Sunday School

Claude taught our lesson today. We are studying Hewbrews this month. It was a good lesson. Thanks to Claude for filling in for Shirley. She is out of town. We missed you Shirley. We had a few others out, too.

Things are getting quite here now. The bigger children are watching Scooby-Doo. They will be getting in bed soon. Luke is already in bed and Jacob is playing on his palet on the floor. He just turned over! He started that one day this past week. He will be as big as Luke before we know it.

Later!

God Is Good

If you missed this past Wednesdy night Prayer Meeting, you missed a real blessing. We had a wonderful Bible Study. Several were added to the prayer list. Ray Davis has a mass in his right lung and other spots in the other. He will have a biopsy Monday, August 11, in Mobile. James Griffin will have to go back to Houston in a month due to some areas they are watching. His last visit the area had not changed. Martha Harrell's Mom has some disk problems with her back and will have an epidural soon. Martha has some health problems, too. Elizabeth Hare has some problems with dementia and really needs our prayers and remember her family, too.

We left after Sunday School for vacation at the beach. We are all 10 here now and Wyatt, Daisy, Maggie, Bryan, Abby & Zach are taking a walk on the beach. Baby Jacob is napping and little Luke is playing in the floor entertaining Ward & me. I love to hear him laugh with such force in a deep voice. His smile lights up the whole room and of course our hearts.

The beach looks peaceful right now. Most of the "sun bathers" are gone in for the day. Just a few people walking and enjoying the late afternoon. This is my favorite time of day down here.

Later!

Tryin' It Again!

Well, here I am again. Blogging! I hope I can stick with it this time. It really helps me to be more accountable not to mention that I really enjoy sharing with you all. We missed several Wednesday nights due to bronchitis, but we are back now. For some reason Wednesday Prayer Meeting makes me want to blog. It also seems to make me more accountable to my Lord. I think Wednesday Church is the bridge between Sunday Bible study and worship. That bridge just keeps me on track better during the week. It is a reminder that Christ expects my very best during the week as well as on the week-end. Silly analogy, but I just need Wednesday Church.

Wednesday Bible Study was very much a blessing this week. Sunday was wonderful, too. We had a good crowd in Sunday School. We missed Peggy, Thomas, Larry & Billy. We added Mac Bedwell to our prayer list. He is the grandfather of our computer repair man. We are studying from the book of Hebrews the month of August. One thing that puzzled me was in Hebrews 1:2. The verse says that "in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe. I never even thought about that last part, "through whom He made the universe". I just never think about Jesus being there when the universe was created. Now, I know God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have ALWAYS been. But...when we study Genesis 1, we learn that God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th day He (God) rested. But, Jesus was there, too and so was the Holy Spirit. Proof again that Jesus IS God and NOT just a prophet or a good teacher.

In worship, we had a "house full"!! Brother Don brought a very eye-opening. As always it blessed my heart so much. His text was Luke 14:17. I also learned something else that amazed me. "God always has everything ready"! What a statement!! When He created the fish, he had the seas ready, the birds had trees to nest in and bugs and seed to eat; when He created man, the whole Earth was ready for man to have domain over; when Jesus came to Earth he had a life planned for Him; AND back to creating man, He knew we would need a Savior and you know the rest of that story!! What a great Lord's Day.

Zach is at his daddy's this week. I have Jacob this week. He is so sweet, but we really miss "brother"!!

We leave for vacation next Sunday after Church. ALL TEN OF US!!! What a good time we will have. I will include pics during the week.!!

Check out Daisy's blog and read the post from yesterday (I think). Ward hasn't read it yet, but I know he will cry when he does.

Post again later. In Christ's Love.

Don't Grow Old!

We do not stop playing because we grow old;

We grow old because we stop playing .

NEVER Be The First To Get Old!

Just a little "fun" stuff that I ran across today. A friend sent me a "Where's Grandma" poem that indicated that Grandma's computer had taken her away! It was actually a tribute to all of us Moms and Grandmas who have learned to use the computer. This picture of Maxine and the little saying were at the end of the poem. I believe the saying "My grandchildren keep me young". Do you?? When Zach, Maggie or Luke are around, I don't have time to feel tired, ache all over, complain, all those "old people" things that we do. They keep me busy and on my toes at all times. Zach sat down to his lap tray this morning and said, "Mimi, I am hungry". I thought, well he didn't eat much breakfast so I asked him what he wanted. He wanted me to go to "his" kitchen, the play one, and cook him some food!! So....I got out a play plate and put him some spaghetti & meatballs one one and corn on the cob on the other. I served him tea in a cup. He "ate" it and said "Good job Mimi, that was some good food"!!! We read about 30 books and played the Diego game. He checked on his "baby boy" in the cradle and rocked him for a while. We went to get the mail, came back and worked on our letter recognition and counting. Then...it was lunch time, ALREADY!! See, no time to be old. He is napping now and I am catching up on things that I need to do. Still, no time to be old!! When he wakes up we will go to the swings and play for a while. Then to the Fish House to meet his Mama and Daddy Bryan and eat supper. Then Ward & I will buy groceries. Then, when we get home and put the groceries away, then watch a little TV, maybe I can feel old for just a little while!! :) :)

Carly is home now!!!! Woo!! Hoo!!! Don't you know they are so glad to be back in Auburn. It will only be for a little while though. She will go back to Houston for radiation treatments in a short while. Thank you to all that have been praying for Carly and please keep it up.

TURKEY SEASON COMES IN TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!

Ward went to listen yesterday morning. He heard at least 3 gobbling. WOW!! I can hardly wait. And with the time change already in effect, we don't have to get up so early. We will get up around 5:45 and be gone by 6:00. I will hunt tomorrow and then not again until probably Wednesday. This probably sounds silly to many of you, but Ward got me hooked about 4 years ago and it only took one morning to do that job. I have loved it every since. The most wonderful part of it is watching the sun rise and wake up the world. You start to take notice the first bird to make a sound. Then as you wait it the early morning light, finally in the distance you heard it loud and clear. That big "Tom" makes his first call to his "girls". Then the near silence is over, just like that. Those "girls" start to put on the show. Then back and forth...they do their "love talk" to each other. It will make the weakest man or woman hooked for life. What a thrill to see this first-hand and be a part of God's handy-work. You sit there and think, 'He made all of this and I am here to hear it for myself, to witness something that is only a fact in a book for many people'. How thankful I am to have this opportunity!!



Enough of dreaming about tomorrow morning. But, I do love it.

Please remember Ronnie Harrell. This man is facing his last days and I know he and his family are devastated. I'm sure Ronnie is "right" with the Lord, but it must still be so hard to leave...for good. Pray for strength and courage for Sharon and their family as they prepare to say good-bye.

We have a family member that is facing a tough decision right. Nothing bad, just a difficult decision. That person is a God fearing one and is trusting God for all the answers. Just remember our loved one as they seek God's guidance.

The week-end is here and I am glad. Sunday will be another good one. Last week we heard our future Minister of Youth preach. Sunday night we voted him in with a 100% yes vote. Dustin Moore will be on the field soon. Keep him and his fiance in your prayers.

God Bless

If He takes you to it, He will get you through it.

Sorry it has been so long. After working on uploading videos and that not working, I just had to take a break.

I ran across the title of this post somewhere and I just can't get it out of my head. What a comfort, that no matter what we are faced with God will get us through it. I am amazed at how much He loves me. Certainly, I don't deserve His love. But he took my place on the cross. Could you take the place for your child if he/she were faced with a life and death situation?? Well, sure you could, but Jesus took the place of the whole world. All of us, no matter who we are, how good or bad, rich or poor, no matter what, He spared us all from eternal damnation that day on Calvary. Do you know Him?? There is a link to the right that will introduce Jesus to you if you don't already know Him. Or, I will be glad to make that introduction. Actually, I would consider it a blessed privilege!! Call me, leave a comment here on the blog, email me, whatever I can do just get in touch with me.

That said, I will list some prayer requests for your lists. Ronnie Harrell has gotten some really bad news. His body is covered with Cancer. He will go to meet his Lord soon. Please pray for Ronnie and Sharon and their family. This will be a very difficult time for them and they will really appreciate our prayers. Carley is doing really good. She is coming home to Auburn this week. She will be going back soon to start the radiation treatments, so keep her in your prayers.

Zach will be an official "big brother" soon. The dr. has set up Abby's C-section for April 23rd. Keep her and our family in prayer. This makes 4 grandchildren for us now. What a joy and a blessing it is to have these little people in our lives. It is such a blessed reward from God. I guess it is a reward for having children ourselves, raising them and now growing older. I do believe they help to keep us young, but someone forgot to tell my body that!!! :)

I will leave you with this well known little story about attitude. It is one that I have to go back to very often. Bro. Don read it to us not too long ago. God guides us in all we do. But, we have to make the choice to follow Him. Life really is what we make of it. Our Heavenly Father is always there for us, but we are the ones that make the choice. Enjoy this story about ATTITUDE. I pray it becomes a favorite of yours as it has for me.


Attitude
There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror,
and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. Well,' she said, 'I think I'll braid my hair today!' So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

'H-M-M,' she said, 'I think I'll part my hair down the middle today!' So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

'Well,' she said, 'today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail.' So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head.

'YEA!' she exclaimed, 'I don't have to fix my hair today!'

Attitude is everything!
Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly.......
Leave the rest to God.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain

The Videos

I had trouble uploading the videos on the last post. I'm trying again to see if it will work. If it does, you will need to click one time and then another on the play button. Or, at least that's the way I think it works. This is new for me so I hope practice makes perfect. I didn't tell you about Wednesday Bible study. I know it was wonderful, but I missed it. We went to Church and ate supper and was waiting for Bible study to start. All of a sudden I got a need to excuse myself. I got very sick in the ladies'room. Scared to death I had a stomach virus, so we had to go home. I was not sick anymore after we got home, just a little "washed out". Thank the good Lord I didn't have the dreaded "bug"!! I was just very disappointed to miss the study. We now have a book though and I am catching up on Wednesday night's material. Maybe I can share later. It was about what we believe about being in God's Image. Now that is a challenge we should all be dealing with on a daily basis. After we delivered Zach to his Mommy yesterday afternoon we went to Grove Hill to run an errand or two. We decided, at the last minute, to go by Bertile's and get a Tacco salad for supper. We met a man in there that had a badly deformed arm and hand. He only ordered a cup of coffee. Odd for that time of night (suppertime and all). He started talking to us about trying to get home to Tupelo, MS. He need oil for his car and already had gotten some gas somehow. We talked with him and got him some food and a little help for oil. We talked on the way home about how odd it was that when we went to town we had not even planned to eat out. Ward said it was just meant for us to be there at that appointed time. How great it is to be able to be used by our Lord. We also talked about how BLESSED we are to have all of needs met and have a good house to live in and money to pay our bills and buy food, help our loved ones and do the things we want to do. But, it is so important to look for opportunities to help others when the Lord has provided so well for you. Jason and Ward are working on the sun porch today. The plans are to be finished with everything but the floor covering and baseboards when the days ends. Hopefully, next Saturday will finish it up. The babies will love it. They already are excited over it. They both go and open the back door now to look at what has changed about it. Awaiting His Glorious Appearing.

Grandbabies Everywhere!

We have Zach and Maggie today. As a matter of fact Zach is just arriving and Maggie is screaming at the door "It's Zach, Zach, Woo! Hoo!!, Zach is here!!!". What a day we will have!! I have attached a few video clips to show you some of our fun times. What a blessing to have grandchildren! Sometimes I think just how really blessed we are when I think of little Carly Parker. She is the little girl that I have mentioned before that has cancer. Seven years old and two very long surgeries and she is finally cancer free. The last surgery, Monday, lasted about 12 hours. Her parents are praising God for the wonderful report after the surgery. She will still have proton radiation, but they are much closer to having their little girl well and back home to a normal life. As I read her Caring Bridge site yesterday I couldn't help but cry, yet again, at Mikki's words. This is a mother that has given her little girl completely to God. She and Carly's dad have praised God through this whole ordeal. What a testimony. You can read about Carly's story at her site that is on this blog under "sites your might enjoy". Tonight is Bible Study at Church. I am looking forward to it even more now. I found some of the study books on line. It is a discontinued book, but they had some on Amazon. I ran one short and as dear friend didn't get one. I do hope she found one on her own as I really hated that she did not get one. Thank you to all of those who have been faithful to pray for Carly. Thank you too for sharing with me by reading this blog. I will post more tomorrow. We will take Maggie to meet Daisy this afternoon. She will meet us half-way. Things will be somewhat quite here on the "home front"!! We will be lonely without all the hustle and bustle of the children playing together!!. Don't forget to check out the pics and videos of the children!!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Tonight was Bible Study at Church. Oh my goodness!!! It is so good. I am learning so much. We studied about some of the natures of our God. Our God is all powerful, He is everywhere, He created everything. The later was almost "mind-boggling"! Bro. Don explained it so wonderful. He said many people want to argue about the creation and they say things like "it all came from one tiny cell" or "there was this explosion", you know that one, the Big Bang Theory. He said well where did that first cell come from, or where did what blew up come from?? Now that question pretty much blows all those so called experts' theorys doesn't it!!! This study has been so exciting. On the way home from the study, I played one of Selah's CDs. I played it loud and sang with it all the way home. Thank goodness I was by myself. It would have absolutely driven Ward crazy!!!! If you don't have a Selah CD, any one of them, you need to purchase yourself one. They are really good.

Today was so busy. As soon as we picked up Zach at 7:30 and got back to the house, we started to put the new swing set together. Finally around 3:00 p.m. it was finished. Zach had already been able to swing a little before lunch, but the final touches weren't done until middle afternoon. He told us about 5 times that he loved us for "building" he and Maggie such a "cool" swing set. And he thanked us about that many times, too. Well now, that made all the stooping, bending, lifting, mis-matched nuts and bolts worth it all!!! What a sweet blessing to hear that little guy saying thank-you and I love you for something we did for him. He called Maggie about a million times on his "cell phone" to tell her to come and play with him on the swings. He even told her she had to eat her lunch and take a good nap so she could go outside! That's what we told him when we came inside for our lunch! I can't wait for Maggie to come to enjoy it, too. We will attach the baby swing for Luke, too. God created these little children and entrusted them to our family. How great is that?? Yes, he did create everything and I am so thankful He did. Something else we learned about tonight is that God was NOT created. He was, is and always will be. Period. God is forever and so are we, if we are in Christ. Doesn't that make you want to shout it from the roof top? It makes me want to share it with everybody.

Back to today. We got the swing set up. Next we moved the sand box AND sand (about 5 five gallon buckets full) and play house to a new location. Ward is going to move the big swing (the adult one) over to the new place, too. I have attached pics of the new swing set.

We are making a sun room out of our back porch. Pics of this are added, too. Jason Gates is doing the work and Ward is helping him. He works on the side for people who have smaller jobs like this. He does it in the afternoons after he gets off from his regular contracting job and some on Saturdays. We now have nine windows, a door and walls instead of a porch. We are very excited and thankful to be able to do this. It will be great fun for the grandchildren, since the room will be partly for their toys, etc. It will almost be like being outside. Of course we will be spending much time OUTSIDE with the new swing, too!! It is still a few weeks from completion. The inside still has a lot to be done, but the wait will be worth it.

Prayer request that were voiced at Church were: Mr. Hart, Debbie Stifflemire, Nick & Emily Steadham all in the hospital with flu. Renae Wood, Morgan Keel, Leila Bell Newton, Sandra Anderson, Lenette Tarleton & family at home with flu. Bimbo Baugh had a heart attack and is in Mobile awaiting open heart surgery. Jackie Duke will have surgery for prostate cancer. Bud Morgan, surgery. Mary Sue Clark. Sid Mizell is the missionary that was captured by the Talaban. Please remember her. John Matheson is back in the hospital in B'ham, serious heart problems.
What a long list and this is not all, I'm sure. These were just mentioned tonight. Oh yes, the Stewart family in Camden, death of Mrs. Stewart (wife &n mother, only in her 40's). God bless all of these and I pray He will minister to each one according to their needs.

We closed tonight with this verse: "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life". John 3:16 Praise God!

I'm Back

Sorry it has been so long. I have missed each of you!!! Blogging is something I have come to enjoy and when you tell me you have visited my blog, well, it makes me feel like I have visited with you.

Last week I was in Daphne for a couple of nights. Daisy had her monthly Bible Study at her house and Wyatt had to work. I went down to help with the children. On Tuesday night we bathed, even though I wasn't in the tub, I was wet enough to have been!! Then Daisy came upstairs and fed Luke and I rocked him and he was out for several hours. Maggie and I then played in her "lovely pink 'woom'". We played for a while and then read several stories about princesses, like Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White. She loves those stories and they are LONG! Then we got in her bed and both went to sleep before 9:00 p.m.! Mimi was TIRED, TIRED. Maggie kept telling me those "ladies" at Mommie's meeting were keeping her awake. They did sound like they were having fun. When they got down to really studying, they got quiet though. We had a really good time in the "pink woom". Next day Maggie and I hung out while Mommie and Luke went to Daisy's weekly Bible Study that she does with her preacher's wife. They have been studying Hebrews for a long, long time and it must be really a wonderful study. Daisy loves it. She has quoted parts of Hebrews 11 to me several times. It teaches us about giving our problems to God and putting our trust in Him. She has ministered to me from that Bible study many times. What a blessing for my 29 year old daughter to minister to me, her 56 year old mother!! I am so thankful for my girls and what they stand for.

After Daisy got home, Wyatt got up and I treated them to lunch at Olive Garden. I had a low-fat selection from the menu of baked chicken (of course) with asparagus and broccoli. Oh, and salad, too. No bread sticks! Well, I did have one for dessert. Delicious!!

When we returned to the house, I rocked Luke to sleep and then read to Maggie until she fell asleep for a nap. Then it was off to Grove Hill to see my love. When I got there he had 12 red roses on the bar for my Valentine's Day. And he had me the cutest card with a little boy with a man's tie and dress hat on. Zach said, "Mimi that's me on dat caad". It was a precious card. Well, I gave Ward a nice card that played music and a CD of love songs. We didn't exchange cards until Thursday morning though. Great Valentine's Day. On Friday I had two dr. appointments in Mobile, so we went to the Original Oyster House for lunch. Now, I didn't obey my diet that day, and...it was so good!!!

I am posting some pics of the children over to the right, if you have time and would like to take a look. Maggie is so into the Princess thing. She doesn't really even like baby dolls. She loves dress-up, princess stuff, story books and her doll house that I got her at the consignment shop. Zach loves cars, horses, story books and the outside. They both love to swing. Oh yes, we bought them a swing-set for our house today. Can't wait to get it put together so we can swing high.

Please remember Carley Parker. She will have another surgery on the remaining part of the tumor in her sinus cavity. She is so afraid, because she will have to have another trache (sp?) They think the drs. in Houston can get more of the tumor than they did in B'ham and maybe even all of it. That would make the treatments so much more successful. Please remember her.

An answered prayer and praise is for Mr. Royce Council. He is the man I have mentioned that had cancer and was very, very ill and probably not saved. We have really been praying for him and even that God would lead us if we were the ones to witness to him. Well, last Wed. night it was reported that he had died. I was just sick to my stomach, but then it was added that he had gotten saved before he died. What a BLESSING AND A TRUE MIRACLE.!!! God is so good.

There are others that are on my heart that are not saved. One in particular that God has not given me the go ahead to visit again. We are not doing Faith right now, but Ward is ready to go with me, if the Lord leads and I really believe that is what is about to happen. No name can be mentioned right now, but please pray that God will clearly lead me to know what to do, when to do it and what to say to this person. It will be a very dificult task as the person knows what we are talking about, but just does not want to take the steps that are needed. Oh, my dear Lord, what a terrible situation to be in. This is such a burden to know someone that feels like this person does and you just can't get through to them. We can't stop though, so just pray, pray, pray.

This post will be way too long. Sorry, but it has been too long since I last wrote. The diet thing is just at a stand-still right now. I am trying, but the scales are not moving. Exercise is what is really lacking right now. I must get to the task though. My body does not feel healthy like it is and I know how it would feel if I could just drop 10 pounds. I WILL NOT GIVE UP!! Just writing about it gives me courage and I do believe if you are reading this you care enough to pray for me. Thank you so much.

If you need me to pray for you about anything, please email me or leave me a comment on this blog site. All you have to do is click on "Comment" and type your message. You can just sign in as Annonymous. No need to have a Google account or anything like that. Don't forget to sign your name to your comment so I will know who you are.

Love to you all.