Trish, I love that song!!  I just bought the soundtrack a few weeks ago :)

Your Love is Extravagant - Casting Crowns {lyrics}

Group Hug...cloud NINE!

Group Hug...cloud nine :)

 This week what have you asked God for?  When you prayed did you go over the list you have prepared in your mind?  Those who are sick, those who are grieving, lost souls, the needy, our country and its leaders?  We all have a "list".  Then we always manage to squeeze a few things in that aren't on the list.  Lord, you know I could use a raise!  Insurance!  Help with paying the bills!  A plumber!  Back to school problems! Traffic!  Lord, don't let that gas light come on yet!  Every thing from the big stuff to the small stuff.  And the great thing about God is that nothing is too small to pray about and nothing is too big for him to answer.  So as my week has progressed I have been "out of sorts"  I can't pinpoint any one thing but its like I am going one way and the universe is going another way.  I have been saying my prayers and asking-asking-asking!  Wednesday night Bible Study was Revelation Chapter 4.  I was reminded that I need to be Praising God and thanking God as well as asking!

Revelations 4:8
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come

Revelations 4:11
You are worthy, our Lord and God
to receive glory and honor and power

The song 10,000 reasons played over and over in my head this evening.  And I am thinking how many things can I think of to thank God for and to praise Him?  Psalm 103 says Bless the Lord O My Soul, O my soul Worship his Holy Name.   My soul sings, but sometimes my flesh takes over and I forget.  I forget that Jesus is ever near me, closer than a brother.  Holding my hand when I am struggling.  Embracing me when I am lonely.  Wiping my tears when I cry.  I was reminded this week that when we are nearing Heavens shore, even with our last breath, we need to praise Him.  Because He said He would never leave or forsake us- Hebrews 13:5
and in Genesis 28:15 He says I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.  Praise him in the good times, praise him in the bad.  And when our time comes its just hard for me to imagine what it will be like to enter the presence of my Savior, where there will be so much love!  I just want to run into his arms and get all loved up!  I can just hear it now!  Over the intercom in Heaven, "Group Hug Cloud Nine" :)

There is a song by Casting Crowns that sums it all up:

Your love is extravagant
your friendship, it is intimate
I feel like moving to the rhythm of your grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place
Your love is extravagant
Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known
You considered me a friend
Capture my heart again

I am going to modify my prayers.  I am still asking for my hearts desires but I am making sure I count down those 10,000 reasons to praise HIM!

Amen to that!  God must believe these doctors need to "see" the miracle!  

Friends

http://youtu.be/oOCJAVlESEo

Friends

Friends are friends forever if the Lords The Lord of them...as sung by Michael W. Smith.  A friend will not say never cause the welcome will not end.  I have been friended by many.  Some friends I have had through many seasons, many storms of my life.  Some friends are recent, they know of my storms and are willing to listen and help me to continue to pick up the fragments of my life.  God has given us many pleasures here on earth.  But I wonder how we would survive without this pleasure we call friend?  It makes me wonder, is it a necessity?  A pleasure is something we could live without.  I don't think I could live without my friends. They have shared my laughter, dried my tears, listened to my problems.  I hope in some similar way I have been that friend to someone.  I just can't imagine a lifetime without friends. Maybe what I think is Gods pleasure for us is more like Gods treasure to us!  Because as he treasures us and wants us to be his friend- one that we can tell our troubles to, cry on his shoulder and yes! Share our laughter with Him- he wants us to friend our fellow man.  So when that time comes he calls his children home-in the fathers hands- our friends are there- loving, listening, helping us pick up the pieces!  And as the song says- a lifetime is not too long to live as friends❤ 

Just Breathe...

Memories are Gods little windows into our past. And because they are OUR memories, we can be choosy as to what we remember.  There are good, bad, funny, sad- you name it- we can pull it out!  As time goes by the memories fade. Sometimes becoming blurry or maybe even different to different people. I have been blessed in my life and I don't have many bad memories. The bad memories are associated with losing the ones I love!  My blurry memories are trying to take the bad memories and replace it with the good. I see my mom and dad in healthy bodies and good minds in their little window of my past. I see Danny laughing and happy with no pain and a body made whole by Christ!  Take your memories and make them happy!  Capture that smile, laughter, even a smell!  I remember sawdust!  The smell of it after he would use the scroll saw!  I remember the smell of biscuits and gravy cooking as I walked onto the porch at my moms!  I can smell linament when I think of my dad-he rubbed it on everything!  Sometimes the smells actually make me cry, but it feels so good❤ I think of it as an automatic window washer for my soul!  As Fall creeps into our life-breathe deep and take that smell all the way to your soul!  Even if it brings a few tears- It's just cleaning stuff up in there❤

We will be praying for all the family, love you all.

Joe and Michelle, we are praying for the whole family!!  Love you guys xoxo

Praise the Lord ! Praise, O servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord ! Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its going down The Lord ’s name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, Who dwells on high, Who humbles Himself to behold The things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, And lifts the needy out of the ash heap, That He may seat him with princes— With the princes of His people. (Psalms 113:1-8 NKJV)

Yes, Trish, Aleya was born with only one kidney and it was situated in such a way that the doctors felt like they would have to operate and correct it's orientation before she was 5. Well, when Joe and Michelle moved to Texas they went to the doctor there for eval and set up the surgery. However, when they prepped Aleya for surgery and took images, they asked Michelle if the former images and the current images were of the same person because they were so different. Bottom line is Aleya was healed of the condition and did not need the surgery, in fact her kidney was enlarged enough so that it was doing the work of 2 kidneys and doctors were amazed, said it must have "healed itself". Right? God healed her of that and the doctors did not want to believe it. So now all this comes to light when they explored what they thought was appendicitise. We know God can heal her of this as well, without needing all the surgery and down-time.

Wow!  I have heard of a twin uterus!  But that sounds crazy!  Now is Aleya the one that had kidney problems?  I get confused.  Anyhow!  We will get right on that with the prayer:)

Here's a little something I thought of this morning:)

The Porch

 As Summer winds down I dread the evening of early darkness.  Although I do enjoy every other aspect of Fall.  I love the fact that I can grab a sweater and wrap up and feel warm against the cool chilly evenings.  I love the color of the leaves as they begin to change.  The occasional smell of wood burning stoves in the early morning reminds me of home when I was a child and my Mom would fix a fire first thing to take the chill off.  One of the pleasures I enjoyed most this Summer was sitting on my friends porch.  I have enjoyed walking and talking with God.  I resolved many things while in prayer this Summer.  With my walking shoes on, my head phones in, I would set out on the pavement- destination unknown.  God usually had my walks planned out.  Sometimes I would only see dogs, birds and cows.  Other times I visited with kids, passersby, neighbors that would beep the horn, strangers working on a fence and many times I would end up at a neighbors house.  We sat on the porch and shared a bottle of water or a cup of coffee and our problems.  We shared secrets, hopes, dreams, our hearts burdens and blessings!  God- always at the center of our talks- felt like he was right there on that porch with us.  When life gets busy and we have to balance our work life, home life, and our spiritual life, we have to make sure we get it all!  We can't be unbalanced!  So with "busy"ness in our lives make sure you have some "porch" time.  Even if the only ones on the porch are you and God.  When the darkness begins to fade into light and we know Spring is around the corner then we can renew our porch time with neighbors and friends.  In the meantime, I look forward to some quality "porch" time with just me and my Heavenly Father!  I hope you will too :)

Don't know if you all were aware that our youngest granddaughter, Aleya, was admitted to the hospital in Germany this week with what was believed to be appendicitis. However, we finally got the following report from Michelle. Have any of you ever heard of such? By the way, please keep all of them in your prayers. Hey, Dad and mom. Aleya is recovering well. The hospital is doing mostly well with taking care of her, I have only fired one nurse, ha ha. But the doctors mostly speak decent English. We should not even be here. The pediatric wing at Landstuhl is closed until Sept. 9 for renovations or something and the nurse commander made the decision that all admitted patients could be redirected to the German hospital during the two weeks. The surgeons nor the ER were aware until I was signing the paperwork with the surgeon and the ER commander ran in and told him the nursing staff denied admittance. We had been there for 7 hours at that point. They had done bloodwork and a CT and thought it was the appendix and because of fluid amounts, thought it had ruptured. The surgeon worked on trying to find a way around the problem, but all the pediatric nursing staff were on leave so Aleya would have no post-surgery care. We arrived at the German hospital about 1 am and they took her into surgery when I called you. They did it laparoscopically. However, when they went in, it was not the appendix, nor could they find it at first. Her intestines are rotated 90 degrees clockwise, so the appendix was by the liver. The fluid was blood and abcess/infection. What they thought was the appendix was in fact a twin uterus, not attached to her cervix at all, but to her abdominal wall. She is menstruating and the blood went into her abdomen, sort of like endometriosis, but it isn't that. The infection is from her Fallopian tubes, from blood that drifted into them. The ovaries are not in the correct place, either. Her attached uterus is left-leaning and the ovaries are above it. The gynecologist did an ultrasound and said as of now, he is recommending a partial hysterectomy of the twin uterus that is attached to the right abdominal wall, where the appendix should be. They have had her on antibiotics since Landstuhl ER around midnight on Tuesday. Joe's commander filed a complaint with Joe's 2-star, who then contacted the general over the base hospital to get answers as to why the nursing commander made this call. Long story. Crazy. I haven't left Aleya since we arrived. Exhausting. Toria and Tarin came to see her yesterday afternoon. So we are waiting to see if the antibiotics have worked well enough to send her home maybe tomorrow. Or I guess Monday. Communication is not easy nor is their structure system. The surgeon from Landstuhl base has called three or four times to follow treatment and to get updates. He has said he will see Aleya on a follow-up if we choose, so we don't have to start over on the case with her pediatrician. I will be talking to him about doing the hysterectomy on base instead of here. Love you both and I will keep you updated. Love, Michelle

Hello to all,

  We have started a Relay for Life fundraiser team at work.  On September 1st we will begin our fundraising campaign and go through spring.  A lot of areas hold their Relay for Life rallies in March and April, not sure yet when ours will be.  In our first fundraiser we will be collecting dimes in bottles.  A regular 20 oz. water/drink bottle will hold $100.00 worth of dimes.  If you would like, wash a used bottle and get started!!  I will let you know closer to rally time when we will be collecting the money from the bottles.  I will also let you know as we start new projects for fundraising.

 

 

Thanks,

Monica

Addy, I don't care WHAT that boy said.  You are filled with God's love and you are one smart cookie!!  :)  I wonder where you got your rest for those 11 days of the fair?

The blog sure has been quiet for a while. I just wanted to check in with everybody. School started this week and I was already feeling overwhelmed before the students came on Thursday. Then, halfway through the day I had to kick a 7th grader out of class because he yelled at me, called me demonic and stupid. I don't care what anybody says, I don't get paid enough! I hate that I missed everybody at Ariel's wedding. Congratulations Ariel, welcome to the family Chad! Ariel, you looked beatiful!  Paul and I were working the state fair and we made that commitment last year. We worked 9 days straight 11 am to around midnight or later every night, and I had cheerleading practice in the morning so by the end of it, we were absolutely exhausted. But wow do you see some interesting things at the state fair. I got my picture with Elvis. Monica, I have to say again that I LOVE your hair! Emily, how is school going so far? Kim and Andy, excited to meet the little one! Trish, just hearing about your walks wears me out. Daniel and Alice, David and Julie, Vonda, really miss you guys. Paul says hi everybody! 

Love you guys!

How true that is Trish!

Forgiveness

When do you know you need forgiveness? I know we sin everyday, every minute, every second! We could constantly be asking Gods forgiveness in our lives. We unknowingly and knowingly sin against God, we automatically ask for forgiveness. Those two things just go hand in hand. How many times do we sin against our fellow man? knowingly? Unknowingly? Do we ask for forgiveness? Yes, No, Maybe, sometimes?

Colossians 3:13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (NIV)
Needing forgiveness is a terrible feeling but giving forgiveness is amazing! No matter what I do I know I have a heavenly father who understands me and my many faults. It doesn't matter to him. He forgives me! He doesn't hold a grudge, he doesn't throw it up in my face!
Romans 3:23
(NIV)

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
I do not knowingly hurt others but I am sure I have stepped on toes, Lord knows I do have a big mouth. All I know is I try to live the life God wants me too. I ask him to fill my heart with love so that I can show it to others. So I ask your forgiveness if I have wronged you! Jesus has already paid the price and forgiven me! Praise God for that! Danny was often my conscience and would tell me when I stepped out of line. He is still telling me these things, its just now he is a quiet spirit instead of a loud smack on the back of the head! Sometimes I need smacked on the back of the head! God is Good and Forgiveness is great! As I type this note, I keep doing a typo of "forgivemess" ! How true that is! Forgiveness IS forgivemess!

2 Chronicles 7:14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land

5 pictures for you

I took this on my way home this evening....about 3 miles before I got
home on my road. He seemed to like being photographed...He wasn't abit
shy.

You have been sent 5 pictures.


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These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

Trish, you have more faith than you know, You are just begining to use it.Love it.That is what God wants is for us to trust him and turn it over to him, but believe me it gets hard sometimes.