a blast from our past (tale of travel to richfield ohio) June 29, 2008

    i am getting ready to tell you a small blast from michael and my past. we were on our way to church the other night and we were listening to a song and i thought i might share this memory i had. now, i say you need to read at your own risk. i will be truthful with this memory and most people know a little of our testimony and know that we did things in our past that would not be pleasing to a christian or most people, but i feel that by reading this and knowing Michael and i you will be able to see that God was with us all along protecting us for a reason. i would not trade any part of my life because God molded me into the person i am today.

       this happened in march 1993 and we were going to go to a grateful dead concert with ten of our friends. michael was going to drive his 81 honda civic( which was a really small car) and someone else was going to drive a truck with a shell on the back. at the time michael’s dad owned the napa store and the weather was calling for snow, so his dad was helping him get things together he might need. all along telling michael we should not go, but we were going. he gave him de-icer and snow chains.

       we were leaving in the evening just before dark. by this time all the parents were telling us not to go, because they were calling for a blizzard. well none of us had ever seen a blizzard before so we didn’t think some snow would be that bad. when we got to greensboro we picked up another friend and when we got to winston-salem we picked up another friend and it started to snow. it was really coming down and i told michael it would stop soon ( i would later eat those words). we finally got to west virginia( i think wv is nothing but mountains) and it was very dark and all you could see was white dots coming at you. the snow was really piling up and it was time to put on the snow chains. we were in the mountains and we stopped at a local store and got some locals(this man was about 300 pds and wearing overalls with hair to his butt) to help us get the chains on. then we were back on our way going 20 mph in a blizzard through the west virginia mountains in the middle of the night. it was really cold. the heat didn’t feel like it was working and the people in the back of the truck in front of us were lucky not to freeze to death. it was like a ice box. there were ice-cycles hanging back there with them. we had been riding through this for about 6 hours and we stopped at a rest area and asked a lady how much longer we would be in west virginia and she said we only had “one more mountain to cross”. hours later we finally got to ohio. we stopped at a toll and one of the snow chains got rapped around michael’s axle. we had to pull over and get it off. it was really hard because the snow drifts were like 8 feet but michael and jud (michaels best friend at the time)dug and dug and finally after working a lot got it off.

        the sun finally came up on our night of hell and we reached our hotel. our room was suppose to be a room with 2 double beds, but when we got in they had taken out a bed because the windows had leaked from the 18 foot snowdrift outside and half our room was wet. which meant we had 1 double bed and half a wet floor for 14 people to stay in. the  hotel was gracious and opened it’s doors to anyone who needed it. the rooms, the halls,and the lobby was full of hippies. michael and i tried to sleep, but it was hard to close our eyes and when we did all we could see was those white dots in the darkness coming at us.

       the concert was canceled that night and that was ok with me because my brothers band was going to be on the indiana jones series that night. so that meant i could watch it. the next day we went to a mall and then went to the concert. it was so worth everything we had been through. it was one of the best concerts i had ever seen. i was wearing overalls( which is ok when your 19 and 108 pds, but not now) and during the concert michael kept putting things in my front pocket of an illegal nature (remember that).

        after the concert we headed home. we stopped at a rest area before we got on the road. me and michael went into the rest area and jud stayed in the car to try and get some sleep. when we went back to our car the ohio state police had dogs in our car and jud was getting out. the police frisked jud and found nothing. the police frisked me and (when he put his 2 fingers in my front pocket i thought that was it, but he pulled out a juicy fruit rapper and) found nothing.the police frisked michael and found nothing. then they put us in the back of their police car so they could search our car. they told us that they found a few things but they were looking for the big deal stuff and let us go( tell me God was not in that. tell me that was just luck. God is good all the time and God knew his plan for us and it wasn’t to go to jail in ohio).

       we were still in west virginia when the sun came up and the snow was really thick on the roads still. in the light of day it was scary to see what we had been through in the darkness that we could not see before. the road had no shoulder. one false move and we would have been tumbling down the side of a mountain to our death. i think a good moral to this story is my last paragraph.

IT WAS DARK AND WE COULD NOT SEE BUT THEN THE LIGHT CAME AND WE COULD.

please feel free to share one of your concert adventures!!!!

I LOVE YOU June 26, 2008

love is a beautiful thing.

GRACE June 25, 2008

     lately, it seems that i have heard the word GRACE used a lot and i wonder if some people even know what the definition is. so i thought i might share the meaning. now i am sure that most of you who visit my blog will know what it means but just in case there are a few who don’t i thought i would pass it on.

Webster’s definition is as follows: 1. a state of sanctification by God.

                                                  2. elegance and beauty of movement or expression.

                                                  3. a sense of propriety and consideration of others.

                                                  4. a disposition of kindness and compassion.

                                                  5. (Greek mythology) one of three sisters who

                                                   were the givers of beauty and charm.

                                                  6. a short prayer of thanks before a meal.

                                                  7. free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God.

ALL CHRISTIANS BELIEVE THAT HUMANS ACHIEVE SALVATION THROUGH THE GRACE OF GOD.

my Bible’s definition is: unmerited favor, unearned benefit, undeserved kindness. God’s amazing gift of forgiveness of sins and power to live with dignity in the present and with hope for the future.

     i do hope that this will help and hope that when you hear the word grace used you might ask ” which grace do you mean?”. do you mean “free and unmerited favor” or do you mean “elegance and beauty”?   

      i always think of free unmerited favor of God, but that is not what i think people are always talking about. WOW! i think i just taught myself something. COOL!   

it is almost time June 24, 2008

it is almost time for our annual family vacation. this is the big one when we go with bob and sharon and the sturgills and the tylers. there will be 16 of us in the same house. we have so much fun and if we need some space we can go on a golf cart ride or go down to the sand or go to the store or walk on the pier. it is wonderful to see our children’s eyes when they experience some new wonder at the coast. i grew up on the coast so when i get to see my children in such a magical place, that i always got to experience it gives me a special feeling.

        one of my favorite things to do is to go on a golf cart ride at night. we always see a lot of deer and beaver hanging out in the yards of the people who are staying there. some people put out corn but they are not scared of us. we can ride right up to them and they will not run.

        i also love to go out to the beach with michael and watch him boogie board. he is a trip. he turns into a little kid and when he catches a good wave you can hear him yelling for miles ” wahoo”. it is so fun.

        it’s also fun at night when we stay up late playing games. hope brings this really fun game where you have to finish a song. they are all 70’s and 80’s and she gives you the artist and  pieces of a song and you have to finish it. we play that for hours.

        it is great to watch the children play and hang out together too. i want to thank bob and sharon for giving us this opportunity to be together and form such wonderful memories. it means more than you will ever know.

I WOULD LIKE YOU TO SHARE SOME OF YOUR VACATION MEMORIES!

unorganized rambling about the new church June 21, 2008

     last sunday in sunday school we were talking about the new church. specifically acts 4:32-5:11 and it has been on my mind this week. i had some good thoughts and bad. 

     good thoughts were that everyone sold there stuff and no one had a need. they shared all their possessions and gave so freely to each other. man, how awesome would that be if we could live together like that now.

      but like i said, i also had bad thoughts about it: like it kind-of sounds like a cult. i think that was a pharisee thought and that scares me because i think,” how many thoughts have i had that make me a pharisee”. i don’t think i am the kind of person who gets caught up in tradition, but then again maybe i do or maybe i try to hard too get rid of traditions. i don’t really like man made laws.

     then i think of ananias and sapphira and i (like the whole church) am “seized with great fear”. can you imagine being there when that happened? someone tells a lie about their gift and they drop dead in front of you. CRAZY!!! what if the next time you told a lie you dropped dead and didn’t have a chance to repent. i think that we should take seriously the need for the truth to reign in the church.

THERE IS DANGER OF DECEPTION AND HYPOCRISY. 

do not let your hearts be troubled… john 14:1 June 20, 2008

      lately i feel i have seen alot of people i love going through trials of one sort or another. my heart feels for them and i want them to have comfort. i have been thinking about this for a little while so i thought i might address it.

      do you feel sometimes that God is too far away, or fearsome, or too holy? you know in your mind that God can be trusted, but in your heart you resist. Jesus knows your doubts and fear. he came to this earth to show you the father (john 14:9). he came to show you his heart of love,gentleness, and compassion.

      Jesus knows we are going to see troubling times and he tells us in John 14:1 to not let our hearts be troubled. trust in God and also in him. when you trust someone you have total confidence in that person. you build trust through a relationship and not just through intellectual belief.

      i think we can choose not to let our circumstances trouble us because we have total trust in him. Romans 15:13″may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit”.

      a person naturally wants to know what’s ahead. trusting God doesn’t mean he is going to tell you what’s going to happen. it means that you know you are safe with him- no matter what happens. that is so hard for me because what if what you want to happen is not what God wants. 

     TRUST ALLOWS US TO ACCEPT AND APPRECIATE ALL THE SURPRISES IN LIFE.

the fame of the Lord June 14, 2008

     the queen of sheba was a mover and a shaker. she was not one to sit around and when she heard about solomon’s wisdom and relationship with God she had to see it for herself.

she was a queen. she could have sent someone for an eyewitness account but instead she went to jerusalem herself to see it first hand. it was a long distance(probably around 1000 miles) with a huge caravan of people and camels and stuff. there were no motels,indoor plumbing, or ac.

the queen arrived during the height of solomon’s reign.he had great wealth and was surrounded by beautiful things.the queen was overwhelmed by the wealth but even more so by the presence of God in his court. solomon was so trusting of his God and this was something she had never experienced with other Gods. everyone under solomon lived like they were a family, there was peace. the queen understood that this all came from the Lord. the wisdom, the power, the peace, all of it.

the queen was like solomon’s counterpart. she valued God’s wisdom above all else. she came to solomon and talked with him about everything that was on her mind. ( 1 kings 10:2). he freely shared everything with her especially his love for God. he gave her more than she asked for.

    the queen longed for wisdom and the Lord gave her that and more and even gave her a place in his word. matthew 12:42 the queen of the south will rise at the judgement with this generation and condemn it……

OTHERS WILL JUDGE JESUS BY THE WAY WE LIVE. IF THEY LIKE WHAT THEY SEE, THEY WILL WANT IT TOO.

he’s my brother June 8, 2008

yes, this is my brother. he is older than me. he has a beautiful wife and a new ,really cute ,baby. i hope he doesn’t get mad at me for talking about him.

growing up we had a love- hate relationship. Our parents worked alot so he had to take care of me alot. i remember him making me popeye pancakes and sitting on me and farting. i remember him making me steal grandma’s cigerette’s for him and his friends and using me for karate practice,but i still loved him so much. he’s the older brother, you know. i see so much of that in my children. a sibling relationship is so amazing. i do have good memories also. i do know that my brother always took care of me and he even played with me sometimes. one time, when we lived in virginia, we decided we didn’t want my cindy lauper record anymore and we used it for an indoor frisbee(that was fun). then when we got older, he was in a band called “billy club fest”( he plays guitar, just like all the other men in my life), and me and my friends would go see them play at clubs. then they really started to travel and i couldn’t see them play anymore. then something happened and he joined the coast guard and is still there. he married an awesome girl and now they have a beautiful baby boy. they are closer now then they have been but we still don’t get to see each other very much. they are 2:30 hours away. i miss my brother and his family. i love them very much.

i would like to hear a crazy sibling memory from you.  everyone please share.

my wild child June 5, 2008

rachel is my wild child. she is wide open from the time she gets up until the time she goes to bed. she is getting ready to start kindergarten. she wants to be a zoo keeper and a dentist when she grows up.

   I got to name alex and molly and i wanted to name rachel, Daphne or phoebe. michael said no. so i let him name her. i really didn’t like the name rachel, but i had to compromise. i think after 5 years it might have grown on me.

i’m really going to miss her when she goes to school.

our future mommy June 5, 2008

when molly was in pre-k i asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. she said she wanted to be a mommy, just like me. I thought that was so sweet. if you know molly, you know that is definitly her calling. she loves to take care of children smaller then her.

when i found out that we were going to have molly. i cried because i didn’t know how i would have enough love in my heart for another child( because i loved alex so much),but when she was born it was amazing how God instantly made room in my heart for her. I am so thankful for her. life would not be the same without her.