Chinese Writing and Whale's Tails

We were invited to dinner a few weeks ago by the Daniel Douglass family. Brother Daniel fixed perfectly seasoned steaks on the grill while his wife, Meghan, whipped up a delicious bowl of loaded mashed potatoes. Everybody likes loaded baked potatoes, right? Well, these that she made was a big hit. You simply boil your potatoes and mash them. Then add salt and pepper to taste, sour cream, butter, cheeze whiz (in the jar) and fried bits of bacon. This is definitely a dish I'll be keeping in mind the next time we have someone over.

After we ate, we played two new games. Chinese Writing, which is a head game that is hilarious, especially when the other people who have never played before are totally clueless as to how to play.

We also played Whale's Tails. Another mirthful game that had us all cracking up. This game insists that you be able to count, that you are fast with your pointer finger, and that you are quick to know who you are to say "nay!"

If you'd like to know how to play either of these games, email me and I'll be happy to tell you how. Both of these games are terrific party games.

We had dessert after the games. Bruce and I had taken two frozen Mrs. Smith's Chocolate Cream Pies along with us. Brother Daniel had placed them in the fridge so, even though they had been out of the freezer for a couple of hours, they were still a little hard to cut into. The adults were not having a difficult time cutting their spoons into the cold slices, however, we did learn that when you are only three and have very little hands, it can be quite difficult.

Obviously I was a terrible blogger this evening and did not take my camera. However did it escape my purse?

We had a really nice time. Thanks, Meghan and Daniel, for the food, fun, and fellowship.

Update On Jackie

A miracle took place last night. Things were looking very dark for Jackie and they were talking about doing emergency surgery. However, they decided to do another procedure to see if they could undo the kink in her intestines without having to open her up. When they went to do the procedure, the kink was gone!! Praise the Lord. Prayer changes things!!!!

After more tests, they have determined that she has Acute Pancreatitis. If you click on that, it takes you to the wikipedia findings, which is in a nutshell what pancreatitis is. Click here to get a more indepth understanding of it.

It can be hereditary, so they are testing her parents, Josh and Beth. They have three other children and right now we don't know if they'll need to be tested or not.

The doctors are also checking Jackie for Goltz. Why, we're not really sure. I don't know if there is a connection between Goltz and Pancreatitis or if they saw something suspicious and just want to check her out. But please be in prayer about this as well.

Please continue to pray for Jackie and her parents. And also the doctors to receive wisdom in her case.

Urgent Prayer Request

Tonight while our Pastor was preaching on the fiery trials we face as Christians, Brother Daniel received a phone call concerning his two year old niece that was taken to the hospital and is right now in a life and death situation.

There's a bit to the story and I don't want to give you any wrong information, so I'll just give you the basic. Her intestines have somehow become twisted and it does not look good.

Please pray for little Jackie and her family.

I'll update on her when I find out more.

Thanks~

Love Lifted Me

Our church's Mother Daughter banquet was last night. The theme was "Love Lifted Me." We decorated with primary colors and hot air balloons.

Hannah with our Pastor's wife, Mrs. Ava Goodman

Hannah under the rainbow of balloons

Our food table...we had chicken salad croissants, chicken wings, and all kinds of different salads.

This is the shadow box in the foyer

Mrs. Ava welcoming everyone. The backgroud was painted by an elderly lady in our church that we lovingly call Mrs. Catfish.

We had around 140-150 ladies that showed up for this banquet

We have a special person that pops in from time to time to our meetings. Her name is Ineeda....Ineeda Mann. She came in and I talked her into a makeover. But Ineeda didn't want to do a makeover by herself, so.......

....these lovely ladies volunteered to do a makeover with Ineeda. I only had one mirror so I gave it to Ineeda. Obviously she needed it more than these other ladies. Don't you think?

We'll call this........the before picture.

When the makeover was completed, Ineeda graced us with her most exquisite entrance.

However, the other ladies, not having a mirror, somehow ended up looking like Ineeda when they made their entrance. I suppose you could say they had the No Mirror Makeover.

I just had to post this picture of Sis Brenda's daughter laughing. This was pretty much the reaction of all the ladies who were watching our volunteers.

We'll call this......the after picture.

When the skit was over, we sang a song, played a game, and then it was time for our special speaker.
This is Mrs. Carolyn Dwyer. Her husband pastors a church in Cramerton, NC. I already told you that the theme was Love lifted me. If anyone has been lifted by the love of God, it is this lady.
While on our trip in December, we were told about a friend of our Pastor, whose third grade grandson had accidentally shot and killed his five year old brother one morning just before school. Sis Carolyn was his grandmother. As she spoke of God's love in her life and how He has continually lifted her during these last several months, it was a blessing to see His evidence coming out in her.

We had a wonderful time of fellowship last night. A lot of good laughs. A lot of fun memories. I certainly felt lifted when I left.

A Crazy Birthday Party

Remember Brother Joel? Well, today was his birthday. Happy Birthday, Brother Joel! His wife, Mrs. Pam, surprised him with a birthday party and you'll see by some of these pictures, the people we hang around don't have a lick-O-sense! Hmmm....so.....what does that make us? Anyway! I'll start out with the two more sane people at the party.

Here's Abigale. Pretty as you please. Just chillin' and takin' it easy.

Carissa just wanted down to unload my pocketbook. :P

Mrs. Pam was having "one of those days."

Brother Ted's halo was a little brighter than usual. (By the way, I don't know how I missed getting a picture of his wife....how ever did you avoid the camera, lady???)

Brother John had his annoying laser pen light shining here on his wife.

Brother John used his annoying laser pen light to torture the little babies.

Brother Joel had two birthday cakes. One carrot cake because it's his favorite and one strawberry for those who don't like carrot cake.

Brother Joel blowing out his candles.

The children were ready to dig into their dessert. This was about the only time we saw them. They stayed in the basement and would come up for air when they knew food was around.

This is Brother Chris. Don't let that innocent face fool you...he cheats at Catch Phrase!!

Brother Ted reverting back to his childhood.

Brother Ken doing "Duck Man"

This beautiful child is "Duck Man's" daughter....Can you believe that?

After dessert, we played a hilarious game of Catch Phrase. I won't mention who, but there were some there (brother Ted) who thought Minnesota was near the southern states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, etc. And also one (my dear husband) that thought it was GOLDILOCKS and the seven dwarfs. But we'll not go into all of that! Let's just say the ladies won two out of three games tonight.

We had a very nice time. There were many funny stories and events that took place tonight.

Hope you had a great birthday, Brother Joel!

A Version of S'Mores

This is a version of a version of s'mores that I found at Rachel's Asian blog. Hannah made these for her Patch class and also for Harrison's class. He's always proud to take something his sister makes.

These are really simple...

Place half a large marshmallow on the flat side of a vanilla wafer and place in the oven on 200 until the marshmallow is stuck to the wafer. I think with the oven preheated, it took about 5 to 10 minutes. Pull them out of the oven and cover them with melted chocolate. Hannah used milk chocolate chips.



I suppose you could dip them in chocolate, but she chose to use a basting brush.

The finished product. Looks good, huh?

Sausage Roll

Remember when I said that my friend Meghan made a Sausage Roll for our Sunday school class this week? Well, I posted the recipe for it here. There is also several new recipes in case you haven't been there in a while.

Things I Did Yesterday

North Carolina requires homeschoolers to test at the end of their school years, so we started testing yesterday. That went good as far as I could tell. I haven't looked over their test answers. Hannah had a good feeling, but Justin said he guessed on most of the answers on the second test. I told him he would be suprised at how much he actually knew. At least that's what I'm hoping. LOL

After testing, Bruce needed to run some errands so I tagged along with him. I always enjoy going on Bruce's errands. He has all these little stores he likes and we usually stop at one or more of them when we're out.

Today we saw this interesting car. Later I found out that my friend, Susan, had seen this same car in HER town. LOL

We stopped at the music store so Bruce could pick up some things he needed for the mandolin he's making.

And then to a new thrift store in town. I wasn't very impressed, but then it is new. I'll have to give it a while and go back.

We went to a revival meeting in a nearby town that our Associate Pastor, Brother Johnny, was preaching at. Brother Johnny is such a good preacher. We always enjoy hearing his sermons.
This church was a small church. They were in a gutted mill house and had some really sweet people there. As soon as we walked in, this little old lady came up and hugged me, which didn't really surprise me. We southerners hug everybody. When she planted a big ole' kiss on my cheek, though, I had to giggle. My friend, Susan, who came with me last night, saw the little lady do that and thought I must have known the little lady, until the little lady hugged and kissed her too. It was hilarious. Anyway, the people were really sweet. And their Pastor was a riot.

This was their choir. It reminded me of your old church, Courtney. Most of the back row was our people from Faith. They just asked anyone that wanted to, to come up and sing in the choir. LOL So! Justin, Hannah, Ally, Spencer, Brother Harmon, and another lady from our church got up there and sang with em'. A teenager was their choir director. I don't know if he does it all the time or if he was just filling in for the night. But they came up with babies in their arms and sang their hearts out.

This was the guitar player. Obviously he had some students on hand. LOL

Some of their people sang. The man playing the guitar is also their piano player. He's related to our piano player's husband.

When I picked up Susan and Ally at our church so we could ride together, Brother Johnny was there to pick something up before the service. It was then that we found out we would probably be singing. And sing we did. Me, Susan, Hannah, Ally, Justin, and Spencer sang "I Remember The Day" while Justin played the guitar for us. I must say, we impressed ourselves. I think we might go on the road. LOL
Brother Gene was there too and played the guitar for him and Brother Johnny. Brother Gene is the "leader" of our bluegrass group at church. He's the one with the guitar, obviously. And that's Brother Johnny on the other side.

Brother Johnny's son, Spencer, played "Beulah Land" on his saxophone. It was beautiful.

After service was over, we shook Brother Johnny's hand, was hugged and kissed by the little lady, and went to Dairy Queen where Susan treated us all to an ice cream cone. Those were yummy. We sat outside and the atmosphere was great.
Hannah and Ally were goofy!!

Susan always has a smile to share. Here she got cracked up about something...but I can't remember what.

Justin decided to give me one of his looks for the camera. I can almost NEVER get him to do a serious smile for me. ARGH!

After eating our ice cream cones, the kids and I decided we would pull the car way up to the other end of the parking lot while Mrs. Susan went to the bathroom. I know.....that's so silly. But the kids were laughing hysterically.....especially Susan's daughter, Ally. HA!

After we finished goofing off, we picked Susan up and went to visit some friends of ours from church. We took them by surprise, I think, but had a good visit. They just bought the house they're in so it was fun seeing all of their new stuff. Leanna's room was bright and colorful just like her. Jeremy and Nathan's room was neat and tidy....maybe Justin noticed this, you think? And I liked the colors Steve and Marla were doing in their room. A medium to light blue with a darker spring green. It was nice. They are SUCH a sweet family and a blessing to ALL who know them.

So Very Busy!

Hello all! I just wanted to say that I have been so busy recently with church activities, trips, and now end of grade testing that I haven't made it over to your blogs lately. I've been skimming over some of them and there is so much good stuff to read!!! Some of you (Pam!!!) have posted a LOT while I've been in my busy world. So I'm going to do my best to get to some of those this evening. I have a LOT of catching up to do (PAM!!!) LOL Just kidding, Pam...((((((HUGS FOR PAM))))))

I'll be in a revival meeting tonight. Our Associate Pastor is preaching close by, so the kids and I and another lady in our church and daughter are meeting us to attend. We're looking forward to it. Brother Johnny always preaches good sermons!

So anyway, I'll be around soon. I promise. Hopefully later tonight.

Have a great day and evening with your families.

A Rolling Good Time

We had a really good day today. The Lord was certainly in our services.

I enjoyed our Sunday school class for two reasons. Miss Meghan made a sausage roll and brought it for our class. It was so good. I'm not that much for sausage, but this was terrific. Everyone enjoyed it very much. And considering I like to cook with different seasonings, I particularly enjoyed the lesson. There is a way to season our conversations between us and our spouses. I'll give you the outline for these seasonings.

We have studied the patterns that the Godhead has put in front of us when it comes to what we know of God; now let us look at some practical guidelines.

How are your words seasoned...Seasoned = prepared, that is, spice with stimulating condiments. What stimulating condiments are seasoning your speech?

I. GRACE - Shows God's favor through gratitude, joy, and benefits. Col 4:6

II. Edification - building, confirmation toward a plan. Eph 4:29

III. Love - putting the loved object first. Eph 5:25

IV. Submission - to be in subjection to the other. Eph 5:21

V. Honesty - speaking no guile' deceit trickery. I Peter 3:10

VI. Knowledge - knowing God's truth. Proverbs 15:7

VII. Wisdom - uses knowledge for good. Proverbs 15:2

VIII. Wholesome Tongue - a cure or remedy of words. Proverbs 15:4

After church this morning, we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of food, fun, and fellowship with the Emory family. We started out with a spaghetti dinner. The recipe she used is one that her mother came up with. It's quite spicy and very good. Hannah and I agreed that the texture was creamy. It was very good with the garlic bread and thick, chocolaty brownies for dessert. For the fun part, I did things today I haven't done in years. And I mean....YEARS! For instance, we slid down a very high, HOT, metal slide. That was fun. Mrs. Michelle, Hannah, Dylan, and I raced up a rather tall hill at a nearby park. What did we do when we got up there? Well, first we nearly passed out from exhaustion. How did we get down? Did we walk down? No! Did we run down?? NO! There's only one more way we could have gotten down, and yep, you guessed it....we rolled. Flop, flop, whop, whop, flop, whop, flop! Wait a minute! Did I say "we?" That's not exactly true. It was Michelle's idea to roll down the hill. So off I went. I suppose I made it half way down when I had to stop myself before crushing Michelle's little boy who was slowly making his way over to my direction. Or was I making my way to his? Anyway! I look up to see where Michelle is and guess what! She's at the top of the hill rolling..........in laughter!!! She never did roll down that hill. She said she really didn't think I'd do it. HA! Little did she know I would. Right now the only word I can use describe what a time I had rolling down the hill is, CHIROPRACTOR! We also rode those animals on springs. We started out on a big dinosaur that looked like Dino. Then we got brave and got on the little ones. We'd spring forward and then backward and wow, those things fly! What a good time we had! We walked back to the house for a time of fellowship. We sat in their living room and talked for a while before having to get ready for youth choir practice. It was nice. I felt at home in their home and that says a lot for their hospitality.

Our Field Trip To See Disney Aladdin Jr. at Granard Middle School

We had a great time seeing this play. Last year we went to see The Wizard of Oz. It was so much fun and this year was no disappointment.

Dawn Dover, a sweet lady in our church, directed this play. She was a nervous wreck, but did a fantastic job.

Thanks for thinking of us and inviting us, Dawn. We had a great time!

Trip Pics

This is L! I get so tickled at her because she is very animated and says the cutest things.

Harrison and B....B isn't as animated as L, but he says pretty cute things too.

Brother Randy reading the directions to the church

Celine being goofy!!!

Hannah passed out Teen 4 Christ prayer cards for Brother Randy and Mrs. Kellie

The theme for the campmeeting was "Full of Grace and Truth."

People began to gather in the Tabernacle

This is the Dice family. They were our favorite singers there. We really enjoyed their sound and sweet spirit.

Now, I can not remember everyone's names. I was going to depend on Hannah's sermon notes, but she has already turned them in to her Patch teachers, so I'm sorry....
This man has been to our church and he is very.....hmmm.....different. LOL But we always enjoy him. That's his daughter singing with him.

As I said before, I cannot remember some of these men's names. So if you recognize someone, let me know.
After the singing, the preaching began.

There was more singing from this group. They did what Sis Kellie called preach singing. LOL We enjoyed them too.

Brother Williams??? I believe was his name. Very good preacher!

Me and Celine

Brother Joe Arthur....preaching on "Hemed Up!"

Brother Kinsy...not sure it's spelled correctly...he lost his wife just a few short months ago to cancer. A young preacher with a beatuiful 9 or 10 year old daughter. He preached the best sermon on grace I've heard. Obviously a man who has experienced the wonderful grace of Jesus.

????? LOL

This is Sis Judy and Brother Pat Hayes. They were members of our church when Bruce and I first started Faith. Now they are in a ministry where they put the gospel into the hands of hundreds of soldiers making their way to the war. The packets they give them include gospel tracts, a thank you note written by a civilian, and other pamphlets that expound on the Word of God.

These two people singing were good too. He had a hilarious sense of humor and apparently had a history with the Pastor of the church that hosted the Fellowship. He kept bringing up stories about Brother Baker and they were so very funny.

Sis Amanda Tuesday morn.

Sis Kellie Tuesday morning

Hannah Tuesday morning.

Justin holding Carissa at Shoney's

Celine and Harrison just before blowing bubbles in their milk. UGH!

The Ross Family....this was during announcements. I wasn't playing with the camera during preaching!!

???Boy, was he a fireball! And GOooood!

This man has gone through 61 surgeries and is getting ready to face another. He was taking drugs to help with his weightlifting as a young man and it messed up the bones and muscles in his body. He's a very sick man.

They had nice baskets for all the preacher's wives and a book on Daniel for all the preachers. They wanted all of the preachers to come up for a picture so I snagged one while they were up there.

We had lunch, went to the hotel for a nap, came back for supper, and then the children had a time to let out some energy.

L had a great time on the disc swing....check out that smile!

Celine made some new friends on the Alligator teeter-totter

And Carissa was happy to be walking around like a big girl



Carissa decided to rearrange her diaper bag and look what she found....a Pepsi bottle!! Not the bottle she was looking for, but hey....it's still a bottle.

L and another little girl helped Carissa walk around a bit

Before the evening service started, they had Sis Kellie and another person stand because someone (Justin) told that her birthday would be Wednesday. She's a very meek person so this is not something she enjoyed. LOL By the way, Kellie, if you read this, Justin did tell but he was instructed to do so by your husband. :)

Celine and Harrison

Brother McGill...did I spell his name correctly?

The girls from Victorious Valley Home

We had a wonderful time and I'm thankful that the Lord gave us the opportunity to attend.

And now, I just have one question...........

Can you do this???