God is in control!

I'm usually in such a hurry that I don't even look at things around me, but God had other plans for me this morning. We topped a small hill on our dirt road and the early morning (7:00am) sun was beautiful shining through the trees. The shadows were playing on the ground, the sun was peeking between the tree trunks, and the whole area was illuminated with warm, golden light. I had my camera with me and stopped in the road to take a shot of it. I had no idea that I had left the 4 cross-screen filter (usually used for taking shots of lights at night) on my camera lens. When I finally got a chance to load my photos onto my computer, I was amazed at the shot I had gotten. The light coming from the eastern sky, shining through the trees looked like a cross! Not just that, but the shadows on the road made another cross! I've been so preoccupied with so many things lately that I had drifted away from where He wants me to be. I'm so glad God showed me His glory in such a beautiful way, and helped me refocus my eyes on Him. No matter what may come, GOD is on His throne, GOD is in control, and I will place my complete trust in HIM.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
Deuteronomy 31:6

Hey, Kayla, this one's for you!

I had the priviledge of taking wedding photos for one of Casey's best friends on Saturday. Kayla and Joe tied the knot at 3:00 pm, then had a really fun reception following that. I just thought I'd post a few of the photos here just to let Kayla have a little hint of what will be in her hands soon. Oh, and Casey was one of the bridesmaid, too.

I hope you like them; constructive criticism is appreciated as long as you be nice! :)

His name is David...

..He sits on the front pew at church, he's there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, he never misses; he's a grown man with the mind of a child; he has Down's Syndrome. I don't know how old David is, but I would venture to guess he's well into his 40's. He lives in an assisted living group home, and rides the church bus. This morning he was very agitated, I had no idea what was wrong, but he moved over to talk to our pastor's daughter. I assumed he was uncomfortable sitting alone, then I realized he was almost in tears. He always brings 2 dimes for his offering and this morning, as the offering plates started around, he couldn't find his dimes. He was so upset that he didn't have his 20 cents to put in the offering. After being assured it was okay, he just dropped his head. I guess God spoke to him through our praise and worship song, "How Great is Our God", because by the end of the song he was singing as loudly as he could, his words, under any other circumstances, would have be intelligible, but his face and hands were raised toward heaven, and you knew exactly what he was singing.

The Bible says "...suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for such is the kingdom of Heaven." Mark 10:14. Oh that we all could have such a childlike faith, that we would worry about having our offering money each Sunday, that we would be heartbroken if we didn't have something to give to Jesus. I'm speaking to myself as much as anyone. Sometimes....often times, I let life get in the way and give God what is left of my time when I should be giving Him the first of my time. I am so thankful that God placed people like David in my path that I can rethink my perspective and realize that God loves us, from the least to the greatest, from the richest to the poorest. He loves us all, His love encompasses everything and everyone. We should all be more like David, not afraid to raise our hand, not afraid to sing at the top of our lungs, not worried what the person beside us is thinking. We should live our lives to the glory of God.

Though David's song wasn't anywhere near the key where the music was written, don't you know it was music to God's ears.

20 years ago today.....

A little dark-haired, dark-eyed baby girl joined our family. Casey was exactly 2 weeks LATE, (which may attest to why she's never on time now), and weighed in at 8lbs, 4oz, and measuring 22 inches long. Now she's 20 and in her 2nd year of college, where has the time gone?

Happy Birthday, Casey!

Random things about me.

This was on my cousin, Jamie's, blog. I thought it might be fun. Please leave a comment if you decide to answer on your blog--I'd love to read yours...

"35 odd things about you"

1. Do you like blue cheese salad dressing? No!

2. Do you own a gun? I personally don't "own" one, but I can use the 20 gauge and Chris has quite an assortment. Oh, I can use Austin's .22 also.

3. What's a favorite drink at Starbucks or other specialty coffee house? Grande French Vanilla Latte.

4. What do you prefer to drink in the morning ? Coffee, it's the first thing I do, my kids have learned not to even talk to me until they see a cup in my hand.

5. Do you do push-ups? If you mean the little orange sherbety things that come in the frozen ice cream treat case, yes, if you mean exercize, no, I lift a 43 lb 4 year old, that's my bicep workout.

6. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding rings. I had a fabulous pair of silver hoop earrings I wore alot, but that evil "Wildfire" ride at Silver Dollar City stole one of them from me. If you know a pirate who needs one silver hoop, I have one, its mate is in the dirt below Wildfire.

7. Favorite hobby? Photography

8. Do you have A.D.D? Probably...Casey (DD) says I have ADOS..Attention Deficit Ooooh, Shiny!

9. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? Just one? I have several traits I don't like, but I'm working on them.

10. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: Casey needs to get her rear in here and get the kitchen cleaned up, I wonder what that loud crash noise coming from the basement was?, If I slip off to bed will anyone notice?.

11. Name 4 drinks you regularly drink. Coffee, milk(I force myself to drink a little, tiny glass before bed every night, water, Diet Dr. Pepper (though I've really cut down on that in the last couple of months.)

12. Current worry right now? Will Mom, Greg, Stacie, and the rest of the mission group make it home safely. (and one more) Will Casey's recent ex-boyfriend cause problems for her when he's home on leave in October. He's been very nasty and threatening on his MySpace. (oh, and just in case he reads this...see the above post about firearms, she now knows how to use them all, and Chris says she can load the clip on the .22 pistol as fast as he can)

13. Current hate right now? My 7th period class (I don't hate the kids, but I really hate their behavior), my right big toenail (ripped part of it off with the door 2 days ago), my flab...not just one area, but the all-over general distribution. (maybe I should start thinking about those push-ups....not the orange kind, the icky ones)

14. Favorite place to be? at HOME with my family. I think I could almost be a hermit...especially if there was a grocery store and Wal-Mart in my cave...or hermitage (?) Hermitage...was Andrew Jackson a hermit at some point???? (It's the ADD kicking in, don't worry)

15. Do you like to travel? Sometimes, but my favorite part of travel is coming home.

16. What color shirt are you wearing? A faded, Ouray, Colorado t-shirt I got on our vacation 3 years ago.

17. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? NO! I tried it once and kept sliding off, give me cotton anyday!

18. Can you whistle? Not well, and not in any particular tune, about the only whistling I do is with 2 fingers in my mouth and 2 different "notes" when I'm trying to get the dogs to come back to the house. (you'd think the dude on the bicycle would choose another road to ride down, he goes by our house and is immediately chased by a blue-heeler and a 3 legged hound dog. I guess they don't like men in bicycle shorts....)

19. Favorite color? Oh come on! I'm an art teacher, I can't pick a favorite...but if you want to buy me something my kitchen is done in dark sagey greens, cinnabar & cobalt (Fiestaware colors, and ecru or off white (okay, the official color swatch said tea-stain, I figured with 3 kids anything that already had "stain" on it couldn't be all bad, now the rest of their stains will blend).

20. If you could would you be a pirate? No, I'd hurt myself with the cutlass, and there's no way I'm climbing a little rope ladder to a crow's nest! Besides, aren't pirates supposed to take things from people? I'd be the only one who captured a ship to give things away!

21. What song do you sing in the shower? Most recently it's been "Praise You in this Storm" just because that's my son of choice at the moment, but I'm sure it will be songs from our Christmas cantata...as soon as I learn them.

22. Favorite girl's name? I picked out Casey Lynn for DD, but that could really go either way, the other girls' names I had picked out were: Lydia Allison (but I ended up with an Austin) and Jordan Angie (got a Logan Wade, instead, there's a really cool story behind the Jordan Angie name, too, Chris's grandmother was born in Jordan, AR and her middle name was Angie. Wanna know how we picked out Logan....it's a good cowboy name (guess who picked that one).

23. Favorite boy's name? Austin Lance & Logan Wade

24. What's in your pocket right now? lint...maybe an old Kleenex if I really want to dig (I'm wearing my "jammie pants" as Logan calls them)

25. Favorite bedsheets as a child? I don't know why I remember this, but I had the coolest set of sheets with Picasso sketches (doves and olive branches). I LOVED those sheets! Picasso sheets...I guess I was destined to be an Art teacher.

26. Worst injury? Hmmm, I've had a few stitches, I guess the worst one was when I was 16 and fell off a bucking chute, I had around 25 stitches in my arm with that one. (don't ask, I wasn't riding, I was sitting on it and decided to get off..I'm NOT graceful, 'nuff said). There there was the time in 3rd grade when I fell off the teepee on the playground at Flippin Elementary....and in 4th grade when a bee stung me on the tongue...(yes, I'm serious, I had my mouth open and it flew in, that's how)

27. Do you love where you live? Absolutely! We built our house on our farm and have been here a year and a half. I love it! I don't ever want to move, ever, ever, ever.

28. How many TVs do you have in your house? Three, and I don't get to watch any of them.

29. Who is your loudest friend? I don't know...maybe my friends don't seem loud because I'm the loud, annoying one? (you can agree, my feelings won't be hurt, it's the truth)

30. How many pets do you have? We have 2 dogs, Darrell - our blue-heeler mix, and CJ- our little $40 Humane Society rescue dog that was was hit by a car back in the spring and now only has 3 legs...by the way, he's worth $700 now. I just love him, he's my dog, he doesn't even know he's handicapped.

31. Does someone have a crush on you? If they do, they really need to get a life.

32. What is your Favorite Book? The Bible...as for other books, I can't pick one, but there was one I read over and over in high school "Celia Garth" it was about a Revolutionary war spy who worked as a seamstress and heard all the latest from her "Tory" ladies she sewed for, she then turned around and told the Revolutionary army all those secrets. I had to really do some searching to find a copy since it's out of print now!

33. What's your favorite candy? M&Ms, hands down, any kind, but I'm really partial to the dark chocolate ones.

34. Favorite Sports Team? Viola Longhorns! (especially the 7th grade boys...#33 to be exact) I like the Razorbacks, and Ryan Newman of NASCAR, too.

35. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Please let it be Saturday!

Good grief!

For some reason the link doesn't show up, so you'll just have to do it one of 2 ways, you can either go to the sidebar "blogs I read" scroll down and click on the "FBC Flippin" blog, OR you can manually get to it by using this address
http://fbcflippin.blogspot.com

Any computer gurus who read this and would like to show me how to link (or hyperlink, or whatever it's called!), please do, then I won't look like I'm completely inept when it comes to matters of the blog.

Oops

Sorry, the blog link didn't work. I'll try it again.

Romans 8:28

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

If you ever any doubt that this verse is true, then you need to ask God to open the eyes of your heart and reveal His truth, then you need to go look at this blog. Why are you still reading this? GO!

Praise You in This Storm

Friday night, Logan and I rode with Chris to get a load of hay. As we were driving, we got caught in a very sudden, but scary thunderstorm. It was a small cell, but it was making its presence known. It wasn't long before we drove out of it, and I looked out my window to see the sun breaking through the storm clouds. Of course, I had my camera in my lad and was able to get a shot of the "Heaven hole" (Logan's term). I was reminded of the song "Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns (which is one of my favorite songs at the moment.

For some reason, those rays of sunshine piercing the dark clouds just strenghthened my belief that God is with us no matter what we are going through or where we are in life. The storms of life are many, some take a while to build, but grow stronger and stronger until the are huge, and they seem to last forever...like hurricanes. Others happen so quickly and shake us down to the very core, they leave us devistated with nothing left to do but pick up the pieces and move on....those are the tornadoes. Tomorrow marks a year since one of those "tornadoes" happened in my life. We lost Dad suddenly, without much warning on September 23, 2007, but God was there and brought us through that storm....I guess He is still bringing us through, because I lean on Him every day when I'm at school and look at that little rock building where we lived, and what was more recently, Dad's office. Even in times of trial, God gives us so many joys to look to for comfort. Mom would not have had the chance to go to Nicaragua if God had not planned our lives this way, and even more of a joy, a new little Newton will join our family in late December or early January.

I pray that I never forget to praise God through all the storms and to look for those "Heaven holes". This world is a temporary place, and Heaven will not have storms, but joy, peace, and eternal happiness in the presence on the One True God.

My Mom, isn't she just beautiful!


The mission team from fbc Flippin.

Pray for the team from First Baptist Church in Flippin, AR. They leave early tomorrow morning (Saturday) for a mission trip to San Marcos, Nicaragua. Mom is going with them. Just pray that the Lord will go before them and make a way for them to witness to the people who so desperately need Jesus. They will be involved in a mobile medical care/dentistry group, prison ministry, much interaction with children (mom packed coloring sheets taken from a Bible coloring book and the words she and a friend/Spanish teacher translated into Spanish, crayons, and hard candy for them). They will also have the privilege of be a part of the graduation ceremonies from Rhema Bible College and will have taken Bibles (NIV Study Bibles in Spanish) to be presented to the graduating pastors. A large evangelistic crusade will be going on at the same time with approximately 3-4 THOUSAND people will be attending. During the last crusade over 1100 people gave their lives to Christ! What an awesome thing to see and participate! God is good, ALL the time!

Along with Mom, my uncle Greg (Mom's baby brother) and my cousin, Stacie (Greg's daughter) will be going. Please pray for this group, traveling mercies, Godly wisdom, and great health and enthusiasm.

You can keep up with the pastor's blog here. I'm so anxious to see the Lord at work!

Fly by post

And since I don't like to post without a photo, here's old Abe. I took this in DC on June 3rd.


I really hate to post without some kind of picture to accompany it, but it seems like I just haven't had time to take them or unload them from my camera if I do.

Since school started I feel like I barely have time to breathe, much less get any additional things accomplished. I'm still trying to find my groove, maybe I've permanently skipped a groove! I was really looking forward to watching Biggest Loser tonight, but I still have progress reports to get out. (yet here I am on the computer?)

Maybe someday I'll have some profound post, but it doesn't look good for tonight. I think I'll go watch the weigh in of BL....maybe have a bowl of ice cream to celebrate.

Bye, bye summer vacation

Logan and Trevor Brazile, Logan was very impressed with T, and Trevor won the event and took home around $50K, not bad for a day's work.


My cousin, Micaela getting Fred Whitfield's autograph. I still say she ambushed him in the hallway and used Jaiden as an excuse. I think she told him Jaiden wanted his autograph, and how could he say no when he looked at J's beautiful little face! (she looks really impressed, doesn't she? LOL)



The time has come (hey, that reminds me of a poem from Alice in Wonderland, "The time has come the walrus said, to talk of other things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings.), but I digress. Tonight was open house at school, which means the kids will be there bright eyed and bushy tailed on Monday morning, sigh, I love summer vacation why can't it last a little longer....8 months longer would be good. Austin will be in the 7th grade this year, how is that possible? He should still be Logan's age....and he starts pre-K next week, too!

We had one final "fun" trip of the summer last weekend. We went to the Best of the Best Tie Down Calf Roping. I was very cool, and all the "big dogs" of the calf roping world were there. You never know who you'll run across at one of those things, as we were going toward the stands I saw a man coming toward me and I had the thought, "Wow, he looks like my uncle, Randy." Imagine my surprise when I realized it WAS Randy! He and my aunt Brenda, cousin Micaela and her hubby Mario (I guess I can just call him cousin, too, it simplifies things), and their adorable children were there. It was fun to see them, and I could tell, that given a little time, Logan and Jaiden could really have a good time.

I did manage to get a few really good shots of some of the ropers at the trade show. Logan really got into asking them to sign his program. How could you resist such a cute little kid! He got lots of autographs. He was especially impressed with Trevor Brazile because he tickled him. Austin didn't get to go because he was with Mom at my brother and SIL's house for the weekend, but I think he made good use of their pool and entertained their twins, too. They rewarded him by a birthday dinner to Shogun and another dinner trip to Playtime Pizza; he was happy.

Now you're caught up on the goings on of our household, enjoy the pictures, and pray for me as the new school year starts, it's going to be a good one!

I hope this works, it's hilarious!

VBS is Cool!

This week is our church's Vacation Bible School and it has been so much fun! First of all, whenever there's a Hawaiian theme involved you know it's going to be good! I'm helping with the music and I just love to see the look on the little faces when they sing these songs. The guy who wrote all these songs and made up the moves to go with them is truly gifted. I took a few pictures, but don't have them off my camera yet, but I'll get those on here before too long.

VBS is one of the best things a child can be involved in. I am so glad to see some of our Awana kids who don't normally come to church. We're hoping for a few more kids, We had 126 tonight, at 130 Brother Jeff (youth pastor) has to wear a hula skirt for parent's night Thursday night. Austin has already invited friends, I think he's wanting to see Jeff with flowers in his hair!

Independence Day

I had to try leaving the shutter open a little while just to see what I would get. I love the way these turned out!

Chris was passing Logan a green sparkler, I thought the light on his little face was really neat.

Giant sparklers are so fun, but getting him to be still long enough to snap a good picture was a real challenge!

This one I left the shutter open for a few seconds. He was swinging the sparkler like a rope (imagine that!). I thought it was really neat to see the arc and the movement of his arm. His head was pretty still, amazingly enough.

Our 4th of July was pretty low key this year. My grandmother is in the hospital and just seems at times like she has given up on life. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is having a really tough time dealing with it, as we all are. I spent a couple of hours with her today, then came home and threw someing together for our church picnic. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to stay in town with all those people (I had no idea there were that many people in Fulton County!), so we came home. We are close enough to town that we could see the biggest fireworks from the field, so we parked the truck on a hill and watched a few from there. Logan hates the big bangs, so he was happy, too. Casey was gone, Austin was with Mom, so it was just Chris, Logan, and me.

Logan liked the big fireworks so much we decided to run into town and get a few little ones for him. The fireworks stand had 36" sparklers, which were the most fun thing we found. After a few cones, fountains, and sparklers we were done for the night. It was good to be home and not fighting the traffic in town. Trust me, more than 20 cars in Salem constitutes a major traffic problem, and last night they were parked up and down Hwy 62, all in the city park, fairgrounds, and in any space big enough for a car to squeeze into.

I guess I'm turning into an old fuddy duddy.....I can live with that!

I didn't think it would post twice!

Obviously I have no clue what I'm doing, but I thought this little celebrity lookalike thing was kind of neat. I would mind looking like Vanessa Marcil.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Trace family tree - Genalogy

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

A few more birthday shots.

I never thought I'd be a pool toy!

The Splash Brothers!

Logan and his buddy Jaron.

The birthday boy!

I finally got my pictures to load, so here are a few more from the birthday and with the gift Sissy got him. This afternoon we had lots of fun playing with the swimming pool. I lounged in a lawn chair with my feet in the water while the boys splashed around a while.

My baby is 4! When did that happen?

I guess it's always easier to blow out candles when you're sitting in Nana's lap. The tiny baby mom is holding is my cousin's (Kristi) new baby boy, Reid. He was born May 29.

Logan officially turned 4 Monday morning at 8:19 AM. We looked at his pictures last night and it's so strange to think he was once that small!

We had his birthday party Sunday afternoon (Austin had baseball games all day Saturday), but it was mostly just family. He didn't care, he was the center of attention and was showered with gifts. Last year he wanted Ray Barker (our neighbor) on his birthday cake, but this year he wanted Larry Boy (Veggie Tales). No bakery around us had Larry Boy, but I did find some Bob and Larry toys at the Christian Book Outlet, so he had cake with Bob and Larry.

Yesterday (Monday), I took cupcakes to daycare for him to share with his class, so he really ended up having 2 birthday parties. He was so cute when I got to school, he was wearing a big crown with "It's My Birthday" on it. He was also enjoying all the attention there, too. I didn't find Larry Boy cupcakes, but we did find Indiana Jones, which is probably his second favorite character!

Austin is trying to blow up the big water slide/pool thing Casey got Logan for his birthday, it looks like we're going to have water fun this afternoon! Yes, I'll have my camera in hand.