BOSTON RULES!!!!!!!!!!!

ALCS CHAMPIONS... WORLD SERIES BOUND!!!

OH YEAH, BABY!!!!!

Powerful repentance

Well... I am not sure I can do this post justice. Sometimes you just can't put into words what happens in a spiritual atmosphere. Tonight's church service was unprecedented. The Holy Ghost was moving in a powerful "undercurrent" as my pastor accurately described it. It was obvious that God was up to something. We just weren't prepared for WHAT. Our pastor had prepared a message and even gave us the title this morning of what he intended to preach tonight. BUT, during the worship tonight, the Lord changed the message. Our pastor preached for about 5 minutes, and the message was unnerving. The call to repentance went out, and he told us that if we walked out the door instead of falling before God in prayer, it wasn't him we were blowing off, it was God. I didn't even LOOK behind me to see if anyone left. I just hit my knees. THEN... God uttered a message through the pastor of the Burlington church (we know that because my pastor got the SAME EXACT message in his spirit, but Bro. Lyon spoke it out first). And the rebuke was pretty intense. And my pastor cried out, ( I will not tell you what he cried out) and everyone just hit the floor crying out to God. This went on for, wow, I don't even know how long... definitely 30 minutes... maybe longer. I don't know. You lose track of time in the presence of God, because in His presence, time doesn't matter. All I know is that I felt much better when I was done praying. I am sure that those of you who were not there aren't making much sense of this. It is even hard for me to process, and I was there. All I can tell you is that I have lots to change in my life, and I came clean with God on ALL of it! It is becoming VERY CLEAR that time is growing very short. His return is imminent, and right around the corner. Those not ready (the way the BIBLE says to be ready, not the hundreds of denominations that say any way is okay) will have NO time to change their minds once He has come. My favorite quote still stands... Eternity is TOO LONG to be WRONG. God I want to be right with you! And I will stay on my knees and in constant contact with you to be sure I am! I love you too much to fail you now!

Fall foliage and God's creation

As promised, here are some pictures of the gorgeous fall foliage here in Vermont. My son had a cub scout fund raiser today, so as he was at the doors, I was taking pictures. It is a gorgeous day today, and it makes the pictures all the more beautiful! Check it out!

Vermont is just a beautiful state to live in! The glory of God can be clearly seen here, every season of the year!! In winter, I marvel at the perfection of each snowflake and the beautiful designs the frost crystals make on the window. Spring flowers in bloom are also a sight to behold. And the lake in summer time can't be beat for beauty! Ps. 19 says "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament displays His handiwork." And Romans 1:20 says that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." In other words, there are people who just, for whatever reason, choose not to believe that God exists, but God has put irrefutable proof of His existence and glory right in front of our faces in the natural creation of the heavens and the earth, and on the day of judgement, man will be without excuse. He will say, "The proof of my existence and glory was all around you." At least in Vermont it is!!! God is awesome!

Down by the riverside

WOW! Be blessed by this! I sure was!!! AMAZING! Anointed!
This is from a blog that I read regularly called Sola Fide. This was filmed at a going away party they had for a member of their church who was moving... these are three members of their choir who just got up and sang..... WOW!!!!

Our son the orange belt

Hmm... I think I will type in orange today, since it is a special color for this day. Today was the belt ceremony for Moo Gong Do and Adam received his orange belt rank advancement. We are so proud of him. Here are some pictures from today's celebration.


Adam receiving his gup from Master Allen.


Adam receiving his orange belt from a black belt.


Look at that... doesn't he look good in an orange belt?? Maybe I'm just biased.....


Group photo of all testers.

There was also a little ceremony honoring JGN Chapman for 10 years in MGD. He received a sword, and told a little bit about all the obstacles he's had to overcome to achieve his current rank as black belt. Those obstacles include having CP and fighting cancer, but he was clear that they were not his biggest obstacles. I was moved by his testimony, and thought to myself how much I desire to stand before Jesus as an overcomer!!!! Here are a couple pictures of him receiving his sword. Very cool.

So there it is. We had a great time, and Adam, you worked very hard for this rank and we are very proud of you.... you deserve it! Love ya buddy!

Nothing deep, just hanging out

Well... I really want to get on here and write something spiritually profound... but I just don't have anything deep to write. This is a four day weekend for the boys and I because of a state-wide teacher's convention, and we are simply hanging out and relaxing. Actually I am getting things done around the house that have needed "doing" for a while. For example... the sleeping bags from our soggy camping adventure are still in my living room, needing to go back down in storage. I have a list a mile long of things I need to get done. Four days off is a great way to accomplish that!!! Adam has Josh over for the day, and Nick is in and out of the house with Elizabeth and Taylor.

Adam had his testing last night for his rank advancement to orange belt. WOW!!! That was some intense testing! They went non-stop for two hours, and at the end, one boy named Adam from a neighboring school very nearly passed out on the floor. They worked HARD! I am so proud of him! He broke a board using a back kick, and was complimented by the master instructor on his ability to keep his hands up during sparring when he was getting exhausted. His belt ceremony is Saturday morning. I will put up some pictures for you then.

Adam is also taking trumpet lessons and starts practicing with the band this coming week! He's pretty excited.

I just want to end by saying that God has been so good to us, and I am eternally grateful for his blessings in our lives. Thank you Jesus for your hand on each of us!

The Process

Adam and I stayed home from church today (he was exhausted and had NO dry shoes to wear). I still wanted to hear the Word of God, so I attended via internet a church in Maryville, TN, pastored by Ken Carpenter. He preached on "the process" and it was excellent! Scriptures were Acts 2 (this is that which was prophesied by the prophet Joel....) and Jeremiah's chapter on the potter and the clay. The way he brought it all together was fabulous. He began with a story about the other day when he was driving down the highway behind a STINKY cattle truck. The cattle were on the way to the processing plant, where they would be washed, checked carefully for disease, slaughtered and made into other things. Now, nobody buys a painting of dirty cattle headed to slaughter to hang in their family room. Nobody buys a scented candle that smells like cow manure. But you bring home a big rib eye stake for the table, all attention is focused on it. Or your wife brings home a beautiful new leather purse, it is the envy of all her friends. What made the difference? The process. The potter, when getting the clay he needs to make a vessel, can't just take clay from the ground and use it. It is full of rocks and other things that, if you put the vessel in the fire with those things still in it, would cause the vessel to break and be useless. It must go through the process of being cleaned (like the cattle) by soaking in water until it is the consistency of thick soup. The potter then runs his fingers through the clay to remove the rocks and impurities. THEN it can begin the process of being made into a useful vessel. He also discussed how the priests in the old testament were required to be washed or they would die. It is the same in our life today. We have to go through the washing/cleansing process FIRST before we can be a useful vessel for God. When we got saved, God did not put a period at the end. No, we are just beginning the process of being made yet again another vessel as the Master sees fit to make us. We have to go through the process of removing the "stones and impurities" such as jealousy, bitterness, etc before he can mold us and put us through the fire to become the vessel God wants us to be. It may not feel good, it may not be pretty (the process rarely is), but the vessel you become on the other side is more beautiful than you can imagine! Thank you Jesus!

WET camporee!

Well.... what to say? Where to begin? Here is Mt. Norris, overlooking the boy scout camp we attended today. Notice the sky... SOME blue, SOME gray clouds.

This is the lake the campground is on.

See the teeny tent? That is Adam and mom's tent.

The camporee is lots of fun, with Webelos IIs joining the Boy Scouts to see what the next level of scouting is like. We did archery,

shooting .22s at the rifle range,

"longboat rowing" on the rowing machines,

exercises where they learn how to carry someone when injured,

(by the way, in case you haven't noticed from the other pictures, we had a pirate theme, complete with root beer chugging contest, which we did not attend.)

A treasure hunt (our group never located theirs),

giant slingshots and catapults for sandwich bags full of water,

a game of pirate soccer (no rules),

And activities to foster teamwork, leadership, and communication.

For every activity your patrol attended, you were awarded points for teamwork, team spirit, creativity, speed, etc. etc. Here is pirate Stephanie manning the points board.

Remember the first picture? The one with SOME blue sky? That ended permanently at about 3pm. The rain came, and we were some kind of wet! It was in the low 40s, which is not a good temperature for being wet. Adam's smile and enthusiam wained as he got wetter and wetter, and colder and colder.

Here's the shelter where our troop did their cooking.

Here's Adam with some hot cocoa, trying to warm up from the inside out!

Here is Adam before the 7pm boy scout service...it was an interfaith service, so Adam and I discussed it afterward. He has heard our pastor preach about it, and understood as the ceremony was occurring that many things they said were incorrect.

And here's Adam in the tent with mom at the end of a long day.

Now mind you, if you notice, I am blogging this at 11:30 pm on Saturday night... indicating we did NOT stay overnight. THAT is because we found our tent to be totally UNweather-worthy, and when the downpour came, our tent filled with water, and our bedding and clothes were all SATURATED! Not good. Adam was so cold, and trying to warm up, but now with his sleeping bag and blankets and clothes wet, that was NOT gonna happen. So, we got permission to pack up and head home (still earning the outdoorsman badge). Adam was so glad to be in the DRY WARM truck with the heat cranked. He was even happier to hop into his own bed! Nothing like it!!!!

I am falling asleep typing this. Time for bed!

Facing the Giants

This movie is so amazing... thought I'd share this with you all.

Spiritual dryness and a "Sacrifice" of praise

Matthew 12:43 (New King James Version)

“When an unclean spirit (demon) goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none."

The word rest is the Greek word anapausis which means "recreation". Now re-read the above scripture and substitute recreation for rest.....

So a good paraphrase for this would be:

Spiritual dryness is the playground of the devil.

Saul, when he was "caught" by Samuel the prophet with sheep and oxen that God had commanded to be slaughtered in the battle, made the excuse that , "Well, we saved them so we could offer them to God. It's all for Him anyway. It's for the purpose of offering a sacrifice to God and worship Him." But Samuel told Saul that obeying God was BETTER than sacrifice. He told Saul that God would not honor his sacrifice, because God is not in it.

Sometimes we wonder why we come to church and have to FORCE worship and we feel nothing.... could it be... that we live in the spiritual desert all week, Mon. through Sat., choosing NOT to obey God's commands and living how WE want to live, then come to church on Sunday and lift our hands to worship and we feel NOTHING... because God chooses not to honor our sacrifice because we have been going our own way all week? Just food for thought. Take it to your prayer closet... I KNOW I'll be taking it to mine, because it spoke to me loud and clear. God is so good. I want to please Him with my worship and with my life.

Here's a song that makes me think of this very message... check it out.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=09gTv-ldj4c
Blessings to you!

Everything a mom says in a day!

Check out this hilarious video of a lady who condenses everything a mom would say in a 24 hour period into 2 min. 55 sec.! It's awesome!

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/223/popup/index.php?cl=4274384


AND.... here are the words in case it goes too fast for you to understand!
"The Mom Song"

Get up now Get up now Get up out of bed Wash your face Brush your teeth Comb your sleepyhead Here's your clothes and your shoes Hear the words I said Get up now! Get up and make your bed Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you wearing that? Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at? Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat Don't forget! You gotta feed the cat Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it's the most important meal of all Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play Don't shovel Chew slowly But hurry The bus is here Be careful Come back here Did you wash behind your ears? Play outside, don't play rough, will you just play fair? Be polite, make a friend, don't forget to share Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare Get along! Don't make me come down there! Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day? Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay? Can you even hear a word I say?Answer the phone! Get off the phone! Don't sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table No more computer time tonight! Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home? Saying thank you, please, excuse me makes you welcome everywhere you roam You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown Can't wait till you have a couple little children of your own You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate Take a bite maybe two of the stuff you hate Use your fork, do not burp or I'll set you straight Eat the food I put upon your plate Get an A, get the door, don't get smart with me Get a grip, get in here, I'll count to three Get a job, get a life, get a PHD Get a dose of, "I don't care who started it! You're grounded until you're 36" Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven's sake And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too? If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before That you're too old to act this way It must be your father's DNA Look at me when I am talking Stand up straighter when you walk A place for everything and everything must be in place Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about Oh! Brush your teeth, wash your face, put your PJs on Get in bed, get up here, say a prayer with mom Don't forget, I love you And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends You don't need the reason why Because, because, because, because I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so I'm the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!! Ta da!!!

Let the battle begin!

vs.

Well, if you live in the northeast, things are starting to heat up in homes, workplaces, bars, and just about anywhere people are... it's baseball playoff season, and the Red Sox vs. Yankees rivalry is in full swing, now that the Yanks have made the playoffs as a wildcard! Boston won their first game against the Angels, but currently, the Yanks are being slaughtered by the Indians, which (I can't believe I'm gonna say this....) is NOT GOOD!!!!! I was talking to my friend Jeff last night after church, and we agree that the Yankees HAVE to win their series against the Indians, because it just wouldn't be RIGHT to NOT have a seven game series between the Sox and Yanks! We LIVE for this! Our economy THRIVES on it! Best friends and family members become mortal enemies for 2 weeks, but it is so AWESOME! If they don't play, I'll be heartbroken! So COME ON YANKS!!!! Suck it up and BEAT THEM INDIANS!! We have a rivalry to carry on!!!

I love my hubby!! **UPDATED** (with added comment)

Hmmm... what to say? I've just been thinking lately. Reflecting. I am thanking GOD for my fabulous relationship with my husband. Really! We trust one another, we encourage and build one another up, we (mostly) agree on the things that really matter... serving Jesus in our family, raising our children, investing in our marriage, and SOME finances! LOL! Yes indeed, we definitely don't see eye to eye on that topic all the time! But... even though we have disagreements (some rather emotional)...we always manage to find common ground and work from there. I am so grateful to God that my husband is choosing to serve the Lord. I am excited to see him reading his Bible and praying. It blesses me to see him involved in the work of God.

Is my life perfect? FAR FROM IT! We absolutely have our issues. But when I look around and see marriages crumbling all around me, it breaks my heart, and causes me to love my husband even more deeply. Sometimes I love to look back at my wedding photos and just remember how "in love" we were on our wedding day... and remember why I fell in love with him in the first place! My husband is a hopeless romantic... it's kinda cool! My husband adores our boys.... that is VERY cool! My husband loves JESUS, and there is absolutely NOTHING cooler than that!