In The Potter's Hands

Girl Scout....To be or not to be...

2012-01-18T05:59:00.000-08:00

I read an article that's going around on Facebook this morning that made me aware of somethings I didn't know about the Girl Scouts. My girls are in Girl Scouts so this is certainly something I need to check into. Please be aware, this article is not me for or against it, it's my rambling thoughts about whether or not we should be involved. The article says that this organization supports abortion and allows little boys who cross-dress to be involved among other things. This is not something I want my girls to be a part of. The other part of me is saying, but my girls know nothing about all this, I didn't know anything about all this. What we know is what our little troop here is doing. Here is the mission statement: Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. They memorize this promise: On my honor I will try: To serve God and my country, To help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law. What is the law you may ask? The Law: I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and to be a sister to every Girl Scout. When this is all you know Girl Scouts seems like a wonderful organization to be a part of. Do I want to be associated with something like this? No. But where do I draw the line? Walmart also supports abortion and is also partnered with NGLCC, a national Gay and Lesbian group. What's the difference and yet we shop at Walmart almost daily supporting them. I thought Target also supported this but all I can find is that they support Anti-Gay politicians. So if we're going to choose to stop supporting and being a part of Girl Scouts, we have to include Walmart in this also. And I'm sure there's tons of other businesses out there that we must research and boycott. Especially check into your clothing brands, like for instance Hilfiger and Abercrombie and Fitch. So are there other organizations out there that my girls can be a part of that's all good? They really love Girl Scouts but I do have to think of my example in this community. Which also brings me to wonder, what about the influence we may have over our leader who is a non-Christian. There are 6 families from our church represented in the two troops in our town. We make up over half the troops. We've gotten to know her really well. Will us pulling out make her resent us and our church? Okay, I need some thoughts on this please.

In Remembrance of my Father-In-Law; Larry Corder

2011-11-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today Heaven welcomed home a wonderful man. He was the father of my husband and I have so many things to thank him for. He was a soft-spoken man who made a big impact in so many lives. He served this country in the Vietnam War and after the war he lived his life serving God and helping others. A lot of the good qualities I find in Jason, I know came from him. He and Diana couldn't have children of their own so they adopted Jason and gave him a Godly, loving home to grow up in. My husband didn't plan on being a preacher when he was in high school. But his dad told him that if he would just go to one year of Bible College they would pay for it. He went and, as they say, the rest is history. Jason has been preaching ever since. So not only did Larry help people through his own personal life but also through the ministry of his son. You don't find very many parents who want their children to go into the ministry because as everybody knows, it's not one of the best paying jobs. But he and Diana couldn't have been more proud of Jason as he stood up and received his Bachelor and got his first preaching job.
Larry was a wonderful Grandfather. The only thing I regret about waiting so long to have children, is that he and Diana didn't have longer to be grandparents. They got to enjoy being grandparents for three years with our first daughter Kelsey, and welcomed our second daughter, McKayla, into this world before Diana was taken from us with cancer and Larry had his first stroke. It makes me sad to think of how much our girls will miss by not truly knowing them. Thankfully the girls did get to know Larry, how he was after his stroke, and could still see that he was a sweet loving Grandfather and they came to love him and prayed for him every night. I'm so glad we have Heaven to look forward to and know that we will all be together again free of strokes and cancer. For right now though, we have many happy memories and will carry on the legacy he left behind.

A Thank You Note to My Parents

2011-09-08T11:04:00.001-07:00

Dear Mom and Dad,

In this crazy world we live in today I see so many different parenting techniques, and although I know yours weren't perfect, because well, nobody's are, you had it right in so many ways.
Thank you for being my parents and not trying to be my friend. Because in so doing you made it possible for us to be friends today, otherwise I might have a lot of regrets in my life that I would've blamed you for.
Thank you for taking me to church and church events religiously. I knew for a fact that God was the most important thing in your life. It also gave me the opportunity to meet other kids my age with parents like mine. It let me know that we weren't alone in this world when all my school friends thought so differently than I did. I made some of my best friends at those events and lived for summer camps where I could spend a whole week with them and relax knowing my Christian beliefs wouldn't be harassed and degraded by my peers.
Thank you for telling me in no uncertain terms that I could not date non-believers. Even if in the eighth grade I had to say no to a boy I had a serious crush on and lost a lot of friends in the process. We were friends with many of the same people, and I was mad at you, but looking back I realize now in making that decision you helped me choose better companions who weren't "fair-weather" friends which made me be a better friend to others. It also protected me from making even bigger mistakes. He had a reputation with past girlfriends and still I was attracted to him, had you consented I would have too.
Thank you for not trusting me with a lot of freedom at a young age and allowing me to hang out with my friends at the mall or movies or parties or dances. I know what went on at some of those and knowing myself, I would have participated.
Thank you for not letting me wear the skimpy clothing I wanted to wear because even though I didn't know (or did I...) you knew what it did to a young man and you knew that it cheapened my body. You saved me from making a lifetime of mistakes because you realized I was just a child who needed to be molded in a good Christian environment before releasing me to test my own convictions.
Thank you for trusting me and believing in me when it was time for me try out my wings and leave the nest. I pray that I will be the same for my children and later down the road I will see them raising their families in the Lord as well. God blessed me abundantly when he gave me to you and I thank Him everyday for the both of you.

With much love and thanks, Michelle

Our trip to Atlanta Georgia

2011-04-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

Jason had a Youth Minister's Seminar in Duluth Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta and since the girls had Spring Break at the same time we decided to go with him. Before I realized the two were at the same time I was really dreading him leaving us because it seems to be getting harder and harder for the girls to see him go to these things. Last time they both cried themselves to sleep when he left. So needless to say, they were very excited when they found out we were going with him. He was busy all day, with the exception of a couple hours at lunch and then he would be done by six in the evening, so the girls and I had time to kill. The first day we found an ice skating rink with open skating. They were absolutely thrilled!

After that we went and met Jason for lunch. Along with Dan Locke and a couple of his coworkers from Arizona. For some reason Kelsey took a liking to Dan a few years ago at Mathew and Emily's wedding and after that referred to him as "My friend Dan". She was only 3 years old at the time and since then his title has shortened to "Friend Dan". Even though this was McKayla's first time to meet Dan, that has always been her name for him as well. I think you can tell from this picture why they like him so much :-) When we parted ways again the girls and I went back to the Hotel to just relax.
For supper we met up with the four of them again and this time we went into Atlanta to eat at a Wild Buffalo Wing restaurant, or something like that. I can't seem to remember the name of that place. I want to call it Wild Bill's Buffalo Wings for some reason. We thought it was pretty cool because it was in a parking garage along with a two story Target and a three story Dick's Sporting Good's Store. You can tell we're from the country.

The next morning we had to check out of the motel by 11 so the girls and I found a park

We picked up Jason and had lunch in the food court at the mall. Much to the Kelsey and McKayla's delight, they also had a Carousel there.

We dropped Jason back off at the convention and then we headed to the Theater to watch Hop. I have to say, the GPS is probably one of the greatest inventions of all time! I found all these places like I knew where I was going, and that's saying something when you're talking about a country girl in the big city!

Unfortunately that brought our fun week to a close. It was time to go back and pick up Jason, say goodbye to Dan and hit the road. For our last Hurrah, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, Steak and Shake.

Changing tastes

2011-04-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

This year for Christmas Kelsey told me she wanted a new room. Unfortunately she told me too late to get it done for Christmas but it started me thinking about it and so in February I decided to do it. I was a little sad because I had really liked the Tinkerbell room with it's two shades of green, light blue ceiling, my favorite color of purple on one wall, and the little "jewels" bedecking the border line. Not to mention the Tinkerbell fan I had found at Lowes for not such a good deal. I thought, well maybe McKayla's not ready to change, I won't do it if she's not ready. But.......sigh...... she was rather tired of Tinkerbell as well so I guess it was time. It had only been two years!

So we went to Home Depot to get some ideas for their new room. They went in the store with all kinds of ideas for a horse room, so we were ready to look at shades of brown, but we came out with all different shades of purple. Some of you know, purple just happens to be my favorite color but I want you to know I had nothing to do with their choice! I was happy with it though :-). We talked about all the different things we could do and then I got this crazy, let me repeat.....CRAZY, idea to do stripes! I drew it out on paper with the different colors and the girls thought that would work just peachy. Thankfully my dear friend Esther had some experience with stripes so she came and helped me get it all marked off. That in itself took a day! Just a little FYI for all of you painters out there.....that new froggy tape does not work as well as the old blue tape. I have pictures to prove it but won't bore you with them on here. So without further ado, here is the new room!
BTW, I love it and the girls thank me almost every day. I'm glad they convinced me to change it. :-) That white cabinet I had designed with big things in mind. I envisioned drawers along the bottom and doors alternating on the top two rows. After Jason finished the basic box he ran out of time, motivation, and/or money and I grew impatient and decided to just use it like that. Maybe someday we'll get around to finishing it. ;-)

I snagged the window curtains at Hobby Lobby on clearance and paid less for both of them than the original price of one. Gotta love that! As for their Tinkerbell fan, well, I put that on Craigslist and not even an hour later I had several who wanted it, along with the Tinkerbell lights. I ended up selling all of them to a friend from church so we're about to replace it with a simple white fan. Esther showed us the site for the instructions on those doll beds so Jason made them for their Valentine's present and I just got their sheets and pillows made a couple weeks ago. The girls each picked out their material they wanted. We still have to make the quilts. I thought I would use their old toddler clothes to make those.
This is something I found for their wall. I plan on building shelves and making a picture board also. As you can see on top of their cabinet, they have lots of little "treasures" that I would like to spread out more. One last thing I am having trouble finding in my price range is a soft fuzzy purple rug that is at least 6 1/2" x 5". This is proving to be a difficult task. There's also some little purple lamps at Target that I've been keeping my eye on for their dresser. I refuse to pay $30 a piece for them though. Maybe I can catch them on clearance one of these days. If you know of any place that has these items for a good price let me know! In the meantime, I'm hoping the girls will be happy with this room for longer than two years!

McKayla's 5th Birthday Party

2011-01-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

This year we were finally able to do a birthday party for McKayla where she was able to invite her friends. We are normally at Grandma's house for Christmas and so we just did a family party for her. She always enjoyed those but she really wanted one where her friends could come. So we made her party a little later than her birthday so we could be home to celebrate with her friends. The last couple of years she has asked to do a pool party like her sister gets to do for her party in August. It might not be that cold in Louisiana in December but it is too cold to swim outdoors. So I found an indoor pool in Lafayette with the help of some friends and we got it all set up to have it there. All the girls really had a great time. Getting to swim in the middle of the winter really is a treat.

McKayla also asked for a princess cake and I was going to cheat this year and buy one. I found one at Winn Dixie that was exactly what she had asked for but when they told me it would be $50 I just couldn't buy it when I knew I could make one for half that. Plus I really do like to decorate cakes, I just didn't think I would have enough time this year. It's amazing what you can make time for when you really want to. My mom gave me a Wilton's decorator tool box for Christmas so I decided this would be the perfect time to try out my new tools. I scored a cute castle at Walgreens just perfect for the cake and Wal-Mart bakery sold me the princesses to go on top. I made my cakes from scratch but have decided from now on I'm buying cake mixes. They do so much better! I baked the cakes on Thursday afternoon and then Friday I spent about 7 hours decorating. Definitely not a hobby I can do very often. If someone would make my frosting for me it would go so much faster!! I hate making the frosting. I used malted milk balls for the bushes and one of the grandmothers accidentally called them moth balls at the party and one of the little girls said, "No their malted moth balls." :-).

After the swimming party we took McKayla to Chuckie Cheeses. I like to call it UpChuckie Cheeses because I think their pizza is simply horrible. But the girls have so much fun playing all the games and they always choose that for their birthday meal out so we obligingly go. They were very packed, I guess a Saturday night is not a good night to go if you actually want to sit down and eat. My sister Jeanette and her girls came with us so all 8 of us had to squeeze in a table for three. Needless to say we had to eat in shifts. But it worked out because the girls were more interested in playing than eating. So anyway, I think McKayla enjoyed her first official birthday party. She fell asleep on the way home at 6:30 and woke up long enough to get into her pj's and climb into bed. I guess we wore her out. It probably didn't help that she had just gotten over the flu. I'm just glad she was well enough to go to her party.

Things you can pick up while watching cartoons:)

2010-09-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

My daughter McKayla had a day off of school last week and had the good fortune to be able to come to work with me. I clean houses so she gets to watch cartoons while I clean. I happened to be working in the living room when Handy Manny came on and normally I'll be wrapped up in my own thoughts regardless of whether or not the T.V. is on but this one caught my attention. In case you don't know anything about this cartoon, it's about a guy that is a handy man and his tools are special because they can talk. This particular day they were trying to repair an older mans steps when the hammer fell and landed on his head. The poor hammer was confused after that and thought for sure that he was not a hammer but was in fact a screwdriver. Well this caused a dilemma because for this particular job, only a hammer could get the job done. Handy Manny and the other tools tried convincing him that he was a hammer but he just wouldn't believe it. So finally Handy Manny tried to find another tool that would work. They went to the hardware store but alas, they were fresh out of hammers. So they went back and tried a rock and other things but nothing worked. This whole time I'm thinking "Hey Handy Manny, you're his master you pick him up and just use him to hammer that nail in." But he didn't. Finally the older gentleman came along and found out what the problem was and said that when he was in the army they had the same problem with a soldier. This soldier had gotten hurt and forgot who he was. They really needed him so they convinced him to pretend that he was a soldier, and it worked. So Handy Manny and all the other tools asked the hammer if he would pretend to be a hammer. They convinced him that he would make an excellent hammer and so he said he would try. Handy Manny picked him up and held him above the nail but wouldn't use him until the hammer was absolutely ready. I'm thinking, well this is ridiculous. You've got him in your hand, bring him down! Well, finally the hammer was ready and he hit the nails in perfectly. Everyone cheered and when the hammer had come down on those nails his memory was jarred back into place and he realized he was indeed a hammer. So anyway, what did I learn from this? I realized that God does the same thing with us. He made us for a specific purpose. He could use us like puppets and make us do that job for him. But that's not what he wants. He wants us to take the initiative and with his help, do the work he created us for. He's not going to force us into doing anything. It has to be because we want to do it. Another important factor is that we can't do it without him. We need him there guiding us and encouraging us. And that is what Handy Manny taught me for the day.

Still here

2010-02-24T20:13:00.000-08:00

Okay so I kind of fell out of the blog world for awhile. I would stop in every now and then and read others' but simply never took the time to do anything with mine. So much has happened since last August when I did my last blog. Christmas and McKayla's birthday to name a couple. My whole family was able to make it back for Christmas in Iowa this year. The house was very full and noisy at certain times but it was so good to all be together again.

We were able to have McKayla's birthday with almost everyone there. The happy occasion was held at Happy Joe's. If you've never had their BLT Pizza's you must try them next time you are in Ottumwa!! I had a lot of fun decorating her cake. Luke, my brother-in-law, drew the bear free-handed for me and I filled in the rest.
I forgot to bring candles with us to the restaurant so Jason ran next door to the drug store and these candles were all they had. She seems rather impressed don't ya think?

We took a slight break from traveling in January and then this month we took a trip to Gatlinburg TN for Winterfest with the youth. It was a very fast weekend but we had a great time there. Two of my sisters were able to come so I enjoyed more time spent with them. The girls had a lot of fun playing in the snow up in the Smoky Mountains.

Kelsey's coat was malfunctioning :)
We took a 1.3 mile hike to see this waterfall. We encountered some scary signs along the way.
Well that about catches you up to date. I'll try not to take so long between blogs next time :)
I'll leave you with one more picture. Love the look on Kayla's face :D
Well I can't resist adding this next one too.

Kelsey's birthday

2009-08-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

I've been a little behind in my blogging lately but I'm trying to catch up. We just celebrated Kelsey's birthday.....okay, it's been a week or two. I really enjoyed decorating her cake this year. Hopefully she doesn't expect better each year. She wanted a Luau theme and thankfully a family in church just happened to have all the decorations I needed and another member had a relative who had a waterslide Fun Jump. So I decided it would be a good year to invite her friends. I don't think I'll do that again.:) Just kidding. I know she had a great time and it's only one day a year. After all, it was her birthday! I did a horrible job taking pictures. Especially when they were playing on the water slide. I completely forgot to take any until I was starting to clean up after everyone left. Now....what to do for McKayla's!

Acts 2:47

2009-08-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Okay,so maybe that's not what that scripture is talking about but that's what's happening at this church. Since this picture there are 4, maybe 5 more that I know of that are expecting now. These kids are going to have so much fun growing up together! What a great youthgroup in a few years!

In Memory of Opal Guest

2009-08-14T22:46:00.001-07:00

I remember the first time I met Opal, she came up the stairs in church with her walker ("sputnik") squeezing her little bicycle horn to get through the crowd with a big goofy grin on her face and I knew I would love her. She truly was a Saint! I remember when we would go to the nursing home on Sunday afternoons and she would come along to visit the "old people". She was what, in her 90's? I really don't remember, I'm horrible with ages. For a special she would whistle one of her favorite hymns. I never used to be able to whistle but when I heard her whistling I wanted to be able to whistle like that when I get to be her age so I started practicing. I'm still not near as good but I can whistle now. Every time I do, I think of her. She always had a big smile on her face and something good to say or some story to tell. I especially loved hearing her stories about when she was a Sunday School teacher. Even though you had to come up several steps in order to get in our church building and then up some more to get to the sanctuary, I never once heard her complain about it. I hope I can be like that when I get to be old. I'm really going to miss dear Opal and I'm really sorry I won't be able to say goodbye to her one last time later on today at her funeral. She truly was a blessing in my life and I'm so glad I got to know her for those few years in Bemidji! It is such a comfort to know that this isn't forever. Some day I will see Opal again and she will be whistling away while walking without her sputnik. Goodbye for now Opal

Is Heaven worth it?

2009-06-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

Something has been eating away at me all week and I finally decided I have to talk about it and get it out of my system! I'm not sure it will help but it's worth a try. I tried rounding up some kids from our church to go to camp. I found 9 who wanted to go and I thought, "Great! Now I just need to find another vehicle and driver willing to help bring them." Not a problem, if I couldn't find someone, Jason and I would've driven two vehicles to make sure they could all go. Than all-stars picked their players. That knocked out 6 of the kids who could go. Okay, we still had three, that was all right. Than one had to work, one had summer school and the third one didn't want to come by himself. Especially after calling all the other kids he knew from another state and finding that none of them were going either, due to jobs or sports. I really don't blame that last one, I probably wouldn't have wanted to go by myself either to a different state when no one else I knew was going. We had to wait until Sunday Evening to leave since Jason is the minister and Sundays are his busiest work day. I had packed the car and was all ready to take off after church when we got a call from the camp manager saying that only 8 kids had shown up so there really wasn't a good reason for us to drive 1000 miles to come help out. That was truly a discouraging thing for me to hear. I know there were various reasons why kids didn't show up but I'll bet you anything the biggest reasons were jobs and sports. What I want to know is, why are "things" more important than Bible Camps? I want to saturate my kids with all things to do with Christ and surround them with other christian peers as much as possible so they know they're not alone out there, struggling to do whats right! In the world we live in today, it is tough to survive being a Christian for teenagers!!! They need as much help as they can get. Even for myself, if I had grown up only going to Sunday morning church and maybe one Bible camp a year I highly doubt I would be the Christian I am today. I remember the thoughts I had as a teenager, wanting to do what I knew wasn't right, but those sermons I heard, over and over, would pop into my head, and those memory verses we were forced to learn at camp would be there telling me no, that's not right! And I would be scared of going to hell and it kept me out of a lot of trouble. I don't think hell is real to our kids today. We don't have the hell, fire and brimstone messages we had back then. It's good that kids are taught the love and the grace of God because that is so important to know as well and I wish I had known more of that growing up, but the fear of hell is so important to a teenager. Sunday morning sermons are great but those aren't the ones I remember the most. I remember the ones we heard at camp, maybe because they were geared more for our age, I don't know, but whatever the reason they played an important part in my life. Our God is a jealous God and he says "there shall be no other god's before me." I truly believe that when you put anything; hobbies, sports, jobs, cars, etc. before opportunities to learn more about God, then you are making that your god. You can make all the excuses you want but at the end of the day, what's really going to matter? You go before the judgment seat and you chose...let's say.... sports instead of God do you think God's going to say, "Oh good, you made every practice and every game and are excellent at what you do, enter in, my child, for I need a good player on my team? I do like sports, and I do believe they are good for character development, but there is a time and a place for everything and when it comes down to sports or learning more about God, sports should always take back seat. Sports aren't the only thing to come before God, you can fill in the blank with whatever you like, but it's all the same. Where are our priorities? Aren't you scared about your child's salvation? You should be, because Satan wants them on his team and he's playing every card he's got. A lot of his cards look harmless but when played in the right hand, are deadly. What's Heaven worth to you?

2009-04-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

We heard a thump against our window a couple days ago and looked out to find this little critter on our porch. He looked a little stunned so I went out to get him out of the way of my vicious little Jack Russell. He sat in my hand as calm as could be for quite awhile and it was neat to be so close to this beautiful creation. The girls and I marveled over him as long as we could and then the oven timer brought us back to reality. There were things to do so I took him to the tree outside my back door and tried to transfer him to a branch, but I guess he decided it was time for him to fly, so off he went. He stayed in a nearby tree for a little while singing to us like he was saying Thank you and then he took off.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

2009-02-20T23:22:00.000-08:00

I was lying in my bed tonight trying to sleep but my mind kept drifting. I was thinking about some friends and how short life really is and then I started thinking about my earliest memories. I don't know if someday I'll lose my memory so I thought I'd better write these down while I still can remember them. I don't remember how old I was for this one but my mom was babysitting a little boy and girl. The boy was still a baby and took a bottle. I remember thinking that I wish I could have a bottle so one day when mom wasn't watching and the baby wasn't in the crib, I snuck a drink from his bottle. I remember thinking it wasn't as good as I remembered it and I'm not sure if that was the last of that desire. Then I can remember, being four years old. My brother and sisters were getting on their winter coats, mittens, stocking hats and scarves and rushing out the door heading for school. I stood at the window in the den watching them walk down the sidewalk in the snow for as long as I could, wishing that I could go too. My mom was sitting at the desk in the den working on bills or something. On that desk she had a very old fashioned stapler. I remember being fascinated by it and playing with it, probably whenever she wasn't in the room. Then she would type on those big calculators that print out the paper and her fingers would fly over the keys. I remember thinking that I wanted one of those when I was older and I would practice on it, again, probably when she wasn't around. I still have not gotten one of those things, I don't know what they're called but they do still make them.
She worked early in the morning cleaning Pizza Hut and would get back home, normally before we would even get up, but one morning I woke up before she got back. I sat on the landing of the stairs watching for her to walk through the door. The landing brings back even more memories. We got pajamas with feet in them every year for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa. We loved those pajamas and would run and slide down the hallway on the carpet wearing out the bottoms of the feet. Then we would bump down the stairs on our bottoms, wearing out the bottoms.
One day while I was home and my siblings were at school my mom called me into her room. She said, "I have something for you." It was a big green box and there were Phonics activities in it. Each month I would get a new shipment and it had a big poster with a huge tree on it and in each shipment would be a new elf and some more ladder to put on my tree. I loved those activities, they taught me my letters, numbers and had fun games, you would slip a sheet underneath a transparency sheet and write and erase. Just recently my mom gave me that box and I gave them to my daughter. I think I took much better care of my things then my daughter does. I still don't trust her with my barbies. Yes, I still have them.
Another memory at 701 N. Jefferson St. is my birthdays. Every year I would get to pick my birthday meal and my dessert. I don't remember what my meals were but my dessert was always angel food cake with homemade ice cream topped with black raspberries and strawberries. My Grandma and Grandpa Pickens would come for our birthdays and we would sit on the porch on the side of the house and crank that old ice cream freezer, usually trying to throw ice down one another's shirts.

We used to have Big Wheels, I'm sure some of you remember those. We had a hill on the side of our house and we would race down that hill on our Big Wheels. In the winter time we would sled down that same hill and then when we were frozen we would rush inside and Mom would have some hot chocolate ready in our brown, orange, red and green Tupperware mugs. We'd sit on the wooden bench with the leather seat that Grandpa made us.
We also had a park right beside our house and I learned to ride my bike on the basketball court, riding round and round in circles. I spent hours in that park, playing with those little seeds, from some sort of tree, that would whirl around like helicopters. I liked to tear them apart and use the seeds for pretend cooking.
This is turning into a book but the memories keep rushing back.
Kindergarten finally came! One day I had to attend a funeral of some great aunt so my mom sent me to school in the ugliest dress I can remember, (now I know where my daughter gets her pickiness), I'm sure the kids must have all laughed at me that day. Another day I felt sick in the morning but started feeling better before lunch so my mom made me my first sack lunch but instead of a cool cartoon lunch box, my lunch was in a brown Tupperware box with a big plastic handle. The kids did laugh at me that day. I remember getting in trouble one time in Kindergarten but don't remember why, I don't even remember my Kindergarten teacher at all!
I do remember having a tornado warning one day and I was sitting in the book section, watching the weather outside and worrying about my mommy at home, I did cry that day. My first crush was in that class, Matt Dalbey. I was worried he would think I was a baby so I was trying to hide.
Second Grade, Mrs. Brill's class - the first and last time I ever cheated. I got caught!
Third Grade, Mrs. Gray's class - the first and last time I ever got my name on the board, complete humiliation!
We moved from 701 N. Jefferson St. the summer before my fourth grade year and to the school my very best friend attended! Kari Kerkove :) Yep still friends! Also the school of my first "true love," yep, Kari knows who that is also. Unfortunately they both moved away to Missouri before the year was over and I was crushed. Kari and I went through our rough patches but it only made us better friends today. Okay, enough sentiment for one night, I'm about to bawl. Maybe I'll do a second half to this some other sleepless night. But it's 2 AM and I need to get some sleep.

Smells I loved today

2009-02-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

Fresh toast popping out of the toaster
Freshly cleaned bathrooms
Fresh cut grass
My shampoo and body soap
The girls' clean hair
Pizza with my girls and girlfriends during our girl's night out
King Cake from Geautheaux's

Life is too short, take time to smell!!

Apples of Gold

2009-01-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

This afternoon as I was studying our Sunday night's lesson I came upon some much needed help by the author. I've been discouraged lately with my oldest daughter Kelsey and I realized that although she is a very good girl and has very many wonderful characteristics, I have been focusing on her weak areas and wasn't even seeing the good. I've been so worried that she wouldn't overcome those things about her that aren't so nice that I fear I have only been making them worse. The author, Karol Ladd, in the book "The Power of a Positive Woman" brought up the verse Proverbs 25:11 - A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. She went on to explain how words can be so valuable and powerful, lovely and life-giving, or sour and destructive. She also realized how she had been nitpicking at her teenage daughter for every little issue, important or not and determined to change that. She started encouraging both of her daughters with words like "I believe in you, God has a wonderful plan for your life, you have a kind and tender servants heart that is such a blessing to me and others," and so on just saying things like that to them throughout the day. Over time she began to see courage, discipline, and a renewed zest for life rising in both her daughters. I realized that I needed to do that with my girls. Instead of constantly berating them for their faults, I need to focus on their positive points and encourage them with uplifting words. I guess my reason for writing this is to ask for prayer as I work to change my attitude and help my daughters, that God entrusted to me, become who I know God created them to be. Another quote she mentioned was "Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." - Goethe
I hope that this helps others who might also be struggling with this same issue, whether it be with your children, husband or friends. God Bless and thank you for your prayers and support!

God has performed a miracle in Louisiana!

2008-12-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

It snowed today!!! I was so excited to wake up and see snow on the ground and to discover that it was still falling!! It was 6:30 so I went and woke the girls up the same way my mom woke me up countless first snow days in Iowa! Flip on the light and shout, It's snowing!!!!! I never thought I would be able to do that but today I did and the girls got out of bed faster than I've even seen them! The last time it snowed here was 1/2" in 2001 and before that it was 1" in 1988. I don't care if it snows anymore this year because really the first snow is the best snow of all.

Christmas Decorating

2008-12-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

I love decorating for the holidays! It really gets me in a festive mood. Especially to have some Christmas music playing in the background. I just love this time of year!! The girls were really excited to get all the decorations out and put up the tree. They did a great job of decorating it! I also enjoy reenacting the story of Jesus' birth using our little nativity scenes for the girls. They have a lot of fun playing with those. I read in a magazine how one family doesn't put out the baby Jesus until Christmas Eve and their little children have fun going around and finding all the baby Jesus' on Christmas morning so I did that this year too. It's a fun way to show what Christmas really is about. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few pictures of our decorations.

We added a fun toy to our tree this year. Lowe's put all their decorations for half price so we couldn't resist this one.

Thanksgiving Vacation

2008-12-04T20:10:00.001-08:00

This year we tried something different for Thanksgiving. Instead of spending it in Iowa with family, which would've been great also, we decided to go with our vacation buddies to Branson MO. It was a great idea, thank you Jana! We had so much fun spending time with friends that we don't get to see very often and Branson is a great place to take the family. Being on a limited budget, Jason and I couldn't go to all the shows but enjoyed what we were able to do. Sunday evening we left the kids with the men and all of us girls went grocery shopping. Of course Jason and Josh weren't there yet so BJ and Patrick had the privilege of watching them. I think Patrick might have been taking a nap the whole time so it might have been just BJ. Poor guy doesn't even have kids yet and he got stuck with them all! He's a trooper. We each were assigned two meals for the week. That worked out great and was cheaper than eating every meal out. Monday we relaxed for most of the day, Jason and Josh arrived that morning in time for breakfast. The Hemions and Smiths went to the Dixie Stampede that night and the Doherty's came over to our condo for some good ole tomato and sausage gravy. That night I was up late making a breakfast casserole and then Tuesday I stayed at the Hemions condo all day making Gumbo. They all went and played miniature golf in the afternoon and then the Hemions and Doherty's went to the Shangai circus. By the time they got back my gumbo was done and we took it over to my cousins house to share it with them. My uncle was a little late in arriving so after we got done eating the rest of them went down to The Landing to see a light show on the river while Jason and I stayed and visited with my family. Wednesday we went and rode the go-carts and then shopped at the outlet mall for a couple of hours. After lunch we had a couple of hours to relax before we all went to the Noah's Ark show! That was really neat! My cousin happens to work at that one so we were able to get in for half price! Very nice! Thursday of course was Thanksgiving so we were busy preparing Turkey dinner. Jason smoked the turkey in a new charcoal smoker dealymabob and it turned out great! Of course he and BJ went golfing while that was cooking...or smoking...? I had the tough job of opening up a couple cans of cranberry sauce and Jana bought a couple of pies and tossed a salad. I think Esther and Corinne worked the hardest on the meal that day. Esther had to peel all the potatoes, actually I think Josh did, and then she cut them for the mashed potatoes and Corinne made homemade stuffing and apple pie! It was all delicious regardless of how much we did or didn't work.
That night Jason and I went to my Uncles house to visit with them some more. Friday we headed over to Silver Dollar City! I made the mistake of riding the Powder Keg first thing! I had no idea what I was in for and neither did poor Tea!! Needless to say, we both stuck to the kitty rides the rest of the day! We had a pretty good, cold day there and were ready to drop by the time we made it back to the condos. The guys ended up staying later than us girls so they could ride the roller coasters again in the dark and we took the kids home to feed them all the leftovers so we could empty the fridge out before we left. All in all it was a very fun week and I'm very thankful that we were able to go! I think our next vacation with our vacation buddies is going to be in Florida in a couple more years. Jana has probably already started planning it. Without her these vacations would never happen!!! Thank God for Jana!

Avery Doherty

Fun with Lips.
Our Yummy Feast

The cutest carver I've ever seen!
She wanted to sleep all of Thanksgiving!

One Giant Christmas Tree!

Fun with Tennis

Watching the kids at the park.

Trunk or Treat

2008-10-30T10:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a fun day for us. Kelsey became a Girl Scout Daisy which we are both looking forward to being involved in. Thankfully one of her best friends (Leah) from her class at school was there also or it might not have gone so well. I got to know Leah's mom (Brandi) who also happens to be the sister of a girl who comes to our church. Small world! I'm very glad Brandi was there because she had been in Girl Scouts as a young girl and she immediately volunteered to be the leader of our troup. I was worried I was going to have to be the leader. So that all turned out great. After the meeting we rushed over to the church to get ready for Trunk or Treat. We had a great turnout, the church was packed and I would say about 30% of the people
were not from church. Kelsey's friend Tyron, from school, came also so I was really happy to see him and his mom. Having Kelsey in school has really helped me meet people outside of the church and hopefully I can be a witness to them as well. Today I went to the school to help decorate for their Fun House and tomorrow I will be helping out with it as well. I really enjoyed meeting more of the Moms and hope to make more friendships there also. Here are a few of the pictures from our fun evening.

I felt like I neglected McKayla this year but she really wanted to wear this dress-up outfit and then I had to find something to make it warmer and black was all I had. I thought she looked more like Minnie Mouse in Snow White's outfit but she loved it and that's the important thing. Next year I'll do much better for her.

This is the outfit I made with Esther's help! You can't see it very well but on the bottom right is a baby tiger that another friend made on her machine. I think we had 5 LSU cheerleaders there so we almost could've had a team. I didn't think to take their pictures all together!

The other two little girls are dressed as the Chipettes, in case you don't know who they are, their the Chipmunks girlfriends. Very cute!
This next picture is their other sister.

This is Dillon dressed up as Jason sometime in 2030

This is Jason as a modern day Esau with his hunting camp.

This is the winning "trunk" as The Tree of Good and Evil

These two were having an identity crisis but they had fun dressing up.

Amber and Anna came dressed as Wilma and Pebbles. Some people are so creative.

I took so many pictures that I can't fit them all on here but I will load them all on my Facebook so you can browse through them there if you want to see more cute outfits! I probably won't get it done right away but hopefully within the next couple of days.

Making Caramel Apples

2008-10-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things in the Fall is Caramel Apples!! I can't get enough of them! The girls love to bake with me and they really enjoyed playing in the gooey caramel. Of course it was even more fun to watch them eat the messy creations. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that. But here are the pictures of the whole process.

Kelsey had just woken up from her nap and she doesn't always wake up very happy, so these were not good picture moments for her.

One Purpose of My Blog

2008-10-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

I was very blessed to be raised in a Christian home and got a very good foundation on which to build my life. That doesn't necessarily make it easier, however, for me to live the kind of Christian life that I ought to. Being a Preacher's wife probably does help in that area as I am surrounded constantly by Christians and have to keep up that "image" that we preacher's wives are supposed to have. That might make it easy to live how I should on the outside but I still struggle on the inside to have the thoughts and attitudes that I know Christ wants me to have. It's too easy to hide what we're truly feeling. This blog is a place for me to show my study on areas in my life that need work and since I need to work on them I figure a lot of other people do also so I hope this will be helpful to others as well. It's very tempting for me to keep this private and to have it as a diary for myself but I feel God is leading me to reach out to others also. So I pray that through my blogging I can help you and you also can offer me advice. I'm taking a chance and opening myself up for others to see a side of me I don't like to show but I've learned that it's not about me!! God Bless and I pray that we can grow together as God continues to mold us into the Christians that we ought to be.

Pure Joy

2008-10-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

A few weekends back we had our Louisiana Women's Seminar and my eyes were opened. Not because of the words the Speaker (Connie Dietrich) spoke during the sessions, but from our one on one time together. When she seemed to just read me like an open book and gave me some insight into my own life. I had already heard these particular sessions that she did and had requested for her to do them again for this seminar and I loved them just as much as the first time I heard them, if not a little more. But I still went away feeling like I had missed something that was vital for my life and while taking her to the home she was staying in, after the seminar, she asked me how she could encourage me. She noticed I had a heaviness about me and wanted to help me lift it. In just that short time together, she revealed what I had been searching for years to find. What it was that was holding me back, keeping me from experiencing the true joy in Christ that I have been longing for. I have been, for a very long time, putting myself down, not liking this or that about myself, convincing myself that I couldn't do so many things, that I wasn't as good as so and so...and the list goes on an on. I wondered why I was getting frustrated so easily with my children when I knew they didn't deserve that kind of behavior from me. She reminded me of a verse that I know by heart but hadn't applied to my life, Luke 6:45 -

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

Evil? I'm not evil so this verse must not apply to me. That's what I thought anyway. When I think of evil, I think of the grim reaper, anything to do with murder and plotting horrible things against other people. But as you study the word evil in the Bible it takes on a whole new meaning. Gen. 8:21 says

"The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done."

Nobody thinks of a child as evil but here it says, from childhood every inclination of his heart is evil. Duet. 17:4 -

"If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death."

This man and woman were worshiping other idols. How many times in our own lives do we put other things before God, those are our idols!! Duet. 17:8 -

"If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults—.....12The man who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel."

This evil is bloodshed, lawsuits, assaults, showing contempt for those in authority, and I could go on with many verses showing that evil isn't what I imagined it to be. Rather I've come to the conclusion that anything that goes against what God teaches and keeps you from having a close personal relationship with Christ is evil! Gossiping, fighting among ourselves, jealousy, envy, selfishness, etc. is all evil! Connie told me that all the things I was thinking about myself were flowing over and were coming out directed at my children. So I realized what I need to do is to focus on being joyful, to put good thoughts inside my head, to think positively about myself and not always degrade myself. There are more verses in the Bible talking about joy than anything else and now I see why. If you don't have joy, you're robbed of a wonderful relationship with Christ. Satan is very clever in that he looks for the things that aren't always obvious to trip us up and make us fall. Not being joyful is not something that you look at and say, "oh no, I'm sinning." It's so easy to slip into the rut of, "woe is me," and not even realize it.
As I started looking up verses on joy I came upon this one: Psalm 19:8 -

"The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes."

That's what I want to experience. I want people to be able to look at me and see that I am joyful. How do we come about this joy? 1 Chronicles 16:27 says,

"Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy in his dwelling place. "

Psalm 45:7 -

"You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."

Psalm 90:14 -

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."

Psalm 97:11 -

"Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart."

From just this small sampling of Joy verses we can see that if we rest in God, in his dwelling place, we will have joy. If we love righteousness & hate wickedness He will give us Joy, and if we come to Him every morning to be reminded of all He's done for us, we will have Joy. I think what helped me most though was to come to the realization that I've been living for myself. Everything is about me, all the advertisements are things to make my life better. It's all about me. How will this affect me? Will this make me happy? Why did this have to happen to me? We could go on an on with me questions but I think you get the point. Nancy Leigh DeMoss wrote a book called "Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free" and it has a very good chapter on this very subject. It's about how we've taken God out of the center of the universe and have put ourselves in His place. The apostle Paul tells us that God does not exist for us but that we exist for Him. Col. 1:16-1816

"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy."

Paul had discovered the secret to true happiness and was able to "rejoice always', even in jail and in many of the other trials he went through. He was not living for himself or to get his needs fulfilled. His passion was to live for the glory and pleasure of God.
Acts 20:24 24

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."

Under Construction

2008-08-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

I finally gave in and decided to start blogging. It might take me awhile to get set up and get some posts on here so please be patient. I have many plans for this blog!