The Monday After

After Easter, that is.
Before Bruce and I went on our date Friday, we stopped and visited with both of our mothers for a while and took them some beautiful tulips. They opened up so pretty and there were several colors in them. I loved them. When they die, I might go get the plants and replant the bulbs. I wonder if they would come back next year. Anyone out there know?
Saturday, Bruce took the kids to the trade lot to walk around a little bit while I did some errands. For some reason my brain was malfunctioning all day. No sooner would I get home I would remember something I forgot and had to go back out for it. This happened, I know, four or five times. It was very frustrating. I made a couple of apple crisps. One for my sister in law and brother and one for us. They were really good. I'll share this easy recipe soon. You will love it, I promise!
It was a long Resurrection day, but it was sooo good! God showed up in both services and we had a time, let me tell ya!! After the morning service, we went to my mother in law's for dinner. It was good to see everyone. My niece Britt and her family wasn't able to make it and we missed them. But it was good to see everyone else and have some laughs together. Brother Johnathan preached the Sunday evening service and did a spectacular job. I love to hear that boy preach. He has been the acting youth Pastor for a while and has done a great job. We are so proud of him and Mrs. Jennifer and are so blessed. We love them bunches!
After the morning service I was asked to take some pictures of a couple of families outside. My friend, Missy, and her family was one of them. This was just so funny, I had to share it. See the goofball in the back? Yeah, that's "big Chad." He's such a dork. But Missy loves him, so we tolerate him. haha

And check out Faith's literal hair bow. Missy found a tutorial online on how to make a bow with your hair. It turned out really cute.

I do love this family. LOL

~~~

Today has been an extra long day, I think. Been busy doing school work, editing pictures, making CDs, meeting clients, working on picture orders, cooking lunch, cleaning a house, doing laundry.... I really don't need more hours in the day. Just more energy.

Just finished icing my knee and now I'm shutting it all down and going to bed!

Happy Easter

Well, here we are wrapping up the first week of April, can you believe it?? I can't!

I've had several photo shoots recently. One for the granddaughter of a friend who wanted to surprise her daughter with the pictures, one for some missionaries going out of our church, and one for a young nursing student that graduates soon. They all turned out beautiful and I'm excited for them to see their pictures.

I've done something to my knee. On one of the shoots I bent down and when I did I heard my knee pop. It didn't hurt or bruise, but ever since then it snaps and swells throughout the day. I've been icing it and taking ibuprofen when I need it, but I think I'm going to have to go to the doctor. I don't want to, but... you know how that goes. So pray that I'm better soon! We have a trip coming up with our youth soon and I sure don't want to have to put up with a bum knee on that trip.

Bruce has been studying to get his CDL so he can start helping drive the bus when they need another driver. He's been talking about it for a while and finally getting around to it. We've been trying to get Justin to do the same. I'm sure he will eventually.

So tomorrow is Easter. The day we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord. I am looking forward to being in church tomorrow and singing songs about Him raising from the dead and hearing the message that God has given my Pastor to give to us. It will be a beautiful day, for sure. After church we'll go to my mother in law's house for Sunday dinner with the family. Looking forward to some time with them, a little rest, and back for evening services.

What are your plans for Easter?

I hope you all have a good Easter and remember that, although bunnies and eggs make the day fun, it's all about an EMPTY TOMB! Praise God, He got up for me!!

Lots and Lots of Pictures!

Today is Mother's Day. I hope all of you wonderful mothers had a good day with your children. I know I did. We had a cookout yesterday with our moms and honored them. And then today we went out to eat with my mom after church. Two souls were saved in church this morning and we're baptizing some tonight. I'm looking forward to that!!

Just wanted to share some pictures of the last couple of weeks. There's a good many of them.
The next couple of weeks I'll be busy taking pictures of two seniors, planning Hannah's Sweet Sixteen party, which is this coming Saturday, and several others things on my agenda. Everything is pretty well set for Hannah's party, I just need to get busy on the food end of things. Speaking of food...the pictures begin with my devil's food chocolate cupcakes and malted eggs. I love malted candies. These looked "sweet" nested a-top the cupcakes too.

My mother-in-law enjoyed one.

This was Easter weekend. We had dinner at mom's house. It was fantastic!!

My sister-in-law Jenny and my beautiful niece, Jessica. I love them.

Jessica graduates from the police academy this week. My brother, John and Bruce, were playing with her fake gun.

This was the combined choir at the Zion Hill youth revival. They sounded spectacular!

Daughters of Faith sang that night. I love to hear them sing, There is a Remedy. Beautiful words to that song, if you've never heard it.

Some shoutin'!

The Simpson family....I loooooOOOOOooooove them!

Brother and Sister Spears. They sang a song I have never heard before and I would really love to hear it again and find out where it came from. They were such a sweet couple.

Preacher #1 that night was a young man that started in fourth gear and finished in fourth gear. He was something! His sister got saved after LeAnna gave a testimony about her salvation. You never know when someone is going through the same thing you struggled with that led up to your salvation.

The second preacher up was Brother Spears. He was fantastic! Would love to hear more from him. I hope we see him often in some different meetings.

Here are some pics from the Crossroad's Rescue Mission Jubilee. When all else fails...when you've been let down...JESUS IS ENOUGH! And He sure was the week of Jubilee!

Gotta have KFC buckets for the offering under an old fashioned tent!

Some silly people I saw at the meeting....

Lots of fellowshipping and playing with babies.

And let's not forget the Sun Drop. MMmmm!

Precious times....

A shoutin' time!!

A humble time....

A testimony time.

We heard some great singing that week from the Rochester Family....

The Crossroad's Rescue Mission men choir...

Vintage Faith Bulegrass....

Faith Baptist Youth Choir...

Daughter's of Faith....

Missy and Amanda...

Brother Compton....

And others, but I can't remember their names. LOL

The singing was really good. But the best part of the meeting was the preaching. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! Several precious souls were saved during the week of jubilee. I thank God for that!

My favorite preacher of the week was my very own Pastor.

Brother Williamson lets. it. fly, boy! I'm tellin' ya!! He's really good.

My niece took this pic of our family Easter Sunday. Harrison dislocated his knee the week before, hence his leg being bent.

My mom loves her hats and doesn't she look precious in this one? If you'll look at the pictures above her, that's my daddy on the top right. This was his first Easter in Heaven. We missed him, but praise God we know we'll see him again.

A Beautiful Resurrection Day!

We had a beautiful Resurrection Day. My niece came over before Sunday school. She's been attending our church and it's been a blessing. She's going through the police academy right now and will graduate in May. We're very proud of her.

Anyway, our day started out nice. The morning service was wonderful. Pastor Goodman preached a great message. The church building was so packed we were in "over flow" mode. Which is always a good thing, right? We had a couple join our church this morning and we are so blessed to have them as part of our congregation. Then tonight we had lots of singing and some popcorn preaching from the preachers in our church. It was phenomenal! Alters were full both services with hearts touched and changed for the better. I know mine was.

We've had seven saved this month at church, plus a couple saved at home. Resurrection Day was a new day for them this year!! Amen.

Although we have a wonderful man of God behind the pulpit at Faith that we love and trust, I don't want to give him glory for what's been going on at our church. He wouldn't want that either. I am convinced that without his humbleness and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit it would be different circumstances. But I do want to give GOD the glory for what we are seeing at our church. He is good. He is worthy of the praise.

This week our church will be supporting the Crossroad's Rescue Mission Jubilee. They've faced difficult times recently, but we are amazed at God's blessings He has poured out on the mission and the staff through it all. We are excited to take part and you are welcome to join us every night this week on Hwy 18 in Shelby. Just look for the Crossroad's Rescue Mission camp meeting tent! You can't miss it. There is some good music lined up and best of all, some terrific preachers!! Hope to see you there.

Revival and Easter

If you read the posts below, you know we were in revival with Brother Joe Arthur this week. He's so wonderful. I just love hearing him preach.

Justin's friend, Megan, came to all the services. It was nice having her with us.

Saturday night we had several youth groups from different churches join us for a youth emphasis night. They all joined for a combined youth choir and sang. It was great

Many of the youth around the alter....

...and on the platform. I think we had well over 200 youth Saturday night. And we were honored to have Brother Dave Douglass with us that night also.

We fed them pizza and snacks after the service.

Easter morning we took a few family pictures before church. The weather was absolutely lovely for Resurrection Sunday!

My family...

my boys...

me and my girl...

my kiddos

me and my hubby...

My beautiful mother and my handsome daddy.

Brother Dusty with his four children and his beautiful fiance'.

:) They'll be tying the knot here in just a few weeks.

Some pretty flowers at church...

We always have an Easter parade before church service starts. Here's my Harry...

My Hannah with Monica, Taylor, Kelsey, LeAnna, and Kendra.

And although the parade is for the kids, my daddy is obviously a kid at heart. And so is Brother Malkmus. I just love his big laugh!!

Justin...

As fun as the Easter parade is, what better way to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ than seeing two souls saved!!!! That is a wonderful way to celebrate Easter!!



It is ALL about the cross and the empty tomb!

We had gone to my mother in law's for dinner Sunday afternoon. As usual, the food was delish. She always does a wonderful job cooking and then we all pass out. See...

My nephew, Zack.

Bruce with his mom and his brother, Bryan.


We had gone back to my mother in law's after the evening service for leftovers. Harrison decided to make a bunny with his food. Wasn't he creative?