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!