No words

Did you ever have something you wanted to express, or describe, or tell about, but it was so profound you just couldn't find adequate words? That is where I find myself tonight. I have been watching General Conference services live online this week (our church General Conference is in Tampa, FL this year). Tonight's service was a home missions service. I know... sounds boring. BUT.... and I don't have words to explain this, so you may not follow what I am about to say... they did everything VERY different in this service this year. They had a minister from a small home missions church pray before the main speaker came up... and they had his little bitty home missions choir sing (MAN can they sing with anointing and power!). General Conference has always been about the BIG NAME preachers and the MEGA CHURCH choirs. NOT this year. And the preacher for the home missions service was.... A HOME MISSIONS PASTOR! He pastors a church of less than 200. He's not concerned with what any of the big name preachers think of him... he is concerned with what JESUS thinks of him. He is not concerned about leaving General Conference and going home to reach hundreds of lost souls... he's concerned with going home to win the couple down the street in his neighborhood. THAT was the amazing part of his message... when he talked about his neighbors! I was cut to the heart, and weeping as he preached! I know this doesn't make much sense if you didn't hear the message. You can watch it online if you want.... just go to www.upci.org, and click on the box that says, watch online. The 56K feed is free. Faster bands require a donation. But it's fine. The free feed works fine. And you will be challenged and cut to the heart as were ALL the people who heard this message! At the end, he simply put the microphone down and walked away, and every person on the platform (including the musicians) hit the floor, faces to the ground. And the congregation flooded the altar, again, faces to the floor. No music, no sound, then as the Spirit began to get ahold of people, the sound of ferverent prayer began to go up. It was amazing! See? I told ya. No words can adequately describe what I heard and saw and experienced tonight. That is how big and amazing my God is! He is more than words can describe. He is beyond comprehension at times. I love him so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RED SOX RULE!!!!!!!!!!!

I have just 4 words for y'all...

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah baby!

But enough bragging.... Here is a recap of my day.

1. Difficult child at school today pushed my limits but I was successful in surviving the school day.

2. My crock pot that I ordered for my birthday (thanks Dad and Win) came today... it's HUGE!

3. General Conference online is just totally amazing!!!!! Bro. Jerry Dean preached tonight with powerful anointing.

4. Ben and Stacy are back in town in their new place (loaded to the hilt with boxes and stuff) and I am so excited!!! Meghan will be coming to MY SCHOOL on Monday... how totally neat is that???

5. Did I mention that the RED SOX clinched the AL East title tonight???

6. Adam will be testing for his orange belt in Moo Gong Do in just three weeks! Wow!

7. I'm falling asleep at the computer and desperately need to go to bed....

Sorry about that, but it's true. I'm so tired. Beddy bye time! Lata!

PS.... How 'bout them Red Sox??? :D *grin*

The best husband in the world!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I must let you know that I consider myself the luckiest woman on earth! My husband treats me like a princess, and I feel very loved! He brought me flowers to my school in the middle of the day (for my birthday), then he took me to dinner (which would NOT have been possible without the great and awesome Sandini watching our boys for us... yay! Thanks Sandy!). We went to the Outback. We had $40 in gift cards from his uncle Peter, and when we got the bill, it was $40.50! Cool! Dinner for $0.50 plus tip! Can't beat that! Then he took me to Williston to the beach at Lake Iriquois. It was where he first told me he loved me almost 15 years ago. It was GORGEOUS out last night... clear sky with lots of stars, warm gentle breeze, ALMOST full moon, shimmering down on the water, peaceful...... I could have stayed there all night! Birthdays just don't get much better than that. Thanks, honey! I love you so much! You're the best!!!!

Excitement

Let it be known this day that the Ziters do NOT lead a boring life! In fact, we have a pretty exciting and fun life! First and foremost, being a Christian is fun. But secondly, just living in general is fun! Life is a gift! This evening, we got caught up in some out-of-the-ordinary fun. We got home from church, and the boys were undressed and ready for bed. Sandy was here, and Jason was taking Lonnie home. Suddenly, Jason calls us and says, "Hurry! Get in the car and head to the park! DHART (medical helicopter) is getting ready to land in the field at the park!" SO.... we took the bait and ran out the door to the park. It was fun! We got to see their $10,000 night vision goggles (which they were using for this training landing), their $18,000 helmets with little $8,000 antennas on them (Ronny King would have a stroke if anyone dared TOUCH an $8,000 ANYTHING!). Then they got a call to go to Concord, NH, so they took off. It was neat. Home and tuck the boys in bed. There is more to the story, but I don't think I will share that right now. I have my dignity to think about! But suffice it to say, that not everyone lives in the moment like that... they are too "scheduled" and "preplanned". Yes, my boys probably should have been in bed on a school night. They usually are. But this one time, they had a ball and learned a lot! There is something to be said for living in the moment! My boys will remember this night and smile when they are grown up. So will Sandy... of course she's already grown up, but she still laughs about the night last month when she and I were hiding out on my porch at 3am watching the police with their police dogs searching for a bad guy in my back yard! She likes our exciting life, too! LOL!

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!! I am 41 today (it's after midnight, so I can say that... even though I began this post well before midnight). So....

There is so much more I could write... but it's 12:30 am on a school night. I need to turn in! Be blessed!

Birthday /baseball /children's church

First of all... this is for my sweet sweet sister in Maine!!

Myspace Graphics at WishAFriend.com
I love you Bean!

Second of all (great grammer, eh?), I just want to say that the Yankees are bugging me. They are in extra innings for the second night in a row. I hope Toronto has the stamina to hold them off again tonight.

Third of all, I must tell you that my children are excited about children's church tomorrow morning. The teen class is helping out with the worship, and the teens are excited about ministering to the younger ones. My husband just came home from rehearsal and told the boys what a great time they will be having tomorrow. Cool!

The evil empire (aka NYY) just won the game. *sigh* Oh well. As long as Boston wins tonight we'll be okay. Time for me to go anyway, I just got a call from a friend at church and she needs prayer. So off I go. Thank you Lord that we can come boldy before your throne, carrying the needs of others to you on the wings of prayer! You are awesome, God!

Christianity and baseball

I have come to the conclusion that the all-American sport of baseball is contrary to my Christianity. It's ridiculous! I sat here at the computer this evening (because I don't have a TV) and YELLED at the screen (like the pitcher could hear me) and displayed MUCH carnality! I was so frustrated with the Toronto relief pitcher for HANDING the game over to the Yankees at the bottom of the 9th inning. Grrrr.... This game is NOT good for my Christianity. At least the Red Sox won, although it isn't much to brag about as they played the worst team in the league......



Anyway, baseball playoff season is generally an ugly time here in our house, as we are a divided house... 2 Yankees, and 2 Red Sox fans. It is this way in homes all across New England. It is just the way life is here. Just like we can count on the leaves to turn gorgeous colors here in the fall, we can also expect family members to turn on one another and get in emotional conflicts... over BASEBALL!! Ridiculous, but true nonetheless.



In other news in my life (yes, I have a life), my son Adam brought home a new thing yesterday.... a trumpet. Yes, if the drums weren't enough to convince our landlord we need to be evicted, this just might do it. Just kidding. We have about a dozen rules in place about when and where the trumpet can be played in this 6 unit apartment building. God have mercy... it's a good thing we have a good relationship with our neighbors! Adam is pretty excited about learning the trumpet. He's also doing really well with his Moo Gong Do training, and will be testing for his orange belt the end of October.



And now, a picture my mother-in-law sent me... which pretty much describes my reason for NOT blogging here lately...

I am honestly trying not to be so addicted to this blasted computer! I am afraid that I have a long way to go....

Anyway, that is all for now. The Yankees/Toronto game is now in the bottom of the 13th inning, when in fact it never should have gotten past the 9th! Argh! I need to go to bed. Pray for our family during playoff season! LOL!

Fire Station

Hello world. I just want to take this moment to inform you that indeed, I do still exist. I have not evaporated from the face of planet Earth. I just haven't felt much like blogging lately... lots of personal issues going on, consuming my brain power.

I am currently sitting at the computer in the dispatch office of our local fire dept. while the boys watch the Red Sox / Yankees game (btw.. Sox are ahead 5-1... hee hee hee)! We are here because we had a cub scout meeting this evening here.

Currently, my husband is telling me it's time to go now that I am blogging... we've only been here for 3 1/2 hours...... *sigh* Oh well. Guess this is all you are getting from me tonight. Time to go! Bye!

Prayer

Okay. I haven't blogged about anything really significant in a few days. But I think I have something relevent to share today. It seems that for the past couple of months or so, our saints have been... well... a tad on the apathetic side when it comes to worship. Now, I don't mean that to be destructive. It is a cycle that most churches go through from time to time. It seems people just "show up" and take residence on the pews, while the service leader and worship leader try to lead the people into a place where they can worship God, but the people for whatever reason just don't seem to want to be led. Anyway, we decided that the answer to this is prayer and fasting. We began with prayer. The leadership hit the prayer room running, and took authority over some things, praying prayers of binding and loosing, and hit the sanctuary determined to worship God no matter what the congregation did. Well.... let me tell ya... it seems to have lit a fire in the hearts of the people, because they responded to the presence of the Lord and the Holy Spirit moved in a very wonderful way! Prayer. It truly is the answer to all things spiritual. Duh....

Also, at the end of the service, we sang a wonderful song that I love so much and I sang it over and over for the rest of the night, even tucking my boys into bed. This morning, on my way in to work, I was trying to remember it, and I couldn't for the life of me think of the words! AH! It bugged me all day! I couldn't wait to get home and get out my music binder and find it. Here it is...

Lord I've come to lift up your name
Lord I've come to give you all my praise
For you alone are worthy of all the honor and the glory
Lord I've come to lift up your name.

Ah...... it is such a worshipful song, and brings me such peace whenever I sing it...*contented sigh*

Well, that is all for now. I must finish dinner.

The cross we bear...

My wonderful mother-in-law sent me this in an email... I have no idea who to credit for this, or I would give credit where credit is due. This is an amazing way to help us see how important it is to carry the load that God gives us. He promises not to give us more than we can bear. But if we are whining and complaining about our burdens, rather than thanking Him for them, we could end up losing out in the end.... a sobering thought. Check this out!

Lord, forgive me for my complaining! Help me to carry my burden with a thankful heart! That is so hard to say, but this makes it so very plain.

Catch up news

My goodness... I hardly know where to begin. I have not been very good about blogging these days. With the return to school and routine, I guess blogging got left out of the schedule. :)

Being back to school is great! My boys are both liking their teachers and all (so far), and seem much more content now that they have some routine back in their life. I am also much more content being back at work. The teacher I am working with actually used to be my neighbor, and we get along great, so I am anticipating a really fun year!

Our family went to the fair on Saturday (Me, hubby, boys, and adopted daughter, the great Sandini). Jason worked lots of long hard hours on the EMS team at the fair to earn us 5 free passes, parking included, and wrist bands for the kids to go on unlimited rides. Lots of 18 hour shifts (12 at work followed immediately by 6 at the fair.... day after day after day). I love and appreciate my husband so much! He does so much for this family to make it all work. YOU ROCK BABY!!!! We wouldn't be attending the fair otherwise.... you need to take out a personal loan from the bank to be able to afford the fair these days!! Ridiculous.

Tonight at church, we had such a deep and powerful move of God in our evening service! Our pastor didn't even get to preach his message... God had other plans, which is fine by us! I love it when God steps in and disrupts all our pre-made plans and does what HE wants to do in people's lives. It's much more effective that way! Even Nick spent some time in prayer and felt the presence of God touch his heart. Neat!

My pastor is teaching a two lesson series during our mid-week services on the priesthood of Melchizidek... which probably means nothing to most of you, but I find it fascinating! Sandy gave me these weird eyes when I told her I was excited about it.... it was funny! She doesn't understand. I made up my mind a long time ago that I was going to totally sell out to Jesus Christ. I made up my mind to have NO gray areas in my life... either I live for Jesus 100%, or I walk away from it all and serve the world. I LOVE digging into the Word of God and learning all I can about the one who loved me enough to suffer death on the cross, just so I could live with him forever in heaven! He didn't have to, you know. But that is how much he loves me. And you. Anyway, this morning, my pastor gave me TWO 100 question quizzes testing your knowledge of the Bible from beginning to end. I love this kind of stuff! I finished the first quiz, and scored an 84... not bad! My two areas of weakness were: the minor prophets and the Gospels. My only problem in the gospels was this... for example... the parable of the sower can be found: a.) Matthew b.) Mark c.) Luke d.) all three. You see.... there were quite a few questions like that, and I have no idea how many times the same stories appear in the gospels, and which of the gospels they show up in! I tried to blame pastor for my poor performance on the minor prophets, stating that he doesn't preach enough out of the minor prophets. He agreed, but also was quick to point out that I don't study them enough, either. I hate it when he's right! JK! I don't. I now see my need to study the minor prophets more. There is much information about Jesus in these books, and I DO need to study them more! I haven't quite finished the 2nd quiz yet, I will post my score here when I do.

This afternoon we watched the movie, "Facing the Giants". It was so fabulous!!!!!!! I will definitely be purchasing that movie to OWN as a top notch family movie to be watched over and over and over again! God is so amazingly good!!!!

Anything else? We determined today that there are only 113 days left until Christmas! YAY! We are going to Maryland to spend Christmas with Jason's dad, and we are so excited! Actually, I just found a really cool site that counts down to Christmas how many months, how many days, how many hours, minutes, or seconds. As I type this there are 162,728 minutes until Christmas. And in seconds? There are currently (as I type) only 9,763,608 seconds until Christmas! WOW!

Okay. I suppose that is it for now because I am really tired (it's 1 am). There is actually so much more I want to write, but this post is already too long. I hope it didn't put you to sleep... I didn't even include any pictures for your enjoyment! (That makes my mom happy, because in VT she is on dial up!!). Sandy took a horrid picture of me at the fair, and has threatened to post it on Facebook.... I reminded her that I have plenty of bribery material pictures of her that I could post here for the world to see....... we'll see what happens. For now, good night to all and may God keep you in His care!