Spring has sprung

You'd never know it to look out the window at all the snow! You's never know it if you looked at the thermometer (brrrrr!).

HAPPY SPRING TO ALL!!!!!

Where oh where has springtime gone?

Michelle is NOT happy right now. Just two days ago, it was 52 degrees, there was grass, and there were robins in my yard! Now we have a fresh coat of snow over a foot deep and it is freezing! This is not fair. I'm ready for spring, which, I might add, is in THREE DAYS. Oh well. Life isn't always fair. My husband would say "Suck it up and deal". My brother-in-law George would say "SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!" because he is twisted and actually loves this stuff. LOL!

In other news, Happy Birthday to Jack!!!! We are having a little celebration on Sunday afternoon, I believe. Cake, cake, cake.... Yum!

Also, speaking of Yum... I made my first ever lasagne Thursday and is was waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy good! Yum yum yum! My step-sister Bobbi Jo and her girls are up from Florida (her grandmother passed away... service was incredible!), and we had them over for dinner, along with my brother and his girls, and my "adopted" daughter The Great Sandini. Yes, 11 people for dinner at my teeny apartment! We did it, though. It was so great to spend time with everyone.

Today, our cub scout pack is doing coat room duty at a local pizza place as a fund raiser... guaranteed minimum of $125. Not bad. Hopefully we will make lots more than that. We'll see. Hoping that the bad weather doesn't deter folks from coming out. They have between 25-30 birthday parties planned there today, so should be good!

Well, time to get busy and join the race of life for the day. Have a warm one (I know, Mom, you ALWAYS do! Lucky!)! LOL!

Iditarod 2007 is in the books

It is official... Lance Mackey has won the 2007 Iditarod with a finishing time of 9 Days 5 Hours 8 Minutes 41 Seconds. Although our family was really routing for Jeff King (who will most likely finish in 5th place in the next few hours), Lance's win has a nice story behind it. His Dad and his brother both won their 6th Iditarod races wearing bib #13. This was Lance's 6th Iditarod and he chose bib #13. Don't tell me 13 is an unlucky number! It sure worked for him! Congratulations, Lance!

Slacker!

So.... my mom has accused me of being a slacker! LOL! She lives in Florida and relies on my blog to keep abreast of all that is happening up in the north. And she is absolutely correct! I have definitely slacked in the blogging dept. lately. Not that there has been no news to report, but we've just been struggling to get healthy and it basically has sucked my will to blog.


Did you happen to see the news report about the blogger in Egypt who was arrested and put in jail for what he wrote on his blog? Just because he spoke out against Islam. The government saw that as a threat... that he was speaking out against Allah. So they put him in jail for voicing his opinion. Now, I realize that America is the "land of the free" with rights like free speech and all... but with the democrats in charge of the government, that is sure to all change very quickly. Hillary is aligning herself with the homosexual lobbyists, partial birth abortion and physician assisted suicide are sure to become law, and you can bet any voice of opposition from the conservative Christian will be labeled as hate speech, and I could end up in jail for voicing my opinion here in my blog as well. But you know what? I will not be silenced! 4Him sings a great song that goes like this:

I won't bend and I won't break

I won't water down my faith

I won't compromise in a world of desperation

What has been I cannot change

For tomorrow and today, I must

Be a light for future generations.

Our pastor just taught a lesson Sunday about suffering. He gave many Scriptures that state, Persecution WILL come to the Christian. It is a guarantee. Christianity is NOT for the wimpy or the faint-hearted. Taking a stand against evil in this day and age is a difficult thing! But we must! And to endure it, you must have a rock solid relationship with Jesus Christ, or you WILL bend and break, and compromise your faith.

The weather here is starting to warm up, and now that it is daylight savings time, it is still light after 7:00 pm! AND... there were ROBINS in our yard today! A sure sign of spring! The folks in Montpelier are worried about another flood of the Winooski river like 1992... keep an eye on the news for updates on that situation. I am personally READY for spring! The boys were outside today rollerblading, riding scooters and bikes... it was great! They have put on quite the layer of "insulation" this winter, and they need to work it off! We still have pretty high snowbanks (about 3-4 feet high), but if it stays warm for a few days, they should shrink significantly. Also, this weather brings on the Vermont gold.... MAPLE SYRUP! It is time for the sap run, and that is another sure sign of spring in Vermont! I know the sugarers are going to be participating once again in Operation Maple Sweetness, sending the sweet stuff to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year, we sent 800 gallons... 500 the year before. The goal this year is to send 1,000 gallons of syrup overseas to our troops!

Hmmmm, what else can I report? Our youth group is doing amazing things, and having another two days of youth revival services in two weeks.

(Click on image for larger view)
They have been involved in outreach in other towns, supporting other churches in our district, and really starting to be BOLD with their faith! It is cool to see. My husband and his brother were down on Church Street last night, and some teens were hanging out, playing guitar and singing. Jason said, "I'll pay you $5.00 if you let me play your guitar and sing a couple songs." The kid said SURE! So Jason played "I'm a One-God apostolic tongue-talkin' holy rollin' born again heaven bound believer in the liberating power of Jesus' name" by Lance Appleton. The kid looked at Jason and said, "You know... I've been looking for something like that." Jason invited him to the upcoming services and he said he might come! YAY!!!
Well... I could ramble on forever, since I haven't blogged in over a week. But I need to put my kiddos to bed. Sorry for the absence. Sorry for being a slacker. I will write more soon. Bye!

Youth week and Merkebu

Hmmm... I have been conspicuously absent from the blog for about a week. We've been battling strep and head colds this week of school vacation. But it has still been an action packed week for us!

We began last Friday the 23rd with the bonfire, and Saturday the boys and I went to the mall to do the ultimate racing thing and just generally hang out. Sunday, I got mega sick with strep, and the kiddos went with Dad to cousin Mikey's 4th birthday party.

Monday was our fabulous trip to the state house in Montpelier. We learned so much! The boys asked lots of questions, and knew more than I EVER knew at age 7 about how the government works!! After, the boys and I went to lunch at House of Tang... fine chinese cuisine (not). LOL!


VT Statehouse in Montpelier

House of Representatives

Senate Chamber

The remainder of the week consisted of playing in the snow, playing game cube, reading, hanging at the youth lock in for a while, and generally trying to get healthy! It has been a fairly good vacation, despite the sickness.

The coolest thing ever??? We are sponsoring a child through Compassion International over in Africa, and his name is Merkebu Seba. Actually, Adam is basically the sponsor. He helps raise money for the monthly pledge (we kick in the rest), and he writes the letters to him and prays for him every day. Well.... we got our first letter from Merkebu yesterday! He wrote about his family and how he likes to play football and what he does for chores around the house. He also drew us pictures of his family. It was an incredible blessing for all of us! Adam can't wait to write back. He is planning to share his letter in Sunday School tomorrow. It is a good exercise in focusing outward, on the needs of others. I believe this will bless our entire family, as well as Merkebu's family.

Well, I must go pick up Adam from a birthday party. Sorry for keeping you in limbo all week... I'll try to do better! God bless you all!

Perspective

Ok... it would be real easy for me to complain my way through this post, as I am feeling absolutely wretched because of strep throat and a miserable head cold. BUT ... (see previous post... hee hee hee)
I will make an attempt to look at things in a positive light. First of all, I am married to the most wonderful husband in the world. Second of all, my boys are awesome. Third, I am in love with my Savior Jesus Christ, who took the punishment for MY sins. I love my church, I have a great pastor who isn't afraid to tell it like it is, and I am an American, living in a country where I have more food than I need, and the freedom to speak as I choose, freedom to worship Jesus Christ in Spirit and in Truth, I have a job, a roof over my head, food in my refrigerator, and a soft warm bed to sleep in. I am one of the most blessed people in the world! 99% of the population of Earth would give ANYTHING to have the blessings I have!

This is called encouraging yourself! I feel physically horrid, but in my spirit, I have peace and a spirit of gratitude to God.

Today, in my yuck-ness (yes, I made that up), I managed to rest in between each of my 7 loads of laundry, I got my taxes done (grrrrrrrr....), and since I missed my own church service this morning, I joined the Pentecostal Church in Memphis, TN online for their live service, which, by the way, was POWERFUL!!!! Bro. Huckabee preached about unity in the body, and also about the authority of the man of God behind the pulpit. Wow... God is amazing! I LOVE THE INTERNET when it is used for GOOD... to spread the gospel to a lost and hurting world. In addition to missing church, I also missed my little nephew's 4th birthday party *sniff*. Sorry buddy! I understand he is feeling quite under the weather as well.

Speaking of birthdays, today is the birthday of my sweet niece Sonja! I really miss her. She lives in FL. I called her this evening, but she was not home. I will write her a letter instead, I guess. Happy Birthday, Sweet Sonja!!!!


Tomorrow the boys and I are going to visit the Statehouse in Montpelier with the cub scouts. Hoping it will be interesting for them....... not boring.......

Well, I definitely need to go to bed. God is good! Ps. 150 says to praise Him according to His excellent greatness... not according to how you feel! I praise you Jesus because you are worthy of it! Good night to all!

But...

Greetings! It's VACATION... and you know what that means? Hanging out with teenagers! Yes, we will be spending much of our vacation with the youth group from our church. We started last night with the consecration bonfire. It was fun. It was cold. The fire was HOT. The fellowship was excellent! My husband gave the consecration message, and it was entitled "But..." He spoke of the 12 men going in to Canaan to spy out the land that God had promised them. They ALL came back with a good report... They agreed that the land was good, flowing with milk and honey. They were holding EVIDENCE of God's promised blessing in their hands (the huge cluster of grapes that took two strong, grown men to carry it). Then the doubters spoke the word .... BUT....

• BUT there are giants in the land
• BUT the cities are walled and fortified
• BUT we are not able to overtake them
• BUT ...

Our next task was to take a piece of paper and write down what comes after the "but" in our lives. I want to live for God BUT...

I want to do what God is speaking to my heart about, BUT...

After we wrote down our "buts", we prayed and believed God to take care of those "buts" for us, to believe that we CAN do what God is calling us to do! To trust Him with all the things written down on those papers.

Then we threw them into the fire.

It was, for me, a very powerful moment. Sometimes, we take those "buts" that we know are a very real threat to our Christian growth, and we sweep them under the carpet, because it's easier to ignore them than to deal with them. That moment forced me to acknowledge the buts and face them head on. God is good!

We are once again dealing with sickness in the house. Deliver me! Adam is trying to recover from strep, Jason injured his back, and Nick and I are battling colds. Ain't winter great?? Lysol wipes, baby! Industrial size! I'd open the windows for fresh air if it wasn't just 8 degrees outside....

Anyway, I will post often this week to keep you abreast of youth week events. We'll also be going to Montpelier with the cub scouts Monday to visit the statehouse. Cool!