Last blog post of 2006

As I blog the day's events, I am reminded that God is so good, and He is the joy of my life!

Today, it seemed, was the official beginning of winter... it actually snowed! Not tons, mind you, but it's about time! Sandy is none to pleased and wishes it would go away. My mom and Ray are leaving to head back to Florida on Monday, and they are all set... they've had their "family fix", and are ready to be done with cold weather and get back to shorts and flip flops in January. Whatever.

Adam and Daddy went shooting at the range this morning (after a yummy breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon, and OJ) with the male members of the Lyon family. Target shooting in the snow... again, whatever. It's a guy thing. Nick stayed home with mom and played his new gamecube game. Mom took a nap in Grammie Elaine's VERY comfy fleece spiderman comforters she made for the boys. Wow... comfy! I want one for MY bed now!

This afternoon, I logged onto www.abnglobal.net for some campmeeting preaching, and it was a great time! Bro. Klinedinst preached a dynamic message about "getting a clue" about what God has planned for us as the church in these last days. Oooo! It was anointed preaching! I can't think of a better way to spend some "downtime" than filling my mind and spirit with the Word of God. It was great!

This evening, we were headed to my brother's house for a turkey dinner with Mom and Ray, and to celebrate Laura's 8th birthday. On the way there, however, we came upon a head-on collision that had JUST occurred in front of us. Of course, Jason was required to stop and help... he dispatched the whole world and they all came! That included my brother, who is on the fire dept. I called my mom and she said (jokingly) "Thanks for ruining dinner." Of course, she was just kidding. What was really ruined were the two cars in this crash. Totalled. Big time. We eventually made it to dinner and had a wonderful time visiting with mom and Ray before they head out until mid-May.

Finally, after the boys were in bed, I decided to go to Wal-Mart at 9:20 pm to get some rubbermaid containers to pack our Christmas ornaments in so we can dismantle the tree tomorrow. While there, I saw some stackable drawers (clear) that I have been contemplating because I want to desperately get rid of the toy box in the boys' closet. It doesn't fit anywhere in the room (too wide), but these stackable drawers fit perfect at the end of Nick's bed! So.... naughty girl that I am, I bought them, and they are now FULL of toys (two drawers are FULL of laser tag guns and nerf dart guns alone! ). Gotta love having boys. So, now that the toy sorting project is done, and this blogging project is done, I guess I am free to go to bed now. Tomorrow evening is our annual Watchnight Service at church, with pot luck to follow. I love it! Hard to believe 2007 is here already! So, to all my faithful blog readers, I wish you a happy and healthy new year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas 2006 in pictures (and video!)

Phew! Blogger has not been user friendly today, and this post has been a very LENGTHY labor of love! But at long last, here is the finished product! Enjoy this tour through our wonderful Christmas 2006 experience!

Let me first warn you... being 40 years old and somewhat forgetful... I have no pictures to share of our boys opening their presents Christmas morning *sniff sniff*. Because my husband had to work at rescue on Christmas day, we woke up and loaded all the presents into the car and went to rescue for our gift opening time with daddy. But the camera was left at home on the kitchen table. Oops. But here is a picture of the tree before we loaded the car...

Basically, my boys spent a LOT of time doing this... (quite a few new games for the gamecube...). Note the Yankees outfits head to toe... thanks, Sandy, for encouraging them to continue following the evil empire of NY! LOL!











The afternoon of Christmas day, we headed over to Sandini's place. We gave her a stocking (being our "adopted daughter") on Sat. evening, that contained many of the things that the boys got... including silly string! Here are some pictures of the war that ensued...



Another thing that Sandy got in her stocking (as well as everyone in our family) was a ticket to go with us to see Ken Davis live in Barre! She was so excited!!!! We can't wait! If you have never heard of Ken Davis, visit his website HERE and watch some of the video clips from his MANY DVDs... they are hilarious!!! He is a Christian comedian that everyone should experience at least once!

Next in our journey, we travel to Ben and Stacy's house for Christmas dinner (roast beef... YUMMMMMM!!!!) and more presents for the kiddos. Adam took this picture of his newest cousin Elana in the "baby's first Christmas" outfit he bought for her. Isn't she cute???














This is Mikey in the spiderman outfit we got him... he loved it!! It has a mask too, but this picture doesn't show it. The outfit also has a spider that lights up and blinks on the chest. Cool!











The next day, we headed to St. Johnsbury to see THIS CLAN RIGHT HERE!!


Jason's dad and Winnie came up from Maryland with Matt and Brianna and their daughter RAVEN!! It was so excellent to see everyone and we had a wonderful time catching up on things and just being together. But this little girl here was really the star of the show... she is, as Sandy would say, A DOORBELL (adorable)!



This was Raven's first memorable experience with SNOW, so she was thrilled to play in the little bit we had... making snow angels and eating and spitting snow! Click the link below for a cute video of Raven in the snow.

Raven in the snow


Not only was she excited to see snow, but also to see "the cousins"!
Here are some pictures of "the cousins" hanging out together.


We got Raven some playdo for a Christmas gift, and it kept her entertained for HOURS! She loved it!


However, she also loved playing with the laser tag that the boys got. Funny!


Now, lest you think that it was ALL about Raven, it was not. I did take some pictures of my own children..




They just happen to get more than their share of picture time on this blog already! All in all, it was an awesome Christmas, filled with the blessing of family time all around! My mom and Ray were here from Florida, we spent time with the local family, and Alan, Winnie, Matt, Brianna, and Raven were up from Maryland. It was sweet.

My very very favorite part of it all was the time spent talking with Winnie and Brianna at the kitchen table in the cabin. We were all sharing our testimonies about how we came to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It was powerful time, and very encouraging! We got to know each other in a much deeper way this week, and I am thankful for that! God is so good!!!!

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to share this 2006 Christmas journey with me. My boys are currently out flying their remote control helicopters... fun! Love to all! Feel free to leave a comment to let me know you've been here to check it out! :-)

Building community in the Body

I love the Lord. I love my church. I love living for God. I love being with the people of God. There is not a single thing I would change about my choice to live for Him!

Tonight was a really fun night! Our church has home group meetings every other Wednesday evening. Jason and I are facilitators of one of the groups. It is called "Life Group". We meet in each others' homes for the purpose of talking about the Word of God "where the rubber meets the road". We talk about the issues we are facing in real life, and get into the Word to find out how to deal with the issue. There is prayer, and afterward there is fellowship and light snacks. That is how our particular group works. Other groups get together for a group supper before the meeting begins. It all depends on the dynamics of the group.

Anyway (blah blah blah... sorry)... tonight we had our life group Christmas celebration. Normally we would have had about 12 people in attendance. We met at our house. We found out at the last minute that the facilitator of one of the other groups was sick and had to cancel their group. SO... we called the members and invited them over to our place! We had tons of good food, we gave out nail ornaments to each family, and had LOTS of great fellowship! The house was filled with laughter and smiles! We even invited our next door neighbors over to join us! All in all, we had 24 people in our teeny tiny apartment! Yikes! It was tight, but no one seemed to mind. It was really fun!

In other news, my husband did an AWESOME job of Christmas shopping today on his day off!!!!!! WOW! I might just leave that job to him from now on! LOL! We have just about everything we need!

My mom and Ray are flying in to Vermont in a little over 16 hours from now. I can't wait to see them! Jason's dad and crew arrive on Saturday, and we'll be heading over to St. J to spend some quality time with them on Tuesday through to Wednesday. Will be AWESOME to see the Ravenator!

Tomorrow is my last day of work before Christmas break. Adam and Nick have to go to school on Friday... I don't! YAY! I can wrap, wrap, wrap, wrap, wrap!!!!

That is about it for now. Let me close with this... we had a school-wide sing-along today at my school, and the last song we sang was so cool and has stuck in my head the rest of the day. It is called "We wish you a swingin' holiday", and to hear it, click here and scroll down until you see the box that says Click for a Sound Sample. Enjoy!

Source of blah-ness revealed

Ok. I think I figured out the problem. The last post I put here was titled "Blah" because that was how I was feeling. Here is how this week has transpired.
Monday a very dear friend of ours in the church lost his dad, Wilfred King. He is pictured here.









We were honored to be able to help the family by providing a meal, and my husband and his brother spent many hours putting together a fabulous power point presentation of his life. Great job, men. :) The funeral service on Friday was really nice.

Also, my wonderful friend Sandy has been having trouble with a family member, and we finally decided she could use a little help, so we played the "bad guys" to get the point across to this family member. All in all... a fairly stressful week, including the fact that Christmas is one week away and we have done ZERO shopping!

Well, last night, I believe the stress all caught up with me, as I ended up with my 2nd migraine of my life... and it was AWFUL! It makes me feel soooo bad for people who get them regularly. How do they stand it?? Today, I woke up with a headache still, that quickly escalated into a migraine again, so off to the ER we went. I got some compazine and toradol, which got rid of the headache, but made me feel "weird" the rest of the day... kind of like you are "disconnected" from yourself. Ick. I still don't feel all that great, and am wishing I could just go to bed and fall asleep... but the weirdness doesn't allow me to fall asleep. Man, I need prayer.

Ok. Done complaining. We are going to Jason's aunt Holly's tomorrow for an early Christmas celebration with the family. Will be fun (if the weird feeling goes away...). Talk to you all later!

Blah

Hello. Ever have those just blah days? Yep. That's me today. Blah. I think I will just go to bed and ignore the piles of paper, the dishes needing to be put away, the dishes needing to be washed, the couch that is buried under backpacks for lack of a better place to put them (space is a virtually non-existent commodity in this little apartment of ours). When guests come to visit and see a nice clean house, it is because in my bedroom behind closed doors, the bed is a huge MOUND of stuff that has no home! Yep, giving away my secrets. Surprised? God isn't. He knows me better than anyone else. He can see behind my closed doors... physically and spiritually. He understands me. Not too many others do....

I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow is another day! I have it good... there is always someone else who has it worse than you! I really shouldn't complain. God bless you!

16 days till Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all! I know, it's not Christmas yet, but I have been "window shopping" with the boys all afternoon at Toys R Us. My mind is finally beginning to get in a Christmasy way of thinking. The boys were running around chanting, "I can't wait till Christmas! I'm so excited! Only 16 days left!" My son Adam thinks that Christmas eve should be declared its own holiday... the day of greatest suspense! Kids are so neat! Jesus said, "Unless you come to me as a little child, you will NOT enter the kingdom of heaven." How is it that as adults, we lose all that innocence and wonder? How is it we become so cynical? Go figure.


The boys and I watched the space shuttle lift off tonight on NASA TV (the internet is an amazing thing!!). It was really cool, and Adam and Nick were in awe of the speed that ship was travelling. But the really cool thing is that a few minutes later, my mom called me from Florida just busting to tell me her experience! She and Ray watched the lift off on TV, and then ran outside (they live in Leesburg) to see if they could see it. They looked around, wondering which area of the sky to watch. She said suddenly, a huge orange fireball came up over the trees and lit up the sky! They watched it as the solid rocket boosters detached and until they could no longer see it. She said it was so cool! What a neat thing! I guess Florida is going to be a great place for them.

In other news, Nick lost a tooth tonight, and now has FOUR large openings in his face! LOL! It is cute! I can't post a picture, because my husband has his computer at work with him. Oh well.

Tomorrow is church! Yay! Sunday is my absolute favorite day of the week! I will let you know about the awesome things that happen in the house of the Lord tomorrow! Good night all! I have six loads of laundry to fold!

Festive weekend events

First of all, I start this "festive weekend events" post with an awesome picture of my two sons in their cub scout uniforms.


Why? Because this weekend, in my hometown (well, next town over), a sweet 9 year old cub scout was killed in the Christmas parade after falling off the float and being crushed under the wheels of the float trailer. He was celebrating the festive events of Christmas. My boys didn't know him, but they have lost one of their own. So this picture is my tribute to their devastated family. They are in my prayers.

Next, before I get into the fun stuff, I have to tell you that we went to a wonderful memorial service for a fallen member of a local police dept... Kilo the K-9. He died during knee surgery. He was an 8 year old black german shepherd. My husband and Officer Dave Dewey are good friends, and my husband was also one of Kilo's "chew toys" for K-9 demonstrations. My boys loved Kilo, so going to say goodbye was a fitting end. There was a tremendous community turnout!

NOW for the fun stuff! Saturday morning, the boys got up early, and we made wonderful gingerbread houses. They esp. liked using an ice cream sugar cone to cover with green frosting and m&m's for a Christmas tree. They came out great!




Then came the best fun of all... cutting down our Christmas tree! It was c-c-c-cold out, so we chose and cut our tree in 5 minutes! It is beautiful!


This is Adam brandishing the saw... scary little kid with a sharp tool! AHHHH! Actually, he's not exactly little anymore, and he did a marvelously responsible job handling the saw, thank you very much! :-)

All male members of the family had a hand in cutting with the saw, but dad did the bulk of the work.




Everyone make the "Tim the toolman" grunting sound! **ar, ar, argh** Look at the tree, honey!


Isn't it lovely?? Everyone helped... even Sandy! We saved the angel tree topper for her to put on the next day. (Tree topper not yet picured here.... sorry).







So... that is the story of the festive Christmas events around my neck of the woods this past weekend. Let me know what you think!

WHOA... AMAZING GOD UPDATE!

DO NOT READ THIS POST UNTIL YOU READ THE ONE BEFORE IT!

Ok..... now I know that God is awesome... but here is amazing proof that we are smack dab in the perfect will of God!

Now that you have read the Amazing God Amazing Church post.... let me tell you what has transpired. I posted that, and then my husband got onto the Apostolic Broadcasting Network (www.abnglobal.net) and randomly clicked on a live service currently in progress in California (3 hours behind us). The first thing the service leader said was (paraphrase...) SOME OF YOU NEED TO GET UP AND DANCE BEFORE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT! Then it started.. just like at our church 3 hours previous! The youth were all linked together jumping and dancing before God JUST LIKE OUR YOUTH DID 3 HOURS PREVIOUS! This service leader said SO many things that were said in our service as well...WOW! Just HAD to share that with you, because MY GOD IS AWESOME!

AMAZING GOD! AMAZING CHURCH!

I SERVE AN AWESOME, AMAZING GOD! I do!! I am going on record as saying that there is no other life worth living than a life lived for Jesus! I have one word for you... JOY! Joy that you can't get from the world. Joy that the world can never take away from you! I'm not saying that life is always perfect (just read this 2 year blog...), but even in the tough times, when you have Jesus in your life, even at your lowest, you still have joy and peace that no one else can understand.

Tonight's church service was phenomenal! Wow! My pastor preached about loving the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and whatever you do for the Lord, do it with ALL your might! He talked of King David dancing before the Lord with all his might. Then he mentioned his 18 month old daughter who loves to dance... she does the dance of the dishtowel. (He proceeded to give us a hilarious demonstration of her "dance of the dishtowel"... it was great!). Then he challenged the church to dance before the Lord as David did... as his daughter does... and he held up a box of tissues and said, "Come get your dishtowel!" All it took was one person (my brother-in-law) to RUN up the aisle, grab a tissue, and start waving it around and dancing for God with all his might! Then it was like a match! When Lonnie (my friend with cerebral palsy) began to jump up and down and dance on his crutches with all his strength, no one else had any excuse! The power of God fell in that sanctuary like FIRE! There was a prophetic word that went forth... "I love it when you praise me! I love it when you worship me with all your strength!..... " There was more, but I don't remember the whole thing. And the worship ascended like thunder! We had one person receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues! My 7 year old took over on the drums, and played the altar call for about 30 minutes or so... then pastor dismissed church, but we weren't done! The teens got up at the microphones, and began to sing and praise God with passion! For the next HOUR after church was dismissed, some incredible, anointed praise and worship went up (with Nick playing the entire time.... that makes about 90 minutes he played... hard!) It was powerful! God is getting ready to explode the church in a revival that NO MAN will be able to take the credit for! We are living in the last of the last days... The news reported that the Pope prayed toward Mecca this week.....God have mercy! Interfaithism is here to stay, and those who proclaim Jesus is the ONE AND ONLY WAY to heaven will be persecuted... it's a fact. We must be ready for the pressures about to encroach on the 21st century American church. Guess what?

WE'RE READY!!!!!! IN JERICHO, VT, WE ARE READY!

Stay tuned! God is just getting started! I can't wait to report what He does next! As Ron Kenoly sings: We're going up to the high places, to tear the devil's kingdom down! AMEN!

Interesting list

Ok, perhaps it won't be interesting to you, but I find it fascinating! I am going to do something my friend Kelly over at sanguinary blue does quite frequently. SHE puts lists on her blog of the last 50 songs that played on her ipod (or whatever). I am not going to list songs... I am going to list all the places in the world where my blog has been viewed in the last 100 days...

United States:

1. Topeka, KS
2. Tulsa, OK
3. Vincennes, IN
4. Elkhart, IN
5. Cincinnati, OH
6. Ray, OH
7. Massillon, OH
8. Buffalo, NY
9. Ithaca, NY
10. Silver Spring, MD
11. Upper Marlboro, MD
12. Devault, PA
13. Stamford, CT
14. Norwalk, CT
15. Greenfield, MA
16. North Easton, MA
17. Leeds, MA
18. Conway, MA
19. Boston, MA
20. Portsmouth, NH
21. Windham, ME
22. Burlington, VT
23. Colchester, VT
24. Essex Jct., VT
25. Huntington, VT
26. Waitsfield, VT
27. North Clarendon, VT
28. Bellows Falls, VT
29. Williamstown, VT

International

1. Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
2. Lambeth London, United Kingdom
3. Victoria, Hong Kong
4. Oulu, Finland
5. Bolu Dzce, Turkey
6. Izmir Bornova, Turkey
7. Veszprem Csng, Hungary
8. Valais Saanen, Switzerland
9. Ile-de-France Vanves, France
10. Lisboa Lisbon, Portugal
11. Neuquen, Argentina
12. Cundinamarca Bogot, Columbia

Now, I don't know how many of those hits actually READ anything... I imagine most of the foreign hits were not read, unless they all know how to read English. But the fact remains that the Word of God is being presented at least, in many places around the globe. It is kind of exciting to know that!

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

That is all for now... time to get some laundry done! Good night everyone!

My pastor the grammar freak

Ok... I need to set something straight here. I appreciate my pastor more than anything, but I must call him on something he preached across the pulpit this morning.

My pastor is a faithful reader of this blog, and occasionally mentions things in his messages that I have commented on here at northernapostolicmom.com. Today, however, he told the whole congregation that I, the teacher/speller extraordinaire had a misspelled word on my blog! *GASP* The horror! So of course, I had to rush home and micro-inspect my last two weeks worth of posts. I did find one error, using the word unaccessible instead of inaccessible, so I fixed that. But I couldn't find anything else wrong. Then my husband spoke to him on the phone, and pastor mentioned it was in the TITLE of a post. That's when I figured out what he was looking at. But what he doesn't understand, is that the spelling was INTENTIONAL!!!!! (click here to see blog post in question). Pastor, have you ever heard the teens/young adults saying "Thas amasing" in their funny little voice? Call Tyrel and have him say it for you. THEN you will understand. I DON'T MAKE MISTAKES!!!!! LOL!!! Just kidding! All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.... I am no exception. I forgive you for announcing my shortcomings to the entire church body. I will expect to hear a retraction next service! LOL!!!!!!!!!! You are the best! In everything, GIVE THANKS! I am thankful for such an awesome pastor!

Introducing.... ELANA!!! **UPDATED** new picture

Welcome to this world, precious little girl! Just had to show her off...

















Here she is with her very proud big sister...












And her very excited big brother...












And of course... the very proud cousins....






























As you can see, baby is gorgeous and doing well. Stacy is also recovering nicely, and should be going home tomorrow afternoon. What a nice little addition to the family, eh?

Hooray for Sandy!!!

Well, that is a big mystery solved, thanks to the great Sandini. I was beginning to get a complex because no one has posted a comment on my blog in sooooooo long! Even my pastor, faithful reader that he is, hasn't left me a comment in ages. I thought no one was reading or caring about what I wrote anymore! But Sandy just told me that when she tried to post her first ever comment on my blog, it gave her a message that said, "Comment will be posted once the comment moderator approves your message." HUH???? So I checked my settings, and somehow, a button called "Enable comment moderation" had been set to YES. Whatever. I have no clue how that happened. But I turned it OFF!!! So... now y'all can post (positive) comments on my blog when you feel so inclined! :-) Have a wonderful day!

Welcome Elana!!!

ELANA HAS ARRIVED!!!!! She was born at 2:20 am (Nov. 26) and is doing great! She weighed in at 7 lbs. 13 oz. and is 21 inches long. Mom and Dad are well and VERY happy to have Elana here! I'll get pictures later to post. YAY! WELCOME ELANA!!!

Halleluia Anyhow

SING WITH ME!

Halleluia anyhow!

Never gonna let life's troubles get me down.

Whatever problems life may bring,

I'll lift my head up high and sing

Halleluia anyhow!

Ah... the memories. I am reminded of God's faithfulness when I hear that song. It's a story of how God did a miracle for our youth group (back in the day... long time ago) when we lost the alternator belt on our church van about 45 minutes prior to reaching our destination, but as our youth worshipped and praised God in that van, He provided battery power enough to get us where we needed to be! He is faithful!

Tonight, my car hit a CRATER of a pothole (we will NOT discuss the details of this incident here). Consequently, it flattened my tire, and it had to be towed because the donut in the trunk was not even a volvo donut... the lug nut holes didn't line up, and the alignment pin was missing.... anyway, I sing Halleluia anyhow. The Bible says "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning YOU (me)." So, I am thankful for whatever blessing He has coming my way!

I'll tell you what blessing is on it's way!!!! Elana! Stacy is in the hospital giving birth right now, and we are all as excited as can be! I wondered if my boys would ever fall asleep tonight. Hee hee! New baby in the family! Let's see... another cousin for the boys... shall we name them all?

Alex, Mark, Sarah, Laura, Trevor, Jordan, Sonja, Monique, Adam Meigs, Meghan, Michael, Casey, Ryan, Katie, Emily, Raven, Colin, and now Elana! YAY! Cousins are great!

Well, time for bed. Will give you all the "Elana" statistics tomorrow once she arrives! Night!

Because of who YOU Are

Father and daughter worshipping Jesus together in church... awesome!

The joy of mail and family

You know... technology and email are wonderful things, but there is just something about going to your mailbox... I mean the outdoors one, and finding something in there other than bills and junk mail advertisements. I know you all feel the same way! There's just something about a hand-written note from someone you love.... like these fabulous folks from Florida! This is the wonderful lady responsible for introducing me to Jesus Christ, and her terrific husband who spent many many months teaching me Bible studies to get me rooted and grounded in the TRUTH of God's Word. And of course, my two fabulously special nieces! Is this an awesome picture or what????? This was the treasure I found in my outdoor mailbox today (along with all the holiday junk mail). But wait! That is not all! There is another picture to go along with it...


Isn't it terrific?? Black and white is so....
sophisticated. It is perfect. This is Sonja (older) and Monique. And Aunt Shell loves them dearly! Please note the copyright so that the proper folks get the proper credit for a job very well done. :-)

I also happen to know that my mom just sent me a package full of pictures from their new home in Florida, complete with a long list of people to share said pictures with. Can't wait to see them!!!! Perhaps I will include one or two of them in an upcoming post as well.

You know... thinking about finding the love of family and friends in the mailbox, I have yet to pick out my Christmas cards for this year, let alone begin writing them out and mailing them..... yikes! I am running out of time! Guess I better get on it. Got lots of love to send through the mail this holiday season!

Wonderful Thanksgving and 2 year anniversary

Well.... two days ago, a significant date passed by without my noticing. My first blog entry ever was on Nov. 22, 2004. So... it has been two years of sharing life as an apostolic mom up here in the great white north of Vermont. Cool! I don't have any idea what God is doing with this blog, but I do know that when I check my site meter, people all over the world are at least FINDING my blog! For example, in the past 3 months, I know I have had people in Germany, Turkey, and Hong Kong find the site, and in the past 10 days, people in Topeka, KS, Zanesville, OH, Windham, ME (cool, I went to St. Joseph's college there!!!), Norwalk, CT, and Boston, MA have stopped by to visit. How neat! I hope the Lord is ministering to people through this little corner of the web.

Anyway, I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Ours was wonderful, although we were separated from Jason because he had to work. The boys and I drove to MA with Jack and Julie, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal and lots of good fellowship! Ben and Stacy couldn't come either, because Elana is due any minute! Everytime the phone rang and said "Ben calling..." we all got excited and held our breath... maybe this is it! The baby is coming! Nope... false alarm. Poor Ben and Stacy. Will be soooo nice when Elana finally arrives!





Also, technology is a neat thing. My husband got sick of me not having a cell phone, and so ordered one for me without my knowledge. But.... I was able to do a neat thing! The phone can take pictures and short video clips and send them to another phone (who knew??). So, when our family held hands around the meal and sang the traditional Doxology, I filmed it on the phone and sent it to Jason, who also sent it to Ben, so they could feel a part of the family tradition! They were blessed! It was neat.

Plenty of other exciting family stuff coming up! First will be Elana's arrival! Then, Christmas will be here, and my mom and Ray are flying in from FL and Jason's dad and Winnie (and crew) are coming up from MD. Phew! It's going to be a scheduling feat to see everyone, esp. considering that Jason will also be working at rescue on Christmas day (yuck). Got to figure out where we will be opening presents that morning..... no matter, being with family is what really matters.

The children's choir at our church is now working on the song "Happy Birthday Jesus" for our Christmas eve service. They love that song! So do I. That is, after all, why we celebrate in the first place. Remember back in the 80's when they recorded that song "Feed the World"? I heard it today, and it really made me think. One line says, 'Do they know it's Christmas time at all?' Hmmm.... They (starving Africans) are struggling to survive day to day, not even THINKING about the commercialized holiday we celebrate here in America. They don't understand the presents, trees, lights, food, and all that. And there are also many who don't know about Jesus as well. They don't need to know about the commercial holiday... they need to know the ONE we celebrate on that day. So... maybe if you are not knowing what to give someone for Christmas, because they already have more than they need anyway, consider sending an offering to an African missionary in your relative's name, and put a card in an envelope on the tree to let them know. THAT is the kind of gift we should be giving , anyway.

Well, time to unpack and make some dinner for the kiddos. Nice to be home! I get the whole bed to myself tonight because Jason is working overnight... you can't understand this blessing, because you didn't share a hotel bed with a 7 year old BEDHOG last night! I am sooooo looking forward to my WHOLE bed tonight! *yes!* Signing off.....

Greetings! I am here to give you the quick update of life this week... in bullet form!

• Parent/Teacher conferences went well. The boys are doing well in school, although one of my sons is struggling with writing (he hates it!)
• My boys have been OFF school all this week, but MOM had to work Mon. and Tues. SO, Dad brought the boys to my school for lunch and recess today. Adam decided to hang with me for the afternoon and relive 1st grade for a day. It was cool. Nick went home and took a nap. He's got a nasty cold.
• The boys broke a bed yesterday. I won't get into it... it was an ugly scene (mostly because mom lost it). I now have one child sleeping on a mattress on the floor....
• Sandini is house/dog sitting this week, and brought the dog over to visit tonight. His name is Cladd (short for claddaugh, like the ring). He is a Burmese Mountain dog... yup... BIG! But he is sooooo sweet!
• We are going to MA for Thanksgiving this year with Julie's family. Will be spending the night in a hotel (with heated pool - BONUS!). Going to be a ton of fun! But my hubby has to work *sniff sniff* and can't come with us. I am way sad. But he is looking forward to getting the entire bed to himself and SLEEPING IN! So he's not as sad as me. I WILL MISS YOU BABE!

That is about it for now. OH! Wait! My hubby's stepmother sent me a hilarious Hallmark greeting e-card for thanksgiving. To see it click here . I cracked up! Make sure when you click the acorns that you listen to their silly songs all the way to the end. LOL! I know that link will not be good for long, but if you read this post LOOONGG after the link outdates, go to this website for more of these two hilarious little guys! Ciao for now!

A thanksgiving funny!

LOL! Happy thanksgiving all!

Great thanksgiving picture!

Just HAD to post this great picture! One of the first grade students in my class directed me to this great shot at www.funnydog.net . CUTE!!!!

Blessing on the home front!

OK!!! I have to tell you! After a long day of work (we had a substitute teacher), a parent/teacher conference with Nick's teacher, and about 1/2 hour on the playground, it was time to head home and cook dinner.

But when we pulled in the parking lot, the boys spotted Sandy's car. "Why is Sandy here?" they asked. Good question. Let's find out.

I walked in the door, and Sandy had dinner ALL COOKED for us! Oh my goodness! What a tremendous blessing! I love her anyway, but tonight I love her especially much!!! Sandy, you rock!



You'll never know how much you mean to all of us in the Ziter clan! Thanks from the bottom of my heart!

Tough news from back home

The human spirit is an amazingly stubborn thing. It is driven by this force called PRIDE. WHY are people so stubborn and full of pride that they can't ask someone for help when they need it? I am not pointing a finger at anyone, because I am a #1 offender in this area. But it was a glaring reality this week when I received a phone call from a dear, dear friend whom I love very much. She and I grew up together and have been very close over the years, even though separated by many miles. She called me this week to inform me that she has been involved in a battle against cancer (among all the other battles she's confronted that I already knew about). She was diagnosed in September (I think). The doctors are pretty sure that surgery has taken care of it. She fought this battle mostly alone (except for her awesome husband and children) and just reached out to me here in mid-November. I do not condemn her or blame her... because I know. I've been there. When I was battling my depression, I fought alone for two years before finally taking the advice of my husband to get help and get meds to bring balance. Pride is an ugly thing. It does no earthly good, and only causes problems in the long run. Again, been there. I love my sweet friend dearly, and I will be here for her 1,000,000 percent! I have cried and prayed a lot over the past couple of days. My husband was interceding for her in prayer yesterday in the Spirit. I'm considering a weekend trip home.... I soooo want to be with her and be able to just love her and help her and minister to her. Just be there. So we can laugh, cry, and do whatever... together. I thank GOD for our friendship! She is awesome. Love you, my friend!

What's up?

This is a test.... my blog seems to be inaccessible, but everyone else's is. So I'll see if this works or not... Thanks for your patience.

Me

Hard message

It is Sunday afternoon. I've been "chewing" all afternoon on the message my pastor preached this morning. It was like an arrow through my soul. His message was about living in the NOW. He talked about how people who live in the future seldom do anything in the now to change the outcome of the future. They just hope that the future will turn out alright when they arrive there. That usually doesn't happen. How did this affect me? Our financial status is less than desirable. But do we have a plan in the NOW to fix it so that when we reach retirement, there is something THERE?? Nope.

Then he spoke about people who live in the past. There are nostalgic people who live there because they liked how it was back then. They can't even enjoy the present. There are also those who hold on to a hurt from the past and refuse to let go of it and move on in God. He gave the example of a woman who never forgot how her dad gave the best lollipop to her younger sister and not to her on her fifth birthday. She's now 83. How sad.

The really sad part is that I saw myself in that example. I have held onto a hurt from years ago. I said I forgave the person, and in fact, I willfully chose to say "I forgive him." But it wasn't enough. The root of bitterness that pastor spoke of this morning is buried deep within my heart, alive and well, and keeping me from moving on in my relationship with God. It doesn't show itself readily. But it will occasionally spring up and rear its ugly head, causing all kinds of emotional havoc in my life. For years, I have known this root was there. In fact, I acknowleged its existence way back before I was married, when I read a wonderful little book called "Hind's Feet in High Places". In that allegorical story, the girl named Much Afraid makes this journey that leads her to a stone table where she willingly lays down and asks the Shepherd to rip out the bitterness by the root. It was painful. But it was worth it. I have actually prayed many many times to have God do the same for me. I have laid down my will and my pride and asked Him to rip it out by the roots. But it continues to spring up and frustrate me. I am at a loss as to how to get rid of it, because it is so deeply rooted. The person that I held my forgiveness from for so long lives far away from me. I am unsure if a phone call will suffice... or if I will need to make a very long trip to handle it face to face. I have tried... but have always been a coward when face to face with this person. I am really chewing on this. Pray for me. Time to head to church.

A Saturday with no plans? Thas amasing!

Today was one of those rare, precious days. Saturday... with NO PLANS! That almost never happens, and I can vouch for it! But today was beautiful! First, I slept in until 9:22 am! That in itself is a gift from God! Also, my boys spent a large amount of time playing with the new game cube Adam got for his birthday last week. They played together...say it with me... together... and they were getting along... and LAUGHING! Another miracle of God. I just LOVE the sound of their laughter. God says that a cheerful heart is good medicine... esp for MOM! LOL! Anyway, I made the boys a hearty candlelight breakfast of bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, and toast with cinnamon. Mmmm Mmmm! They spent the entire morning playing and laughing together. I spent the entire morning on the phone. I called my mom in Florida and we had a wonderful chat. THEN... I called my dear friend Britt in Mississippi, and we talked for WELL over an hour. It was soooooo great to reconnect and really really talk like we used to when she lived here. I miss her a ton! Well, then we decided to go to the Ultimate Racing Experience at the mall and use Adam's gift certificate from his birthday. Sandini met us there, and so did my brother, who happened to have a gift certificate there, too! We did three races. Sandy rode with Adam, I rode with Nick, and Tim drove solo. Let me just say two words.... MOTION..... SICKNESS. O my word! I was so sick when I climbed out of that car, I was sure I was going to either throw up or pass out. It was bad. The boys had a BLAST!!! On the last race, my brother was in 1st place on the last lap, when Nick decided to take out Uncle Tim! It was hilarious! Anyway, we all sat in the food court and I had a soda to try to settle my woozy innards. Then Tim left, and Sandy, the boys, and I went into FYE to check out some of the Christian CDs. What a blast! We were singing out loud and worshipping right there in the store. Sandy bought Toby Mac's "Welcome to Diverse City" CD and Byron Cage's new one called "An Invitation to Worship". Both awesome choices. On our way out of the mall, we ran into Sue Hazenburg and Grace and Adele. OH yeah, we also saw Donna and Andrea right after the racing, but I was too sick to socialize. I probably looked green around the gills.

But by far the best part of the day occurred this evening while putting the boys to bed. I always read what we call DEVO (Bible devotion) before lights out. But tonight, DAD held the honor, because he was actually HOME! *gasp* Anyway, the boys begged him to read in a funny voice, so he read in a chinese voice, and it was hilarious!!! We could hardly breathe! And even though it was fun, the message got through loud and clear. He read about Joseph and his brothers. My favorite part was when he was going over the names of the other brothers... Reuben the sandwich man, Levi the jeans man, and Issachar, not issatruck. ROFL! The boys will definitely remember the details of this particular devo. It was great!
WHO SAYS LIVING FOR GOD IS NOT FUN!?!?!?!?? I think it's awesome!

Well, that is the course of the day's events. What else can I share with you? Let's do some short news announcements here:

• For an interesting article on the neuroscience of what occurs in the brain while a person is speaking in tongues as the Spirit of God gives the utterance, click here.
• I checked my "site meter" on my blog today... you can click on the world map to see where in the world people are finding your blog. This week I have had hits in Hungary, Paris, Honolulu, Manitoba, California, Colorado, and lots of places all over the USA. Neat!
• I heard a powerful little sermonette today (10 minutes long) called "Twinkle, Twinkle" about the rapture of the church, preached by a 17 year old young man. Whoa. To take a listen, click here, then click on the Sermons link. To see the YouTube video he is referring to in his message, you can see it on our youth web page here.

Ok, I could go on and on, but this post is getting too long. Let's wrap this up by saying, Jesus died for YOU! You owe him everything! Give him your life NOW while the choice is yours. If you die and leave this life without doing so, the choice of destination will no longer be yours. Give him your heart and every area of your life TODAY. You'll NEVER regret it! Living for God is the best choice I ever made! It'll be the best one you ever make, too! :-)

Revival notes

Whew! It has been a whirlwind since revival started here on Thursday! It took me 2 days just to recover.... revival is exhausting! But also exhilarating! God is truly amazing and so very good. We ended our revival with 5 people receiving the Holy Ghost for the first time, two young adults who had walked away from God praying and renewing their walk with the Lord, and 6 people baptized in the lovely and powerful name of JESUS! We had 8 first time visitors, including the great Sandini's dad! Praise God!

Now... here's the trick. Revival "services" with Rev. Jay Stirnemann are over. Now it is up to US to keep the revival spirit moving and active. It is up to US to continue praying, fasting, and inviting people to church. It is up to US to continue preaching the salvation message and teaching Bible studies. If we go back to "church as usual", it is not God's fault. We must continue to act in FAITH, believing God wants to do the impossible. God help us!

Life group is at my house tomorrow! So..... that means I need to stop blogging and start cleaning. I will write more later.

Michelle

REVIVAL IN JERICHO!!

WHOO HOOO! What a time we are having in Jericho!! We are two nights into our revival services, and God is moving in amazing ways! We have had 3 people receive the Holy Ghost, and 3 people baptized... a fourth will be baptized tomorrow night at the youth revival. We have had healings occur, and deliverance from bondage... and I KNOW God isn't done yet!

Tonight's message was a heavy hitter about a topic people don't like to hear... Hell. Yep. Hell. It's amazing how many people say they believe in a place called Heaven, but they don't believe in a place called Hell. I think they just don't want to THINK there could be a place called Hell. But it's as real as the town you live in, and there are people there right now who would give ANYTHING to be able to tell you "DON'T COME HERE!!!!!" There was a deep move of God at the end of that message, and people were at the altar making sure they don't end up there! It was so awesome.

Tomorrow night is the youth revival service, and it looks like it will be a phenomenal time! They have spotlights, a fog machine, lasers, and fabulous music geared for the teen generation.... I fully expect to hear of many teens being filled with the Holy Ghost, because Jason McAllister is a dynamic preacher with a tremendous burden to see teens give their lives to God... and he preaches it straight.

Sunday morning, Bro. Stirnamenn will be preaching again, and then Sunday afternoon, we will be having our VT churches rally... packing around 160 people or so into our church... with an awesome time of children's church next door, including puppets, games, singing fun songs, and hearing good preaching! Tell your friends and don't miss this opportunity to come and work out your own salvation with Jesus! We are located on Rt 15 in Jericho. See our website for directions. www.lifeteaching.com . See you there! I love you Jesus!!!

Happy Birthday Adam!!!

Hey hey hey! Look who's turning TEN today!!! Wow! Hard to believe you are in the double digits, little buddy. I sure do love you a ton! Have an awesome day!

Love, Mom

Ta Da!!!

Sing with me!

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Isn't she special? Barely six years old!

My gorgeous niece Meghan! Soon to be big sister two times over. Hey Megs...

AUNT SHELL LOVES YOU SOOOO MUCH! *muah*

My Jesus is so good!

Hmmmm..... what words of wisdom can I post tonight, at 11:35 pm?

Well... here is how my day unfolded. First - amazing church service. My pastor is totally in tune with the Spirit of God, because every time I turn around, other pastors are confirming what he preaches in their own messages. This morning, he wrapped up his message on spirituality, which was deep and thought provoking, and excellent. Then the boys and I headed home to finish homework and housework (that's kind of funny, now that I have typed it...). While folding laundry, we watched Bro. Lee Stoneking give his testimony about being raised from the dead, and even though it was my third time hearing him preach it, I was still in total awe! Jason had not listened to him give the testimony before, and being the medical professional that he is, he was blown away by the overwhelming evidence of God's miraculous power! If you are interested in hearing this story for yourself, go to www.tpcmemphis.org, click on the message dated 9/17/06, and then forward through the beginning of the service to his message. I'd love to tell you how many minutes into the service he speaks, but their server seems to be off-line right now, so I'll have to come back and update this post later. It is at LEAST 45 minutes in... probably more. Anyway, it got my older son's attention, and he was really drawn in by it. Praise God! Actually, here is a link you can use to LISTEN to the testimony without video... http://www.brownfloyd.com/gallery/displayimage-search-0-2.html

Next, my husband and boys went swimming at the Edge, and I attempted to do my Oct. church attendance reports on the computer. While creating the Oct. visitor record, I inadvertantly hit SAVE instead of SAVE AS... and over-wrote my Sept. visitor document! AHHHH! So I have some work to do....

Finally, we went to Ben and Stacy's place to welcome Julie home from Chicago, and to celebrate Laurel's 25th birthday. We had so much fun and laughed so hard we cried! I love our family! Julie called us Sat. evening from the top of the Sears tower... that was totally cool!

My husband and I ended our day by lying down and talking about the goodness of God, our upcoming revival services with evangelist Jay Stirnnamen,

and people who haven't been to church in a LOOONG time, whom we need to reconnect with and love them back to God. We talked about the strength of the youth, past and present, and how this youth group can be strong for those who are struggling. I love my Jesus. He has been nothing but good to me and my family. When I got saved 14 1/2 years ago, my family wrote it off as just another one of my extreme fads. They told me, "Every thing you do, you do to the extreme. This is the same thing. It will pass, and you'll find something else to give your attention to." But they didn't understand... this was different. This was life changing! This was the God who created everything, coming to live inside of ME! They don't know my God. Yeah, they know ABOUT Him, but they don't KNOW Him the way I do. When I was baptized in his Spirit, speaking in another tongue, completely submitted to Him, I was completely changed... a new creation. That just doesn't happen by saying, "I'm sorry for my sins, please forgive me and come into my heart." POOF! I'm saved! I'm a Christian now! Man, when someone is born again of the Spirit, you KNOW IT, because the change is totally apparent right away!

My husband's screen saver says something profound... it says, "The greatest ignorance is to reject that which you know nothing about." Wow. If I'd rejected the born again experience just because I didn't know anything about it, I'd still be lost, probably still drinking, still doing the bar scene, probably married to an alcoholic... THANK YOU JESUS FOR MY NEW LIFE IN YOU! I LOVE YOU! YOU MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME! We sing an old hymn... it goes like this...

Where would I be? You only know.

I'm glad you see through eyes of love.

A hopeless case, an empty place, if not for grace.

My other favorite old hymn goes like this...

Only one life, so soon it will pass.

Only what's done for Christ will last.

Only one chance to do His will.

So give to Jesus all your days, it's the only life that pays

When you recall you have but one life.

I wouldn't trade this life I live now for ANYTHING! There is NOTHING this world can offer me that even comes CLOSE to comparing to the glory I will inherit on the day He comes for me! Come soon Lord Jesus! (He wasn't just a man, He was Lord and King, the Savior of the world, He was deity, His name is Jesus, this man from Galilee).

Harvest Party 2006 is a smashing success!

Ah.... the harvest party at our church today was a total blast! We had 15 children, and they all had a great time! I will not post all the pictures I took of everyone's children you don't know (hee hee), but I would LOVE to post pics of my boys and my niece and nephew... take a look!


This is Adam striking a pose on our little photo op stack of hay bales.


Nick on same said stack of hay... notice that my boys did NOT dress up in costumes... little stinkers. No fun when you don't dress up!


This is my sweet niece Meghan, who is looking fabulous in the indian costume her grandma made for her.


This is my nephew Michael in his awesome Spiderman pajamas!


We did donuts on a string... the wonderful pregnant woman to the left is my sister in law... due on Thanksgiving with number three... her name is Elana! The fabulous woman in the center holding her sweet three year old daughter is Seana, who totally made the party possible by helping set up into the wee hours of the night, and helping clean up after. THANK YOU SEANA! Also, not pictured here is the great and wonderful SANDINI! She also did the set up and tear down with me, and has my undying gratitude for her time! Love ya Sandini!!



This is gourd bowling! Fun, because the gourds roll every which way but straight!



Of course, we also bobbed for apples,



painted mini pumpkins,



searched for the turkey in the straw,



and tried to see who could move the most candy corn, using toes only, from one bowl to the other in 30 seconds.... FUN!

It was a really fun day, and I am totally beat, THANK GOD FOR THE END OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!!!! I will thoroughly enjoy that extra hour! That is, if I get to bed in time to enjoy it... Talk to you soon!
Bye!