Day Off, Day To Reflect and Catch Up.....

I haven't felt very inspired of late but wanted to share the recent events and photos with all of you.....so I will employ "bullet captioning" here......

Marleen's 60th Birthday Surprise: My friend wasn't looking forward to turning 60 but her family gave her a very nice surprise! About 50 of her closest old friends and new turned out to honor her at her church social hall. The testimonies to this Proverbs 31 woman were moving--most notably, her daughter-in-law Dawn who spoke about what a wonderful grandmother and "mother" she has been to her children and to her......But to me the best was Marleen's daughter Laurel who sang her testimony in "The Wind Beneath My Wings".....To anyone who knows Laurel, she is a testimony herself of the power of prayer, unconditional love and the life-changing power of Jesus Christ!

Visiting My Parents: The very next day we met up with Shane, Angie & Landon after church to go visit my dad and Zoila and then have dinner with my mom. It's not always easy to visit elderly relatives. Their houses aren't the cleanest, they have dogs that smell but Jesus would be the first one there...that's what I believe. And it makes them so happy! We did have good visits as evidenced by these photos....

Celebrate! Tampa: My scrapbooking event was a port in the storm. Literally. This new event was going on at the same time that Katrina was passing through (who knew the destruction and devastation that would take place!) and was held at the Floirda State Fairgrounds. (I paid for it months in advance)....
Over a thousand women attended....I saw Shana Brock, the CM consultant who started the same exact time I did. She has 44 consultants under her and is doing quite well! She said the key was not to give up (if only she knew!). I saw my sister-in-law's sister-in-law--Kim Hawkins there. I was photographing some of the page ideas and asked the girl next to me if she would hold a page still (they were dangling from clip strips) for me and we both turned at the same time to shriek and hug! Then the biggest surprise sitting at my table right in front of me was Debbie Colbert whom I hadn't seen in probably 10 years? I took care of her daughter Christine when she was about 2 at Evangel Christian School when I worked in the day care! needless to say, Christine is now in twelfth grade (home school). (I did run into Debbie once when Alyssa was around 4 or so, at CHC at a home school convention). So, we had a grand time catching up on things..... I ran into Kathy Bryant who is a new neighbor here at the apartments who is also a CM consultant. Our daughters are friends and we car pool.....so it was a time of seeing old and new friends....
I wanted to add that I attended a journaling class that was very touching. The lady that spoke talked about how much our WORDS mean as well as our photographs. Her father died when she was eight and all she has is three letters he wrote her but those three letters were very impactive in her life. Kit (her name) quoted scripture and talked about the Lord. She also talked about a friend of hers whose mother died in 1963 and just a few years ago she discovered a treasure trove of notes and letters that her mother had written to her! For some reason, the tears just started to flow and I couldn't stop! Afterwards, I went to her to tell her how much her class meant to me and she looked at me and said, "You're a believer aren't you?" I said "Yes" and she said " I thought so because of your tender heart." She asked me to pray for her son Brock, B-Rock (that's what she called him and immediately I thought of Trav's nickname!) who is in prison. I asked her to pray for my brother Roland and also for my son Christian. Isn't it wonderful how God can touch you through others when you least expect it?....

My Mom's Birthday: Saturday, my mom turned 70. Doug called my brother about a week ago to try to plan something for her--tricky since we had very little money. I wanted so much to throw a party for her or do SOMETHING to commemorate this very important milestone! So, we came up with a plan of sorts. My brother Butch was going to take her on Sunday to see my brother Roland in prison (they share birthdays and he turned forty!) and then he would bring her to Red Lobster where we all would meet for a "surprise." So, I called Shane and Angie and Christian and arranged to meet them at Red Lobster. Well, we had our name in at the restaurant and they had our table all ready when Butch called and said the plans had changed because a friend that they had with them couldn't stomach even the "smell" of seafood. I'm not complaining here (well, maybe I am!) but Angie and I had our mouths watering for seafood! And I haven't eaten at RL in forever, or so it seems.....But, Doug and I remembered what Pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life" said in a chapter of his book, some people require EGR (extra grace required) to deal with them! So, off we trudged to Outback Steakhouse down the street (and I'm not happy with them either because of their support of Desperate Housewives, among other things). After waiting for Butch, my nephew Louie, my mother and friend to arrive and moving from two booths to two tables, we finally settled in with food arriving at different times, the appetizer arriving last....not the waitress's fault, I might add. It was a mass of confusion BUT the whole point is this: my mother was so blessed (she cried) to have us all there (the only thing that would have made her happier she said would have been to have Roland, Little Rollie and Travis, Amy and the girls there--Hey, we could've rented the whole restaurant!) I'm learning, sometimes in this life, God wants us to learn to show extra grace towards people and situations.....

Hurricane Katrina: My heart is so heavy at the absolute devastation that the people of Louisiana and Mississippi are experiencing now. Words, pictures, nothing can really describe it. PLEASE, please do something in your church
or in your favorite ministries to help (James 1:27). If there is no plan at your church, pray and maybe start one yourself. We can't all physically go over there but as Christians we are obligated to do what we can and maybe even more...King David refused to give a "sacrifice" to the Lord that cost him nothing (I Chron. 21:24)! The Scripture says that if we see our brother in need and do nothing to help, how can the love of God reside in us (I John 3:17-18)? The Word also says that we are to love our "neighbor" as ourself (Luke 10:27). If that means sacrificing then so be it! If we all do a littlle or a lot in the name of the Lord (I Tim 6: 17-19), much can be accomplished for the kingdom of God (John 13:35).....