Special Family Visits and Sigma

We had a lovely and delicious dinner at my parent's home last night. Thanks, mom, your meal was superb! Especially the carrots.
:)
We had dinner with my parents, mainly because my Aunt Janice (the most faithful contributor to my recipe blog) was in town. She left this morning to head back home. We don't see her often, but when we do it is always a good visit. We love her very much and hated to see her leave. She's my dad's baby sister.


This is her and daddy when they were little, living in West Virginia.


The house was pretty cold. As you saw above, Aunt Janice was wearing a sweat shirt and daddy and Harrison ended up cuddling under a blanket.



Mom was getting tickled at something here. I can't remember what though.


My brother, John, was able to make it too. His wife is in nursing school so we never see her anymore. But that's OK....just a little bit longer and she'll have a half-way normal life again.


For several years, it's been a running joke about Bruce being Aunt Janice's fiance'. So last night, after all these years of being "enganged", Bruce made it official by surprising her with a big lolipop ring. It was so funny. I'm not sure what was more funny....him giving it to her, or her wearing it and showing it off the rest of the night. LOL


Wow, folks...look at it sparkle!

Aunt Janice, I know you'll read this blog post, and I just want you to know how good it was seeing you and hugging your neck! We love you to pieces and wish you were closer.

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Wednesday night was when the Sigma teams picked their team colors, Greek name, VPs, etc. Now they're brainstorming ideas for RUSH night. After their team meetings, we came back together for verses, special music, and preaching.

Our team, the Chi Alpha UFC (Ultimate Fighters for Christ) had the special music.


Justin W was freezing and wet. It was POURING the rain and he got caught in it. All the way down to his feet. He ended up having to take off his socks. They were literally wringing wet. So he stayed pretty well bundled up during the night.


My sweet Hannah-girl.


Preaching time!


It was a great night, I thought. They did good choosing their names and mascots. Can't wait for Rush Night!

Obama and Infanticide

Brother Randy posted this video on his blog. It is of Jane Stanek, an Illinois nurse, giving her account of live birth abortions and how Barack Obama supports this murderous act. It breaks my heart to know these acts are taking place in this country. OUR country.

Exodus 21:22-25 "If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow; he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

What Was That Lipstick Comment Again?

Brother Sam Delaney

Justin does great impressions. My favorite, though, is when he does Brother Tony Hutson singing. I just love that one. lol So when I picked him up from a revival at Brother Boone's church tonight, he immediately began telling me about the visiting preacher he and Hannah heard. His name was Brother Sam Delaney. He's from Ireland and lives in Alabama. Justin said he had the greatest accent of Irish mixed with southern. Justin began imitating Brother Delaney and Hannah was laughing saying, "That's exactly the way he sounded!" They said the more excited Brother Delaney became, the more of the Irish accent you would hear. He preached on carelessness. They both took notes, so if I remember to ask them for them tomorrow, I'll share his points with you.

Justin had gone to play bass and guitar for Voices of Faith. He said Darrin Aldridge was there and he's one of our favorite mandolin players. As a matter of fact, he is best known for his mandolin pickin', although the kids said he didn't play his mandolin tonight, but the guitar instead. So, oh well...maybe next time.

I'm glad they were able to go tonight. Thank you, Mrs. Tammy, for driving the van safely to and from the revival meeting. They had a great time.

I forgot to tell y'all something Harrison said the other day. The boy LOVES peaches. He'll eat a whole large can of them if I'm not watching. I had bought several fresh peaches when I went grocery shopping and watching his dad eat one, skin and all, he decided he wanted to try one too. I told him he might not like it because canned peaches and fresh peaches were a little different but he insisted that he would. So, I gave him a fresh peach. Before I could make a suggestion to peel it, he sunk his teeth right into that peach. His eyes grew wide, his jaw quickly unhinged to release said peach, and he snarled his nose in disgust. Hannah and I immediately started to giggle. She asked him, "Do you want me to peel it for you?" He replied, "PLEASE!" I said, "Harrison, I thought you said you'd like it." His face grew matter-of-fact as his hands went up, "I will, but not when it's growing fur!"

He did eat the fresh peach.........and he loved it.

Sigma Cookout

We had a cookout this weekend for the youth and their parents to help kick off the new year of Sigma.
This is my friend, Kellie. She and her husband have been bringing a girl from our bus ministry to Patch and this year, that young lady moved up to the youth group. We're looking forward to having her in Sigma.


Mrs. Liz was busy getting everything ready, pouring drinks, cutting up desserts, chasing her little ones outta the bag of chips..... LOL



The boys conveniently found a spot near the food table to wait until Brother Greg took the burgers and dogs off the grill.


Parents and grandparents alike were in attendance.



Time to eat!


A little angel


Everyone seemed to have a good time. Brother RJ announced the teams again so the parents would know who their children's sponsors were, made a few more announcements, and it was over.
The date for RUSH has been announced, and so now the race begins.

Not A Muslim?

Obama can't seem to decide what he is without the help of George Stephenopolis.

Date Night at the Driving Range

Since Bruce and I have changed up some things in our diet this week, we opted out of eating out for date night, choosing the driving range instead. I told him this morning I would like to go hit some golf balls. Not that I have ever done that. I just thought it would be something fun to do outdoors and maybe something fun to learn.

I was right. I had a ball....no pun intended.


Bruce bought us each a large bucket of golf balls. He set us up and taught me some things about hitting a golf ball. Who knew it was so technical? Line up your feet...line up your thumbs...keep your head down...keep your eye on the ball...follow through with your swing...*sigh* I just wanted to hit the little thing. I actually did better not thinking so much about it.


See the little sign there in the center? That was 100 yards. I never came close to it. LOL But I think I put forth a pretty good effort.


I had a lot of fun and Bruce said next time he would take me out on the course and play nine holes with me.


I'm hoping next week we'll be able to do that!

SAFE!!

Thank you so much for praying for Brother Douglass and all of the missionaries and the Pastor that was detained in Vietnam.

They have been released and are on their way, if not already, back to Cambodia.

God is good...........all the time!

First Night of SIGMA, 2008

First of all, please take a moment and pray for our good friend, Missionary Dave Douglass. He is on a missions trip in Asia and he, along with some other team members, have been arrested in Vietnam along with the Pastor they have been working with in Cambodia. The family is asking all that would, to please pray.
Two of these Pastor's wives have said that the Vietnamese Pastors are very fearful of being detained by police.

Here are the names to lift in prayer:
Dr. Dave Douglass, missionary out of Calvary Baptist Church, Middleburg, Florida
Dr. Chris Pledger, Pastor's son from Calvary Baptist Church, Middleburg, Florida
Daniel Williams, layman, just graduated from Hyles Anderson College
Brother Delacruz, Pastor in Cambodia

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Last night was our first night of SIGMA. Brother RJ had the kids choose a partner and divided them into two teams.
This is team 1.


This is team 2.


The object of the game was for you and your partner to go up the hill, around the tree, and back down to your team for the next two partners to go. The stipulation was that the boys had to carry one another on their backs.


And the girls had to run arm in arm.


After the game, Brother RJ made some announcements for this upcoming year. Our theme is racing toward the goal. He has some things in the works for the end of the year that excited most all of the kids. And then it was preachin' time!

Brother RJ's sermon was from Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
There was a purpose to the game Brother RJ had them play last night. Sort of a visual, if you will, of how sin will slow us down in the Christian race. If the teams were allowed to run by themselves, without having to carry one another or drag the other, they could have moved faster. Sin will slow us down. Brother RJ asked them what it was in their lives that would slow them down from making it to the finish line.

After preaching, Brother RJ announced the SIGMA teams for this year. Spencer (left) will be on Bruce and mine's team this year and will be our team captain.
Jeremy (right) will be the team captain on Chris and Dana's team.


And then the youth was told which teams they were on.


RUSH night will be mid-October. AHHHHHHHHH!

Labor Day

Labor Day is over, but I saw this at Susan's blog, By Grace, and wanted to do it too. In honor of Labor Day, this is a meme about child labor!

How long were your labors?
Baby #1 - six hours
Baby #2 - 5 hours
Baby #3 - Have no idea. I was in and out so much I lost all track of time.

How did you know you were in labor?
Baby #1 - Steady contractions began at church on a Wednesday night. By the time church was out, it was time to go!
Baby #2 - Water broke
Baby #3 - Induced....life or death

Where did you deliver?
Baby #1 - Air Force Hospital, Wiesbaden, Germany
Baby #2 - Our local hospital here
Baby #3 - Carolina's Medical

Drugs?
Baby #1 - nothin!
Baby #2 - Epidural
Baby #3 - They had me on so many drugs I barely remember that entire day. lol

C-section?
None!

Who delivered?
Baby #1 - Dr. Nelson, Air Force Colonel. I saw a NUMBER of doctors and midwives during my first pregnancy, never seeing the same one twice. Out of all of them I had prayed to have Dr. Nelson deliver Justin and he did!!

Baby #2 - Dr. Shiro...another answer to prayer!

Baby #3 - There were several doctors and teams. I hadn't met any of them before that day. I do remember waking up thinking to myself that he was too young to deliver my baby. But he did. He and a couple of others and about 12 nurses it seemed like.

With each delivery, by the time I was in........FULL LABOR.........I stopped speaking all together. Very quiet. Said everything I needed to say to Bruce with my eyes pretty much. I do recall one time while giving birth to baby #2, my mother in law was rubbing my back. Normally, this would make me happy, but that particular time it was making me ill. No, not ill on my stomach. Ill in my mood! I whispered to Bruce to make her stop. I recall a slight chuckle from someone. But it did stop and that's all that mattered to me.

Labor Day 2008

We spent the better part of the day at my mother in law's home with Bruce's family. As always, there was a lot of laughter and carrying on.

Marie had a feast for a king!


"Big Mac" enjoyed Gammy's coconut pie. She and "PaPa" shared a slice and then she had a small piece of Hannah's chocolate cake.


She loves her paw paw!!


And Hannah loves her Grandmother!


After watching a GREAT picture DVD Bruce made for the family, we sat around and talked....and scoped out the sales papers.


Some of us looked out the back door, longing to go play.


"Big Mac" and her mom snuggled on the couch for a little bit.


My sweetie pie.


Some of the cousins wrestled.


Some of them played guitar.


When everyone left, Marie and I played around on her computer, cleaned the kitchen, and then we went outside for a little bit. Harrison was sure to bring a piece of chicken outside to snack on.


He had fun swinging like a monkey too. Bruce was going to help him get in the tree so he could climb up, but when Grandmother pointed out the squirrel's nest a few limbs up, he decided he didn't want to take a chance on a squirrel jumping on his head. LOL


Bruce was looking for a place to take a nap, but the couch was already taken. Eventually he found a place in the spare room. While he was snoring, Hannah quietly joined him.

And that was our Labor Day!

Tomorrow we start school. At least I hope we do. If you'll recall, I was down with a stomach virus a couple of weeks ago. It's going around our area and my youngest is not feeling well tonight. Lord willing, it will pass quickly!

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day! I don't know that I have ever said that. We're spending our Labor Day at my mother-in-law's home. As of 11:30 last night, she was still undecided as to what she was cooking. So, this is yet to be announced. But I am sure whatever it is, it's going to be good. She's a fabulous cook. Ask anyone who knows her.

This of course, would fall the very day Bruce and I begin our first day to healthier eating habits! But that's OK. A good many in our Sunday school class is doing this also. I think we were pretty pumped about it last night. Mostly the women. We all weighed in (UGH) and did our measurements, AFTER eating our "last meal," so to speak. I'm eager to see how everyone did come Sunday morning!

While us parents were going crazy eating, weighing in, and measuring, our children were playing.

Here are a few of them in one of our props we use for different meetings. These things have been giant root beer floats, clouds, part of the sea, etc. We made 'em get out, though, because we were afraid they'd be stuck by nails. bummer

Abigale was giving me a sweet smile. I worked nursery last night and she snuggled with me for a little while.

Some of the children were playing "choir." Brook was leading. They were so funny.

Ethan was perfectly content to eat his cookie. Ain't he cute?

So that was our Sunday pretty much.

What are your plans for Labor Day?