Leslie Ludy write they often set the scenario that they are in the coffee shop, Loodles, writing their current book.  Upon hearing that it was located in Windsor, Colorado I decided that I had to go there.  So, a couple days ago, with laptop in tow, I set out on my journey.  The cool thing is, is that it's a mile from my house. (whoop whoop!)  I arrived there, and was standing in line for a few seconds when a guy appeared beside me.
"So, have you decided what you're going to order yet?"   I looked over and noticed a balding man, with twinkly blue eyes, and a contagious grin. 
"Not yet. I'm still deciding." 
"Well," he said, "are you leaning towards anything specific?"
I chuckled inside. "I was thinking about getting a frappe." 

Taking his eyes of the menu, he looked at me, "Can I lean you in the right direction?"  (side note: I knew the owner of the shop is Mark Ludy, Eric Ludy's brother, so I thought that this guy had to be Mark, cause he sounds just like Eric!)
".......sure." 
"OK. Get the Cherry Bomb. It's not on the menu.... wait, do you like cherry?" 
"Yes." 
"Alright, it's our newest concoction, and it's not on the menu yet, but trust me - it's good."  I thought about it, and then responded.
"OK, I'll try it."  So he walked behind the counter and started ringing me up.
Finally I decided to ask him, "Are you Mark Ludy?"  He quick looked up and then said, "Why, am I in trouble?" 
I laughed, "No." I proceeded to explain that my dad was attending Ellerslie this fall...he asked where I was from....small talk stuff.  I got my Cherry Bomb, and headed over to my table.  
The atmosphere at Loodles is great!  Mark has his drawing's hanging up all over the wall, and the whole time I was there he was walking around talking to all of his customers.  It's a really comfortable place to be. =)

About a half-hour later Mr. Ludy came walking over and asked if I wanted anything and then he brought me some water.  But the hilarious thing is that he was passionate about his ice.  He's just that type of man - excited about everything.  Anyhoo...he convinced me that this was THE BEST ice in the world, (you see, it has the perfect crunch). :P 
So, my time at Loodles came to a close, unfortunately, but I walked away from the shop energized and smiling.  I think the thing that makes Loodles so fun to be at is: 1) that Mark Ludy is excited for life, even down to the crunchiness of ice. 2) He's interested in his customers.  They aren't just customers to him, they're real people.

"Where good people and great coffee gather."  Loodles Sign

"The Flower Man" 
I want to, and am planning on buying this painting for my room, in a 9x13 tho.

Well, I hope that you were able to experience a small taste of what Loodles is like, but really, you just have to go there!  Have a fantabulous day!! =)

With All My Heart

Jeremiah 29:13 says,
"And you will seek Me and you will find Me if you search for Me with ALL your heart."
I am seeking God.  My heart is crying out to know Him more - to really know Him as my best Friend!   I've read that verse before thinking, "Oh, I'll seek God and I'll find Him! Yeah for me."  But...no. That's not it.  It says,
"If you search for Me with ALL of your heart."  That means no other competing affections - no idols - nothing that takes place over Christ.  Do you know how hard that is?  Do I know how hard that is? To actually take things out of your life that you love and hold dear, and totally remove it, so that you can learn to love Christ better, is not easy.  But I know that whenever God calls me to do something He will ALWAYS be right beside me, holding my hand, and and gently nudging me out of the boat.  I need to remind myself of that......because too much I focus on what I will be loosing, instead of looking at everything I will be gaining!  There's the old slogan that says, "No pain, no gain."  How true.

Dear friends, pray for me.  That I would seek Christ with ALL of my heart.  With ALL of my soul.  And with ALL of my being.  I want to know, to really know, the Creator of the universe.  I want Him to fill me.....not empty, earthly things that don't last. 

So, as I finish writing this, and go back to real life, I am beginning a quest. 

A quest to seek God with ALL my heart. 

Will you join me?

Home Sweet Home

Finally!  What you've all been waiting for!  Day four: we packed up and left South Dakota! (whoop, whoop!)  And it didn't take us long to get to Wyoming.  This is pretty much, it.

me in the never-ending state.

Oh look! A tree!!

So, we drove for six more hours and finally we started seeing signs for Windsor, Colorado. :D :D :D

When we arrived at our new home, Sandi (the secretary at Ellerslie) was there to meet us with three Ellerslie girls.  We walked in the house, and Charlie screamed, "Oh look, there's fur on the stairs!"  :P  I felt just like a little girl: squealing at everything!  I also felt like I was in one of those Extreme Home Makeover shows.  God is SO good!  He could have put us in a shack for three months, but instead he put us in a huge, gorgeous house, with a quaint back round, and a pond in the front yard, with the mountains as the backdrop! And He did it because He loves us!

Then Sandi made a phone call and twenty-plus Ellerslie students came over and helped us unpack our uhaul. I only got to meet a few of them, but I'll meet the rest later. :)  They all were really nice, and smiley, and soon our house was filled with our stuff!

So this isn't the best pic of our house, but it is something.

          the front of our house

                                                                       the side our home

                                                           the pond out our front yard.
 

the backyard - Shane thought it looked like a mini golf course. :P

So, I only have a few of the inside of the house....but I will put more up later. ;)


our lovely living room! I took this picture from our balcony - yes we have a balcony. =)


our gorgeous kitchen (excuse Shane's water bottle).

our "study hall."  I couldn't get a pic of the whole room, so it doesn't look that impressive. sorry.


Oh, isn't this just beautiful! I love how every sunrise and sunset is different!

Well, I hope you can kind of get an idea of where I live, and the awesome place God has put me in!  He is a great God, and He loves to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask think or imagine!

Praising Him,

Bailey =)

"Rount Mushmore"



So, day three....what happened?  Well we woke up, got ready and hopped in the van to go see "Rount Mushmore,"  as Charlie would call it.  We drove on what was called "The scenic route"  It was 30 miles long, but it was so curvy that it took us an hour and a half!  It was so beautiful!  The drive was through the mountains, through rock tunnels, and we got to see Mt. Rushmore from a long ways off!  Oh, and we even saw three buffalo, and two little goats in the road that barley let us pass by! 





The buffalo (in case you couldn't tell). =)




:: my awesome family ::

George (taken from a little cave).

When we were done there, went over to see Crazy Horse, the largest statue in the world.

 

So, honestly, I thought that Rount Mushmore was a lot more impressive, but this will be cool when they finish it!

After Crazy Horse, we went back to Custer and when we were driving back to the cabin, we saw eight or nine buffalo along side of the road! We sat there for about ten minutes and watched them, and then this one decided to cross the street! :P 

Then we went on a wildlife drive and saw way more buffalo, pronghorn, pretty scenery, prairie dogs...etc.  Oh! Then we pulled over at this one field and this wild donkey came up to our window and ate cheezits out of our hands! It was SO cool!



All the wildlife in Custer State Park is really tame!

out my window



Later that night, we went back to Crazy Horse.  Each night they have a lazor show on the mountain.  It was freezing, so we all piled on one bench, shared the blanket and waited for the show to start.  And of course, I had to get a pic. :P

Shane took this one. Isn't it really cute?!

But I took this one. =)


All in all, it was a great day: I got to see Rount Mushmore, Crazy Horse, some cool wildlife, and got to hang with my family....what could be better? =)








The "Charlieism" of the Week

I have this little brother.  He's six years old; he has a wonderful personality, and he's an awesome little buddy!  His name is Charlie.  Well, Charlie just happens to say some pretty funny and adorable things from time to time, so I have decided that I am going to have a "Charlieism" of the week post.  Hopefully I can remember the things he says, so that you can get a little taste of living with such an awesome kid!

Charlieism of the Week:  He ran into our new house and screamed,
"Oh look! There's fur on the stairs!" 

Day 2





Mom wanted ya'll to know that peace sign up there doesn't mean peace.  It means "Day 2."  (gotta love her!)  So....Day 2.  We got up and headed over to the World's only Corn Palace.  I don't know if ya'll have heard of it before..but I can definitely see why it's free admission. :P  The outsied was cool, but otherwise, not that impressive.  Here, I'll show ya. 



OK, it's not the actual Corn Palace, but it's a pic of it from the early 1900's. :P

After that we got in the van for a four hour ride. Our destination: Wall Drug.  It was cool to drive in South Dakota. I had always thought of it as a very boring state, but that's cause I had never seen it before.  After driving through it, I know think it is a really cool, beautiful place!  Seeing the Black Hills was really cool! We finally made it to our destination, and headed in to see all about the famous Wall Drug.  It really is cool.  We spent a few hours looking around, then had lunch in the cafe, and then looked around some more, bought some souveniers, (an opal ring for me) and got back in the van. 

 


So adorable!



I thought this was so precious, so I had to take a pic....then I found out that I wasn't supposed to do that. :P



Isn't that cute?!  I love them!

So, there's just a snipped of our trip to Wall Drug.  Pretty amazing, huh? :P 

Come back later for more about my travels! =)



Traveling!



Hey Peoples! Last post I showed you what our house looked like, and somehow, someway, my dad (who's an amazing packer) go ALL of that stuff in this, little trailer..:P All of us were shocked - SuperPapa! =)



Here's our little trailer.  Note: we could have gotten any trailer with any state on it, but we got the one with Colorado Springs.  My mom called it "A smile from God." 

So, then we got up yesterday, finished packing and left our little home in Wisconsin. *smiles*  It took about eight hourse to get to South Dakota.  And actually the drive went pretty fast, thankfully. :P  When we got to our hotel, Charlie was SO excited about the pool, so we unpakced and headed down to the water.  After a while everyone left, so it was just Charlie and I in the little kids pool. (good times)  We even took the pic of ourselves. =)

Charlie and I in the lion's mouth. =)



CULVERS!!! :D :D :D

So afte our eight hours in the car, swimming in the lion, and Culvers, we went back to the hotel room and watched Animal Planet.  It is a family tradition to always watch Animal Planet whenever we're at a hotel.  This time is was about, strange, scary fish.....catfish that you've never heard about in the amazon....and moose attacks!  Yup, you read it, moose attack!! I was pretty wicked. =)  So, I'll write more about the rest of the trip later! =)