Perfectly Imperfect

Warning: This clip involves a funeral and is a bit emotional.

I posted this on Facebook as well so some of my loyal readership probably saw this there but this too good not to post here.

Girls Day Out - Niagara Falls Trip

We Gurnee girls were so excited to find out that the Mayhle Girls were coming for a visit! We headed to Niagara Falls for a short vacation. Here's some pics of our outing.

More Tractor Pull Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the tractor pull. They are not in any order of any kind. Just ones I like.


I love the facial expressions of Vincent.

This is probably my favorite pic of the day.

So Proud of My Kids!!

I will have more pics in a bit (I have to get them off of a different computer) but for now here is what Byron posted on his blog.....

A proud Daddy with his two champions. Kendra won 1st place out of all of the 5 year olds and ended up with a trophy. Alyssa won 2nd place in the 4 year olds and she ended up with a big of oabout tractors.. Kenton tried hard for 5 years for that trophy and only managed to get 5th place every year. I think the girls did awesome!

Chatting with Jim Shumake, fellow electrician and friend.






With her prize.

Each one of the kids did a full pull and had to recompete.

Presentation of her trophy and pictures.

With her trophy and a proud Daddy.

With Vincent

After his full pull we had to head for a funeral, so Papa Gurnee stood in with him. Here they discuss strategy and method.

Vince finished 6th.

The Shack

Wow... where to start.

As with the rest of you, I've heard so much regarding the popular book, "The Shack" written by William Young. I had heard the whole spectrum of reviews. Those whom I highly respect their spiritual wisdom, advice, etc. I heard everything from, "Wow! What an awesome book!", to "What sacrilege!" I decided that I should simply find out for myself what the book was all about. Probably the best way to describe my opinion of the book is, "Wow". Seriously I truly don't know how to adequately describe what I thought of the book. The author did a fantastic job of writing a FICTIONAL riveting story. The story is entirely fictional. From beginning to end. Mr. Young was never intending to make his readers belive that he or any other person ever met in a shack with The Trinity.

Once I started reading this book I had a hard time putting it down. I found myself in tears through alot of it. It created in me such a deep intense longing to have a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father.

I had originally intended to write a lengthy post defending all the negative responses I've heard from some about the book but I decided that truly it doesn't matter. I will most likely not be able to change someone's negative opinion about the book just like no one will be able to make me change my positive opinion.

Next to the Bible I have never read anything that has stirred me so deeply as this book has. I am not naive enough to embrace every single aspect of the book but overall, the book stirred me, changed me and truly challenged me to grow closer to my Heavenly Father.

I found the author's blog and if you click on this link: http://www.windrumors.com/43/the-beauty-of-ambiguity-mystery/ you will read an entry he wrote that I found to be fascinating.

Fun in Coshocton

Two weeks ago we were privileged to be the children's workers for the Calvary Chapel in Choshocton Ohio. Roger & Rachael McCreery are the pastor's there and we had SUCH a nice time getting to know them better and fellowshipping together. Anyways, the Lord helped us as we endeavored to teach the children how GREAT God is. We taught them about the 4 largest stars and how God's glory and power is written all through the heavens. Fascinating stuff. They had 75ish VBS'ers on their biggest night (that's not counting workers or teen helpers). Byron gave them the incentive that if they had 100 VBS kids he'd shave his head. I am MOST grateful that they did NOT have that may kids. It'd have been nice for their church but I would NOT have been a happy "Mrs." :-) God is really doing exciting things at Calvary Chapel and we need to pray for them each day!

This was an object lesson illustrating that even if only a tiny bit of something is not good, then you shouldn't participate. The bag of popcorn was good and Byron dripped just a couple tiny drops of gasoline into the bag. Of course the children suddenly did NOT want to eat any of hte popcorn.

Byron and the Boney men

Another object lesson: the glass was filthy - just caked with mud and dirt. Byron asked the little fellow if he wanted the pepsi. He did but not in that glass. So, Byron made a huge display of cleaning the outside of the glass til it sparkled. The inside was still filthy. The little fellow obviously still wouldn't touch it. So then Byron cleaned the whole glass thoroughly. It was demonstrating how we can clean ourselves up on the outside but without God cleansing us on the inside we are worthless. Just like the glass, it was worthless until it was cleaned out.

Rachael is probably the most active pastor's wife I've ever seen. She honestly put me to shame. I don't think the dear lady had more than 2 seconds to herself the whole week and she just was incredibly strong.

A Day with My Parents

We've hardly been together this year for some odd reason so today it was nice to spend some time with Mom & Dad. Here are a few pics from their visit. They treated us to Cracker Barrel for supper which was a LOVELY treat!!

Time to Can!!

Today was a fun day for our family. It was the first time we harvested our garden as a family. Lots of work but lots of fun!!! At the end of the day we have 48 pints of pickled beets, 45 quarts of freezer corn and 15 pints of chopped green peppers stashed in the freezer. All from our very own garden!!! How cool is that?!!! I didn't get a picture of all the produce one it was canned/ready to freeze but here are a few pics from the fun that went on during the day.

Marge English is 76 yrs old and is a faithful parishioner of ours. She goes nonstop. She cans everything possible and gives most of it away to her family. She lives on her own in an adorable little house that I just love. She seriously has more stamina and energy than I do. She is the queen of canning so I am trying to learn from her all that I can - while I can.

Mom & Dad came and spent the day with us today. More on that in another post.

Alyssa's job was to mark the paper every time Daddy got 1 dozen cobs stacked up. She was doing a great job of counting the tally marks too!!!


After a long day of canning....