Changes in the future

Several things have happened since the last post that are keeping us pretty busy. Since my last post, we heard from the insurance company and the auto repair shop. Thank the Lord for moving and the decision to completely fix the damages I caused to Phil little pickup. We were quite concerned that they were just going to give us what they thought it was worth and consider it totaled. That '96 Nissan may have over 200,000 miles, but it still runs great, looks good, and it's paid for. So we are truly thankful for it being fixed-matter of fact it's in the shop now. Phil is driving my new truck which is pretty scary-remember he is a plumber. I keep reminding him to be careful with my truck and try to keep it clean. Well... he looks at me and without saying a word, he reminds me I was the one who damaged his. So.......I quietly sit at home this week with no wheels while he makes money in mine.

The Wendy's restaurant job is finally done. IT WAS A MAJOR JOB AND STRESS. But it has definitely helped with the economy the way it is right now. He lost a few more pounds-like he needed it-and I believe I gained a few more gray hairs (I definitely don't need those). I worked a few days with him the past several months. I even amazed some of the crew when I out shoveled another guy. I may not work a public job, but I can hold my own-just ask the little Hispanic guy that got the ribbing for a woman to out do him. But thank the good Lord for my Jacuzzi afterwards. I'm sure I was A LOT more sore the next morning than he was.

We recently were able to hold a weekend revival in Phenix City, AL. That was so awesome and such a blessing!! Once again, the little preacher man was let off his chain and he preached the house down. Nightly there were brand new visitors from the community that no one knew, the average was around 8 and as high as in the teens some services. That church is on the verge of a growth explosion. The revival was tremendous. Three young people were changed greatly with one saved, one sanctified and another receiving the Holy Ghost. Thank God for such precious fruit. They are such a blessing already at that local church. I believe God is going to do even greater things for Phenix City and in those young people.

Well, with the report of the revival I guess I'll share our changes that will be taking place in about a week and a half. God has opened doors and given us the opportunity to go back on the evangelistic field. For anyone that knows Phil, he is definitely a people person and has such a burden for lost souls. He loves to go door to door visiting and walk up to complete strangers and talks to them about the Lord. We will be saying good-bye to our dear people and also turning the administration of our church's home school covering over to the new pastor. Someone asked me the other day what I was going to do with all my free time. Hummmm...what is free time??? But I hope when we are not in revivals to pick back up my oil painting and be able to write Sunday School literature more (my last set of lessons were done back in May '08-ugh).

We are excited about what the future holds as well as a little anxiety. But we are trusting God to lead us all the way. I hope to share many great testimonies and pics of our revivals in the future.

Pictures to go with the last post

Megan and her drums. Kiss peace and quite good-bye.

The living Christmas tree we seen. Remember there are over 150 people in the midst of 13,000 lights on that tree.

And here is me blowing our Christmas ornament. It was a really neat experience that we are already planning on doing again next Christmas.

Anyway, so there are the pics that I couldn't get to upload earlier to go with the last post. And yes, I do know about the errors in the post, but I couldn't get the program to let me correct them before it published it. I had to restart my computer and Internet connection to get these pics finally loaded. UUUGGGHHH! I am so ready for bed now.

A few highlights of the past month

Wonderful Memories So much has happened since my last post. But so many memories that will be cherished. Phil and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. What a hero he is! The things he's put up with...he deserves a metal. God has so richly blessed and kept us those 16 years. We spend a few days away ALONE-NO KID, NO PETS, NO WORK, NO CHURCHMEMBERS, ETC. A much needed time away. We were able to see a living Christmas tree program with over 150 singers and 13,000 lights on it. We also were able to blow our own Christmas ornament. That was really neat. We had a wonderful time Christmas eve with my parents, just the three of us on Christmas enjoying each other and what "santa" brought, and then off to visit with Phil's family for a day. Wondeful times that you just can't plan; they just happened.

But since then, I have discover the wonderful use of earplugs. If you have ever tried to think, talk, etc. with a teenager and a set of drum in the same room much less the same house you can understand the blessing earplugs are. Just when things were becoming so pleasant now that she is doing well on her violin (no more dying cat sounds-;)), she decides she wants to play loud obnouish drums. For such a quite kid you would never imagine her playing drums, but she is now. Thankfully she received some natural rythm from my brother, uncle and grandfather. So we will see how things turn out.

I must say that the new year has started pretty rough here. I had to take Megan's latest stray to the vet one morning. I have a bad habit of not opening the garage door until I am already in my truck. I push the button while I'm starting the truck, putting my seatbelt on , etc. Well, I doubt I'll be doing it that way anymore. For you see, by doing things in that order I was unable to see my husband's little service pickup. Yep! You guessed it right. I BACKED RIGHT INTO THE FRONT OF HIS LITTLE PICKUP WITH MY FULL SIZE TRUCK! Needless to say, size had a lot more to do with it than the speed of about 5 mph. I did almost $1900 worth of damage. Thankfully, his truck is still driveable since they can't get to it until Feb. 2nd and my truck had only one little crack in the plastic guard on the top of my bumper.

We've also had some problems with our little flock here. But many have been praying and I thank you so much for those prayers. God truly moved on the situation and has restored one of our little lambs. He is doing better now than probably the whole time he has been a member here. We are so excited about what God has done in his life and how He is moving in and through Him. It has been a major "shot" of encouragement for the whole congregation!

So much more has happened since my last post, but I'll leave those alone. Maybe the above items will bless you and give ya a few laughs. We are suppose to be heading to Bessemer, AL in the morning for the AL/TN choir practice that Sis. Talley is heading up. So I guess I better be getting to bed.

Christmas Cookies-YUM

Megan and I decided to bake and decorate cookies. We figured we'd make gingerbread men and decorate them. Good idea,

to a LOOOOOOOOOOOOTTT of people. We couldn't find any molasses. Two stores we tried were out. So, I cheated and got a Betty Crocker box mix. If you scratch the box, does that count as them being from scratch???? Then we discovered our gingerbread guy had ran away-never have been able to find him. So we decorated the circles the way we wanted too. Can you pick mine out from Megan's? I made the smiley face for you Amy D.-there's your raspberry. As we were decorating, Cookie decided she needed to investigate the situation. We decided as we were cleaning up that we had missed one of the "cookies." So we decided to decorate her too-she thought she was mighty tasty or at least that green frosting was. :o)

Charlie and his choo-choo train

Here's the picture that got deleted from the 1st post about the tree. Phillip (Charlie) is playing with our Christmas train that goes around the tree. You'd think he was a four year old with a new hot wheels. Amy send Jackson down here so my husband can have a playmate.

I guess I am finally done, after three posts, with the adventure of Charlie and his Christmas tree. Hopefully, everyone can piece it all together.

UPDATE to the last post

Something really weird happened before I could finish my last post and edit it. So yes there is a typo/mispelled word and the post is incomplete. But I couldn't get the crazy thing to let me fix it. So anyway, here are a couple more pics of our adventure that night.

Creative aren't they? They are trying to put a pair of chipmunks on the top of the tree. My sister gave them to us on our 1st anniversary. Needless to say, I was hiding where it was safe-behind the camera and across the room.
You got to give them credit. They are creative about a solution.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The tree is decorated and the chipmunks have their resting place at the top. No accidents, no injuries. What more can you ask/pray for??!!! Aren't they cute?

Charlie's Christmas Tree

We've probably all seen Charlie Brown's Christmas tree on the Peanuts cartoons. Remember how pitiful it looked. Well, just before Phil and I got married, he decided to buy us a little Christmas tree of our own since we got married Dec. 20th. Needless to say, K-mart would not have been my first choice to shop for one, much less would I had even gave that tree a second look and I definitely would not have bought it. But then again, after almost 16 years, I'm not him and we are so different on so many things. I was stuck with that scrawny tree for two years because he kept petting/pampering it while I wanted to chuck it out in the yard. Finally, I was blessed and it died. I said all this for the reason of the pics below. As you can see, we went as a family to pick out a real life Christmas tree. Megan and I had been hopes and aspirations. We all never realized that we would have the two foot root ball that we would have to accomodate for since we want to plant it in our yard afterwards. I guess you could say the little 2' tree Charlie brought home back in 1992 had some serious Miracle Gro issues. My tree now touches our ceiling and the girth is about 5'. I can't wait to see how pretty it will be in the front yard considering I have planted twelve CO blue spruces twice in our yard and they ain't gonna grow here. Maybe subconciously the reason why this one wound up so big. They also gave us a $15 discount. We wondered why, because it was so prettier and bigger than the others. After wrestling to get it in the house, cutting off a few branches at the top, working to get the root ball in a big enough container, we aren't wondering why the discount anymore. Who else would buy such a huge tree???

Here's Phil and Megan beginning the decorating around 10pm. (It took about an hour and a half to wrestle that tree so it would be stablelized.)

Charlie now decides it time to take a break from decorating and play with the train. Isn't he too cute with his little toy