I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Dorcus Bishop and now must tell 7 random things about myself so here goes. . .

1.) I grew up in the south from age 11 and had quite the southern drawl. It now only takes a phone call to a friend back home or a trip down there to visit and the accent comes right back.

2.) I was in the Air Force JR ROTC program in our High School and worked my way up the ranks becoming the Squadron Commander my senior year. We had about 100 cadets. I won a scholarship from this organization and had the chance to continue in the Air Force in college and I would have been an officer. I chose not to continue but went on to receive a Bachelor or Arts in Elementary Education from UNC-Charlotte.

3.) I always had an interest in music and my parents did sign me up for lessons when I was about 8 years old. I never made it out of the first book. I learned to play by watching and listening to the evagelists when they came to our church. One particular person that took a little bit of time to help me get started was Sr. Betty Case. She showed me a few runs and then gave me a music tape of their family. I played that tape over and over and copied the piano pieces.

4.) I have many friends but probably the longest and closest friendship has been with Maresa Davis. I think we have been friends for about 27 years I think. I live in PA and she lives in NC but commucate almost every day by phone or email.

5.) I am working on and am almost finished with crocheting an american flag afghan.

6.) I enjoy going on camping trips with my husband and children in our camper.

7.) I am hoping to go see Dino in April! I could see him sooner if I could talk my husband into going to Branson this fall for one of his concerts. I just love listening to his piano playing and Greek humor.

I now tag Leora

$20.00

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill.

In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20.00 bill?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give the $20.oo to one of you but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple up the $20.00 bill.

He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well", he replied, "What if I do this?"

And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.

"Now, who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.

Many times in our lives we are crumpled, dropped, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless . . .
But no matter what happens or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those that DO LOVE YOU.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but WHO WE ARE and WHOSE WE ARE.

You are special don't EVER forget it!

My Class is Growing!

It is exciting to see the Sunday School class growing. We had 19 this past Sunday. My group is just 8 year olds. About 8-9 years ago my sister in law and I team taught this class and at that time it included 7 year olds as well. We started running 50-60 children every week and that was way more than we felt we could handle. We had to have several "bouncers" passing out quiet seat prizes all through the lesson just to keep the crowd under control. After a few months of this we spilt the class and the 7 year olds went to a class of their own. I don't know exactly what the reason is but when we did this the attendance dropped tremendously. Now between the 2 classes we usually only have half of the students we used to. Some weeks I feel like we still have the same distraction problems as we had when we had the larger numbers. Other times we are able to get into discussions with the children that would have been difficult with the larger class. I pray we are making a difference in someone's life. My desire is to show them the plan of salvation and give them opportunity to accept Christ each week.

Fruitful Christian or "Religious Nut"

This is my next lesson series for my 8 year old Sunday School class. We will be studying the Fruits of the Spirit as well as some "nutty" behaviors or attitudes such as selfishness, impatience, proud, etc. Hopefully we will discover how to be a fruitful christian and refrain from being a religious nut. IITimothy 3:11 (I think this is the right reference. I'll have to go look it up again.) Pray for my class. I had 17 children in class last week with only one of them from an actual church family. (There should have been more church family children. Where are you guys?) The other 16 came from the bus routes. Thank You to all who help bring them in each week. You are helping to spread the Gospel.

One of Life's Lessons

I am a teacher so I know some of the situations teachers are put in and things they have to deal with. I am also a mother of four and sometimes I just don't know which way to go with things. Austin brought home his weekly folder with his papers and tests from the week. They are full of minus 1pt for the name or title being on the wrong side of the paper, minus 5 points for being turned in a day late, and one had a mius 10points because he accidently took the paper home in a folder that he should have left at school. All of this is off graded papers so I am now wondering if when I get his report card I will be seeing grades that reflect bad habits or academics. I understand the need for them to learn to turn things in on time and to follow directions. I'm just wondering if we should be taking points off from tests and graded papers for this. Maybe it's just one of those hard lessons they have to learn. I am not there in class but I do know my kids have problems following directions at home so if taking points off a test will help them with that I guess it's worth it. By the way, Austin is in 6th grade. I am holding my tongue for now because I feel the teacher is trying to establish a sense of responcibility here but I will be so disappointed if Austin misses the honor roll for this.

God is Able

I really believe that. I have some very close friends who are going through one of the roughest points in their lives right now. They lost a 2 year old son over 11 years ago and now another one of their sons is fighting for his life with cancer. You often wonder why and what will be the next thing they will face but all we can do it trust God and this point. If you can spare a moment please pray for this family today. The son's name is Allen and he is just a teenager. I went to North Carolina to see him when he went in for an operation on his brain to remove a tumor and it has been a whirlwind from there. He has been through alot to this point and is feeling really down right now. There are 5 other children in this family. They are all going through this together. Thank you in advance for your intervention on their behalf. There is power in prayer!

I told you I was sick!

I haven't felt well for over a week now and I kept thinking it would go away soon but it didn't so on Monday morning Matt informed me if I wanted to keep saying I didn't feel well, I had to go to the doctor. He made the appointment for me because he knew I wouldn't. I have seen enough doctors for now and have no desire to go back for a long time. I went to the appointment and discovered I had a temperature of 101.3 and had some sort of virus. See! I told you I was sick. I was given 3 perscriptions along with another sample medicine that I was to take for 5 days. I already take 2 for my blood pressure twice a day and now I have these others. One of them has to be taken 3 times a day and dissolved under the tongue. I feel like a druggie. It is now Friday and I have to say this is the first day I have felt better. I still don't feel completely well, but better. My sister was able to stop in for a few hours this week but wouldn't you know it, she was not feeling too well either. She did go with me to get my perscriptions so I wouldn't have to do that with 4 kids under tow. She sat down and took her blood pressure and it was BAAADDDD! I hope she is able to get that under control soon. Hopefully I will be back in full swing by next week and be able to post some pictures. Check out Leora's blog to see a great camera. I can't wait for my birthday. December 20th. That is the kind of thing I buy Matt and then "borrow". He wouldn't think of getting me a camera. Our first Christmas he bought me a rabbit skin to hang on the wall!