Thankful for my wonderful Husband

Often we spend allot of time at Thanksgiving blogging about all the things we are thankful for and I didn't do that but I want to just publicly say how thankful I am for my husband. He takes such good care of us and he works so hard to provide for us. God has blessed him with so many talents and I love to see how God uses them in his life. Anyways... I could go on and on but no one really wants to hear me gush so I'll just leave it at that. I love you sweetheart and I'm so thankful you chose me!

My new favorite Group - for the Fourman kids!

Ok, well, maybe not my favorite but these guys are fantastic. Remember last year I posted this entry? Well, here's their neat story. These 10 guys sang together in college 10 years ago. Last winter one of the members posted that funny Christmas song on youtube for the express purpose of the other 9 guys getting to reminisisce. Some 8 million hits was a result. A record company rep was one of the 8 million. They were offered a contract with the company and they now have a Christmas CD out with the hopes of more to come! What a neat neat story!!! Here's one of their "new" songs. Thanks to Byron for posting this so I could see!!

Husband Brag

We have this problem of the kids & Byron's boots getting so wet in the winter and then never really drying good and then getting odors, etc. So, Byron decided that he could make a dryer. So, for about 10.00 (plus my hair dryer)



Last night we found this at Gander Mountain:

Now.... see why I'm proud of my man?!!! His version doesn't look as slick but its much heavier duty than the fancy 60.00 one and if the 60.00 one breaks, you have to totally replace it. Ours, you would just have to go buy another 10.00 hair dryer!!!!! The one he is using currently for it is the one I've had since I was a teenager.

It fits all sizes of our boots too. Its wonderful!!!

Family pics 2008

We are currently having Olan Mills design a photo directory for our church. Consequently, we had our pics taken with them this year. I have never been wild about Olan Mills pics. But, we had no desire to go through the agony of "family pics" more than once this year so here's the results. The color didn't come through very well in the scan. So, they don't look quite so weird color wise in real life.

I told the photographer at the beginning of the session that I prefer "non traditional" poses. He assured me he'd do some. After all the family pics had been taken, I got called away to deal with a problem and he proceeded to take this pic to satisfy my "non traditional" pose request. GRRRR. Needless to say, we did NOT buy this one!

Keepville Church Christmas Banquet 08

Last night was our much anticipated annual Christmas dinner for our church. Peg, Tara, Sherry, Ilene, George, Austin & Christian did a great great job of decorating the fire hall and their faithful willingness to help out means so much. The hall looked beautiful!

We had a lovely evening together as a church family. There was some food that had been signed up for that was missing so food wasn't quite as plentiful as usual but no one went away hungry so all was well!! I had contemplated making extra earlier in the day but ran out of time. I was wishing I had by 6:30!! LOL

Byron had a short devotional as well as several short funny stories that was enjoyed by all then we split off into groups and played games. It was allot of fun! Most years we come and eat and then everyone leaves. Byron wanted everyone to spend more time interacting and fellowshiping so we did the game thing and it worked great!!!

Anyways... here's some pics......

Monday's

I'm a pastor's wife. That means I'm a Pastors wife. I have a title all of my own. Because I am married to a pastor I am now not only the wife of a pastor - I am a Pastors wife. One of the many responsibilities and duties that come with this position is that of helping carry my husband's load. Frankly, the devil is making sure the load gets heavier by the day. I have 2 close friends who are also in full time ministry who are under attack more than they've ever been attacked in their churches. I have to wonder if this is a sign that God is about to move in miraculous ways and the devil is doing his best to thwart His plan or if means that God's people are not praying as they should. The thing that absoltuely petrify's me is the means that the enemy is using to destroy God's church. At any rate, I ran across this blog this evening of Rev. Rick Lawrenson's and I felt that it was worth repeating.

But whenever Monday comes...
Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher/pastor of the 19th century made the statement that every Monday he wanted to quit.

This guy was far from a failure. He was the most celebrated and read Christian of his era. The church he led in London was by today's standards a "mega-church". Every week men and women came to faith under his ministry. But on Mondays he was down.

That's a very common hazard that comes with the job. I know. I often feel it as well. A lot of spiritual energy is expended on Sundays. The "point man" often goes toe to toe in battle for the souls of men with the opposition. And then there's the devil to contend with, too!

In my prayer time earlier God reminded me that it was Monday and prompted me to pray for a number of my pastor friends. Some are struggling today and I know it. Others I don't know, but still need encouragement to keep on.

From the mouth of Babes

Last night here is what Alyssa prayed....

"Dear God.....yada yada yada (my paraphrase)..... and Dear God, please be with Kenton, Vincent, Kendra and me and keep your hand on top of us....."


LOL..... Perhaps if He keeps His hand on top of them they'll behave better????

I'm assuming she's heard people pray that God will keep his hand on them, etc.

Neat Christmas Idea

We are trying to instill in our kids that Christmas is more about GIVING than GETTING so this year we are doing several little things to help instill that. The one thing we are going to do is, "The 12 Days of Christmas". It is a "ring and run" activity to do with the children. Buy the items listed below, make their tags, and have the kids start dropping them off, one each day of course, to a special friend on December 13. We will be doing this with our one neighbor who we would love to see start attending our church!

Do this after dark and don't get caught!

To be printed out and used as tags:

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree." It seems that the partridge has flown away & we really hated to cut down the tree, so here are some pears." (canned or fresh pears)

"On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtle doves..." We weren’t sure what “turtle doves” were so here are two doves and some turtles." (2 travel-sized bars of Dove soap & chocolate-covered peanut "turtles")

"On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French hens..." The French hens are so relieved to hear that you are vegetarian. They sent some French bread with their compliments." (vegetarian family, I think the original called for chicken soup)

"On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, four calling birds..." The calling birds called, they are snowed-in at O’Hare. Please accept this substitute." (either a pre-paid phone card or message pad)

"On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, five gold rings!" Yeah, but have you seen the price of gold lately? We hope you’ll enjoy these “golden rings” instead." (pineapple rings)

"On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, six geese a-laying..." Apparently the geese have flown south for the winter. We didn’t think you wanted a houseful of geese anyway. How about some eggs that were a-laid?" (basket of eggs)

"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, seven swans a-swimming..." It’s really too cold for swimming so the swans have been taking nice hot bubble baths." (bubble bath)

"On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eight maids a-milking..." We couldn’t fit eight cows on your doorstep so here’s a little something the maids gave us." (ice cream)

"On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, nine ladies dancing..." The ladies have a gig at Rockefeller Center through January but here’s some Christmas music you can dance to if you like." (Christmas music)

"On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, ten lords a-leaping..." Can you believe it? All ten lords a-leaping pulled muscles last year and vowed to give it up entirely. They did kindly send their canes in case you decide to try it." (candy canes) (alternate suggestion: give a tube of Ben-Gay and have the tag say that the lords heartily recommend its use, especially after a hard day of leaping!)

"On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eleven pipers piping..." One of the pipers thought he spotted Nessie and refused to cross the loch. The other ten decided to cancel since they needed eleven to fly for the group rate. This is to be served “piping” hot." (apple cider or hot cocoa mix)

"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, twelfth drummers drumming..." We really didn’t think you wanted twelve drummers drumming in your house so we drummed-up some cookies for you. Hope they keep your day from being hum-"drum". Merry Christmas!" (plate of cookies)

Change

After hearing several people say, "I've been watching your blog and its been awhile since you updated it!" I decided that I needed to share my heart.

For the past several months we've all heard more than we care to ever hear again about "Change". We've been promised glorious change and as we have already been seeing - change is definately on its way. I'm not at all certain that it will positive by any stretch of the imagination (Barack Obama's or our's) but change it will be.

So, since change is the theme of the day, I've decided that my own life needed some change as well.

Perhaps the change that I was about to enact was made somewhat easier because of the fact that our computer room is not heated - thus it is really not a fun place to be when it is below freezing outside. :-) However, with God's help I believe my motives are a bit more sincere than that.

While I was in no way addicted to being on the various websites on the computer (my blog and facebook being a couple of them), I was pretty attached to them. In my devotions one morning God showed me that I was spending too much time on them.

So, I have set about to "change" the way I spend my time each day. Unfortunately, that means less time to blog, surf facebook or chat with my dear girlfriends who live across the U.S. However, I've found that my days are less hectic and surprisingly, I get more accomplished each day. I've also discovered more time to hold the kids on my lap and read more stories to them! That's not a bad thing, now is it?!

Additionally, I've found that while I have no desire to "stick my head in the sand" about politics and current events, I also really do not need to know every little tiny detail about what's happening around me. Since deleting drudge, Rush Limbaugh, Foxnews.com and hannity.com from my daily list of "must reads" I am much less stressed and much happier. Sure, the world may be about to end, but in all reality, if I am ready (which thank the Lord I am) do I really need to constantly immerse myself in all the political nastiness and junk that is out there? When I am fully aware of how seeing "President elect B.Obama" (pictures or words, etc) affects me emotionally and spiritually, is it even responsible of me to constantly subject myself to daily doses of it? I happen to think that God wants me to dwell daily on what is lovely, of a good report (since when has anything on Foxnews or any of its sister stations been of a good report?).

So...... that's where I've been and where I'll be. I will still update my blog regularly, just not daily!!

So... to all of you, my faithful blog readers, thank you for checking in on me!!!

Big hugs to you all!

Thanksgiving 2008

These are in no particular order. The first group are pictures of the Gurnee Thanksgiving here at our house.

Blair Thanksgiving at my parents house.

My favorite Brother in law.

The Great grandkids and Kimberly (Kimberly is a "grandkid" not a great grandkid)

Bible Methodist Ministerial

This past week we had the privilege of attending our first Bible Methodist Ministerial as Bible Methodist Pastor/Pastor wife. It was held in Baghdad, Kentucky at the Cedarmore Baptist Retreat Center. It was so very very lovely. It was such a joy to be "set apart" for Tues-Thurs. - just we pastors and pastors wives and our leaders. And we were VERY set apart!! We didn't even have cell phone signal!!! There was, however, wireless internet so we still were able to participate in the outside world!

We had wonderful, encouraging sessions by Rev. John Parker, Rev. Sams, Rev. Hooker and Rev. Paul Kaufman. Marc & Melodie Sankey provided the special music and as you all know (well, all of you who faithfully read my blog), music speaks to me like nothing else can. I think I may have gone through a whole box of tissues!!

On Wednesday night after the evening service there was "Afterglow" and truly I don't think I have laughed so hard in ages. Rev. Benny Durr unburdened his heart to us about Old Mother Hubbard. It was a sermon that everyone really should hear!!! LOL We also heard Rev. Dan Stetler (joined by Marc & Melodie Sankey and Anthony Webb) sing a very very very old classic that I remember hearing the Stetler trio sing on RECORDS when I was a little bitty girl. It was GREAT!! I believe someone caught it on video but I'm not sure about that.

The last day was probably the biggest highlight for me. The 3 conference presidents (Rev. Hedstrom - Alabama Conference, Rev. Clair Sams - Heartland Conference, & Rev. Blake Jones - Great Lakes Conference) shared their hearts with us, their pastors. It was fantastic. The unity exhibited by these three men as they share leadership is just astounding. All three men are true examples of leadership as it should be. After that Rev. Hooker gave a final encouragement to us. It was such a joy and encouragement that we needed!

Below are some pics that were "borrowed" from Marilyn Muir. We took our camera but being the "new kid on the block" I wasn't really eager to snap tons of pics of everyone and everything. Marilyn does such a great job anyways!!!

It's All About the Ice Cream (warning - Political)

(Author Unknown)

The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote.

To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations. From those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot. The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia's mother.

The day arrived when they were to make their speeches. Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded.

He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down. The class went wild. "Yes, yes! We want ice cream." She surely would say more. She did not have to.

A discussion followed:
How did she plan to pay for the ice cream?
She wasn't sure.
Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it?
She didn't know.

The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a land slide!

Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth, he offered ice cream, and fifty two percent of America reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream. The other forty six percent know they're going to have to feed the cow.

Her'es Proof from a McCain/Palin Family

We voted!!

Just for me

This AM in my devotions God just spoke to me so sweetly and I have to say I had one of hte best times of Bible reading and prayer than I've had for awhile. But, here's the verses that just jumped out at me that I feel God had just for me today...

Psa 29:10 The LORD sat [enthroned] at the Flood, And the LORD sits as King forever.


Psa 29:11 The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace.

Wow!!!! Strenth AND Peace?!!!! What more can I ask???

Proverbs 21:1

Our ladies Bible Study group just started a new series tonight on Esther. I am thoroughly enjoying it already.

Tonight after the ladies left, I started studying for next week's lesson. This is what jumped right off the page at me........

Proverbs 21:1 - "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes".

This is the wonder of God's sovereignty. Working behind the scenes. He is moving and pushing and rearranging events and changing minds until He brings out of even the most carnal and secular of settings a decision that will set His perfect plan in place. - Dr. Charles Swindoll

My Last Political Post (until 2010): "The Obama Administration Survival Guide".

This was too good to not post. Unless something fantastic comes across my desk, this will be my last political post until the next election. Until then, here is "The Obama Administration Survival Guide". And, truly, I dont' think any Obama supporters will find this to be offensive.

Posted by: Dan McLaughlin

Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 09:42AM CST


The nation awakens today to a grim day (although less grim than it might have been, as the late Senate races come in and the prognosis for a decent-sized GOP resistance looks much better). But America has endured worse. Here's 12 ways I recommend that conservatives and Republicans prepare to face the next four years under President Obama (yeah, get used to that one):

(1) Oppose Obama, Not America: The absolute wrong way to react to life in the minority is ... well, what we saw from too many people on the Left the past 8 years: calling everyone from the President on down to individual soldiers and Marines war criminals, parroting the propaganda of our enemies, exposing classified national security secrets on the front pages of the newspapers, and generally doing whatever possible to stymie the national defense and convince the nation and the world that America is the bad guy. We're better than that. When Obama fails to act to defend America and its interests and allies, or violates the basic common-sense principles of national security and foreign policy, we will of course be unsparing in our criticism. But we should not emulate the Left; indeed, the day may even come when Obama needs defending from the Left for doing what needs to be done, and we certainly want to encourage him to take actions that provoke that reaction.

(2) No Chicken-Hawking: This is a corollary of #1: given his shaky draft history, Bill Clinton at times appeared afraid of criticism over deploying the military on grounds that he didn't serve. We should never make Obama feel that he should blanch at defending the nation simply because he never wore the uniform (fortunately, on that score, Obama's defining personality trait is hubris). We've had civilian leadership before, we'll have it again.

(3) Don't Question The Verdict: Was there voter fraud in yesterday's election? Were there other shenanigans both legal and illegal? I'm sure there were, and others who follow those stories will no doubt be expanding on them in the weeks to come. Chronicling specific instances of misconduct is an important service - to expose the miscreants and their connections to the Obama campaign, to punish and deter and provide a basis for someday preventing a recurrence (although don't expect the Obama era to see anything but massive resistance to taking even the most tepid steps against voter fraud). And likewise, of course, there is still plenty more to be examined in Obama's fundraising, to say nothing of the untruths he told to get elected and the really shameful behavior of the media.

But fundamentally, he got more votes where it mattered and he won the race. Supporters of Gore and Kerry who refused to accept those realities in 2000 and 2004 ended up doing a lot of lasting damage to public confidence in our electoral system. The step of challenging the results of an election is a grave one not to be taken without serious evidence. Let's not repeat their mistakes with conspiracy theories.

(4) Don't Blame The Voters: Yes, it's tempting to go off into the place where Democrats were fuming about "Jesusland" four years ago. And yes, Obama got a lot of votes for bad reasons or from vacuous people. Hey, there are a lot of stupid people in the world, and in America, and a fair number of them vote - they vote when we win, they vote when we lose. Winston Churchill was a great believer in democracy as the least-worst system of government, but he's also the guy who once said that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

For all that, it's counterproductive to lose faith in the collective wisdom of the American voting public over the long term. Even when the public makes a mistake, it usually has a reason - and while electing Obama will be clearly shown over time to have been a mistake, the GOP also has some serious introspection to do about how we let things come to the point of giving the public a reason to do what it did. And we need to retain faith that rebuilding our party around the principles that have succeeded in the past, and adapting those principles for the world of the next decade, will win them back.

(5) Don't Get Mad, Get Even: Yes, it's a cliche, but unfocused rage goes bad places. There's a lot of work to do to prepare the ground for the GOP to come back as it did in 1994, 1980, and 1966-68. The Left drew first blood on the Bush second term only a few weeks after the election, with the Bernard Kerik nomination. We'll have a target-rich environment to work with as the kind of urban machine politics the Democrats have made famous comes to the White House, and we'll have fun doing it.

(6) We Play For 2010, Not 2012: I'll be writing up shortly my early thoughts about the GOP presidential field in 2012, and plenty of others will too. Do it, get it out of your system, come to the aid of the people who will make up future presidential fields, but whatever you do, don't get into primary-season, my-gal/guy-or-the-highway mode again until we are through the 2010 elections. There will be a need in the party's future for Palin and Jindal and Sanford and Huck and Mitt and all the rest; we're all in this together.

(7) Prioritize: More on this later, but Obama and the Congressional Democrats are going to have a long list of issues they want to press, and we can't stop all of them. The GOP needs to divide issues into four buckets:

a. Things we are prepared to go to the mat to stop
b. Things we want to force the Democrats to commit themselves to so we can take the dispute to the voters
c. Things, however modest, we actually think we can accomplish even with the Democrats in power
d. Things we want to propose as positive agenda items even knowing they'll go nowhere, to lay out our own roadmap for the future.
(8) Watch Your Budget: We're all going to have to prepare for tougher economic times, plus the burden of Obama's tax hikes. Don't overextend your own finances.

(9) Grow A Thick Hide and Get Your Taxes in Order: Joe Wurtzelbacher won't be the last Obama critic to feel the weight of government intrusion for standing up to Obama. David Freddoso and Stanley Kurtz won't be the last conservative journalists to have their investigations stonewalled and campaigns organized to drive them off the radio. And get used to being called a racist, as everyone who gets in Obama's way is, sooner or later. Understand now that you will need to stomach all that and more, and you won't get rattled.

(10) Buy More Life Insurance: Well, at least if, like me, you live or work in a city that's a top terrorist target, and have roots too deep to leave. Our risk tolerance will have to go up.

(11) Pray: Well, this one speaks for itself. Pray especially for the unborn.

(12) Get On Living: Life is short and there's more to it than politics. We'll need committed activists, and as a whole our movement will need to be relentless - but thinking about politics too much is unhealthy, especially when you have a long wait ahead for any progress. For my part, starting tomorrow I'll be back to doing more baseball blogging. Take a break whenever you need one, spend more time with your family. And teach your kids that every minute of life is worth it even when the world seems to have gone mad. Many generations before us have done so in tougher times than these.

This is SO me today

For My Friends Terry & JB

May God Have Mercy On America

I have been struggling with knowing what to post today. The emotions I am feeling are so strong and so real I just couldn't seem to decide what to write. I then went to Tim's blog and found exactly what I wanted to say. So, I'm just copying Tim's post here. I hope you don't mind, Tim!!!

.... I've never been more proud to be part of the losing team. We've witnessed decency up close, patriotism exemplified, honor illustrated, and we've learned to know and love some wonderful Americans. We are stronger, we are focused, and we will make a difference...God bless and keep us all.

Happy Birthday to my Oldest Daughter

Last week I was totally overwhelmed with revival & the Sarah Palin Rally - BUT..... on Thursday of last week, my little girl turned FIVE!! I can hardly even believe that she is truly 5 already but I guess she is. Kendra came into our lives shortly before we entered in a very very trying time in our ministry that lasted until Kendra was about 8 months old. If I had not had her to nourish, love and care for, I don't think I would have made it through that time. However, those 8 months just went by in a blur and I have a hard time even remembering her newborn days. Kendra is such a joy (as are all our children) and she has a very tender heart. We love you Kendra!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

If You are an Obama Supporter - DO NOT READ!!!

This is just an attempt to help lighten the pre-election mood a bit but it is guaranteed to be offensive to an Obama supporter. So, I apologize in advance.

------------------------------------

Subject: Are you smarter than a Doctor???

A Japanese doctor says, 'Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him out looking for work in 6 weeks.'

A German doctor says, 'That is nothing. We can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him out looking for work in four weeks.'

A British doctor says, 'In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half of a heart out of one person, put it in another and have both of them out looking for work in two weeks.'

The American doctor, not to be outdone, interjected, 'You guys are way behind. We're about to take a Muslim with no brains, put him in the White House, and then half the country will be out looking for work in one week.'

INVOKE GOD'S BLESSING ON THE 2008 ELECTION

INVOKE GOD'S BLESSING ON THE 2008 ELECTION
MAKE NOV 3RD A NATIONAL DAY OF FASTING AND PRAYER

Let us all join together through the final days of this election, and particularly on Novemenr 3rd, in the midst of our hard work and individual prayers, and invoke God's Hand to be revealed in this election cycle...recognizing, as did Patrick Henry over 230 years ago that God is indeed involved in the affairs of man and nations, and as the Holy Scriptures themselves testify that He will indeed bless us if we turn to Him.

"We shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. " - Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." - II Chronicles 7:14

More Sarah Pics!

Their older daughter didn't come out onto stage until Sarah was working the crowd and then she stuck her head out of the back curtain. It was cute.


Sarah said hi to Kenton. Kenton's Steelers hat is in the pic.



I love this pic.