My New Church

It seems strange saying that - "my new church"...I thought I would be at my old one for many more moons but God had a different plan and who am I to question God? His ways are perfect and He is showing me things I hadn't even imagined. I am simply in awe, I am thankful for His direction, timing, goodness, and amazing protection and provision. He is who He says He is, why do we sometimes wonder why He does the things He does for us? Probably because we know we don't deserve it. He is Love.

I'm excited about my new church, it is the most mission minded church I have ever been in, the pastor - my pastor, is so passionate and so anointed by God that I sit at the edge of my seat awaiting to hear God's word preached and my heart convicted. He has been preaching out of Nehemiah lately about rebuilding spiritual walls. 3 Ways to rebuild - 1) Press on! Trust in God! Return to the work! 2) Stick together! 3) Bring the right tools! They had a sword (God's word) in one hand and the tools they were using for the task in the other. 4) Hear the rally cry! When the enemy was about to attack, one would shout, "Our God will fight for us!" and the other laborers would run to where the shout came.

Things that might have kept them and that keep us from rebuilding the wall are 1) Criticism by those around us. Sometimes when the work begins people aren't happy and they criticize. Our response should be "God, You handle it!' (because He can). 2) We become paralyzed by intimidation = Neh. 4:7 - 8. "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses." Neh. 4:14 3) Despair = Neh. 4:10, excuses and fear. Again Neh. 4:14! We need to remember that the battle is the Lord's and it's a righteous cause, it's not about me!

We joined the church yesterday, Sunday, November 21st. Can't wait to dig in and experience what God has planned for us. He is already blowing my mind!

*I loved my former church, God brought us there, used us there, and the people there will remain near and dear to me.

Where's George?

I don't know why but I enter bills on "Where's George?"  I have found (5) one dollar bills with the where's george stamp on it, sometimes I enter them right away and sometimes I need to spend them so I write down the info and enter it later.  The first one I entered was in November 2003, then 2 bills in 2004, one in 2005, and the last one just the other day.  You can track where your dollar went and where it's going...I know I'm weird.  Feel free to join me in this ridiculous nonproductive adventure.

So Brave

 James had surgery last Friday, he had been putting it off for quite a while and was finally getting his hernia repaired.  He was so brave.  He had this crazy nurse, she had him pee in a cup before the procedure and when he handed her said cup she asked another nurse what she was supposed to write on it to which the other nurse replied, "their name and date"...go figure.  So right away we knew there was trouble.  Now, James is of the funny sort and when he's nervous there's no telling what he might say.  He was joking with her and she didn't remotely laugh, chuckle, giggle...nothing.  When we were alone James said she was a stick in the mud.  She returned shortly and was getting ready to put in his IV, James said he might pass out and she said she might too.  I thought maybe she had heard that stick in the mud thing, no...she couldn't have, she's just lightening up and being funny, or so I thought.  She dropped the needle and went to get another one, when she poked my dear husband he made faces I had never seen before...ouch!  She then stated that was her first IV, I seriously thought she was kidding but later in the day she said the same thing.  She was a gray haired woman, surely she has been a nurse for a while and didn't just decide recently to go to nursing school but you never know.  I really think she is just new at this particular hospital.
James came through his surgery fine, he was in pain and nauseous and did throw up.  The nurse was kinda rough, she moved him from a bed to a strange reclining chair on wheels.  She spun him to and fro, I guess forgetting he's nauseous, and then was jerking the chair back or forward to lock it into place.  It was starting to remind me of Kathy Bates on "Misery" but I don't think she was infatuated with my husband.  But scary nonetheless.

After that, I started jumping up any time he wanted to sit up or lay back, I was much gentler on my poor fella.  James couldn't wait to get outta there and I can't say I blame him.  Kathy wheeled him out to the van, James told me later that when she was bringing him out she said something along the lines of "oh, I probably should've checked your bandage before you left."  Luckily, James is recovering nicely in spite of his hospital experience.

Christian's Birthday Weekend

 Where to begin???  James and I (me) concocted this plan to surprise Christian with an awesome birthday weekend to Branson.  I called a couple of his friends' moms (in secrecy) about a month in advance to get the ball rolling.  I told them we were keeping it on the DL.  He didn't suspect a thing...Muhahahaha!  His birthday fell on a Tuesday which was also Showstoppers (the big music concert) so we took him and Tiffany with us to Pizza Hut, gave him his gifts and all that and he was satisfied.  Until....his friend Sterling's mom accidentally texted him instead of me...she didn't exactly give it away but she said something like "I talked to Sterling and he's up for this weekend".  Well then Christian questioned me, saying, "You're up to something".  That was Tuesday afternoon, I refused to tell him what was going to take place, his friends made it even more fun...they wouldn't tell him anything or even give hints...well, Jeremy said (on Friday to Christian) that his mom told him to pack swimming trunks which was even confusing to him for November.  Fast forward to Friday after school...I picked up all three boys, Cameron had basketball practice so we just ran to Wal-Mart, they bought candy - yeah, that's what teenage boys need...Candy!  Sterling and Jeremy (the friends) brought their over night bags, of course, Christian still didn't know, he thought they were just spending the night.  We go back to pick up Cameron and then we were on our way, we thought maybe the direction we were headed would prove to give some hints but he still wasn't getting it.  We programmed it into the GPS to which he replied, "It's gonna take us 2 1/2 hours to get there?  Where are we going?"  I had packed the boys' bags (they didn't mind, I knew what to get)  We had to finally just tell him because all the hints we were giving him were going over his head (*brain fairy).
It was getting on to suppertime and the kiddos were getting hungry so we stopped in Buffalo at Pizza Hut, this is where the fun really began.  The boys discovered a vending machine with facial hair in it.  Each of them purchased a bit of faux fur for the reasonable price of 75 cents.  We told them Branson Landing was our first stop and they decided to wait till we got there to apply them to their sweet little baby faces.  This was the result.

 These things stuck good, Cameron's and Jeremy's looked most like their own hair color, Sterling's was too red (uh, orange) and Christian's made him look like he belonged in the 70s.  They exited the van and we followed behind watching the people passing by.  The looks on their faces were priceless, we felt like we were on a hidden camera show.

Cameron reminds me of someone, I just can't think of who??? Chuck Norris? I don't know.

 We went to our friend's condo and the boys went to the game room still sporting their manly men facial hair.  They returned shortly to change into their trunks to swim in the indoor pool.  Cameron jumped in with his goatee on...
The next morning we went down the road to a Laser Tag and Glo-Minigolf place.  James and I joined in on the fun and sure enough James won both Laser Tag and Minigolf.

 What I liked best was the cool names we had Venom, Viper, Bond, etc. I was Crush (yes, like on American Gladiators - the 80s version).

 The boys spotted this Adopt-a-Highway sign along Highway 65 on the way to Branson.  We told them we might stop on the way back so they could take a picture.  Little did we know there wasn't a sign on the other side of the hwy, James had to turn around and then go a few more miles out of the way to find a ramp back...but it was worth it.

 We stopped at Springfield on the way home and went to our favorite movie theater and watched "Despicable Me" again!  Worth it!  And our guests hadn't seen it yet.

 Our last stop was a little shopping at the mall...what a great weekend!

The Big Test

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You guessed it, he passed!  We practiced before it opened (from 8:00 - 9:30), we drove mainly in town, I even took him to an empty parking lot to practice parallel parking which they didn't even test him on.  James and I are figuring that maybe he was doing well enough that even if he would've completely failed it wouldn't have mattered so perhaps they decided to skip it and just take the points off?  Who knows.  But I was a nervous wreck, I was sick to my stomach waiting for him to return, praying he would pass and praying that he wouldn't hit any cars.  He and the officer arrived unharmed and then we went to the license bureau to get the real deal.  After that we went to the insurance office....eh, yuck...but it is necessary.  He participated in a program called "Steer Clear" given through State Farm which gives him a discount on insurance and he also got a good student discount.  It's only gonna cost us about $38 - $40 dollars extra a month, I was actually relieved.  So...this begins a new chapter in our lives.