I've always loved this hymn!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Good Intentions
When I started this blog I had good intentions. I was going to make sure I blogged at least every other day. It seems that even with the best intentions I can't get it done!
I still have this cast on my right foot. Boy, does it ache! (My foot...not the cast.) Our church ladies have been bringing dinner over the past few nights. It has been such a blessing! You don't know how sick I was of pizza, grilled cheese, and McDonald's (my DH's culinary skills)! One lady baked us a ham with apricot glaze, a salad, baked potatoes, corn, glazed carrots, and a strawberry cream pie. It was so good!!! Last night another lady brought roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and corn bread. I don't know what the next lady is going to bring, but I'm already excited about the possibilities! lol.
I was thinking about how wonderful it is that these ladies are able to serve the Lord in this way. Not that I'm enjoying being off of my feet or anything, but it is nice to look at it from the other side. If I weren't unable to do things than they wouldn't be able to be a blessing in this way. Does that make sense? I'm just so glad that they are enjoying being such a blessing to my family!
We are supposed to leave for our vacation early Monday morning. I'm still unsure of what we are doing. The doctors have cleared me to go as long as I stay in the wheel chair the whole time. Any walking could cause permanent damage to my foot. I hate the idea of going on a trip when I'm not mobile, but I also know that this trip was a blessing from God. I feel like not going would be wrong, too. I should trust that God knew I would be in a wheel chair & not feeling 100% when He gave us this gift.
I think I'm just tired today. I had to get up really early for an MRI so the doctor could clear me to go on vacation. Packing should be interesting. DH will have to follow directions. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up at our destination without any underwear or something. lol.
I should finish the rest of my computer work for church before I fall asleep...although a nap sounds really good right now. Maybe I'll nap first. Then maybe I will be able to do the bulletin without too many errors!
I still have this cast on my right foot. Boy, does it ache! (My foot...not the cast.) Our church ladies have been bringing dinner over the past few nights. It has been such a blessing! You don't know how sick I was of pizza, grilled cheese, and McDonald's (my DH's culinary skills)! One lady baked us a ham with apricot glaze, a salad, baked potatoes, corn, glazed carrots, and a strawberry cream pie. It was so good!!! Last night another lady brought roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and corn bread. I don't know what the next lady is going to bring, but I'm already excited about the possibilities! lol.
I was thinking about how wonderful it is that these ladies are able to serve the Lord in this way. Not that I'm enjoying being off of my feet or anything, but it is nice to look at it from the other side. If I weren't unable to do things than they wouldn't be able to be a blessing in this way. Does that make sense? I'm just so glad that they are enjoying being such a blessing to my family!
We are supposed to leave for our vacation early Monday morning. I'm still unsure of what we are doing. The doctors have cleared me to go as long as I stay in the wheel chair the whole time. Any walking could cause permanent damage to my foot. I hate the idea of going on a trip when I'm not mobile, but I also know that this trip was a blessing from God. I feel like not going would be wrong, too. I should trust that God knew I would be in a wheel chair & not feeling 100% when He gave us this gift.
I think I'm just tired today. I had to get up really early for an MRI so the doctor could clear me to go on vacation. Packing should be interesting. DH will have to follow directions. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up at our destination without any underwear or something. lol.
I should finish the rest of my computer work for church before I fall asleep...although a nap sounds really good right now. Maybe I'll nap first. Then maybe I will be able to do the bulletin without too many errors!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday Sing-Along
I've been thinking of my Dad a lot lately. I miss him so much, but I know how happy he is now in the presence of our Lord! I really hate that poem that they use at many funerals/memorials now. It says, "If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to Heaven and bring you home again." As much as I miss my Daddy, there's no way I'd want to bring him down to this miserable earth from the Glory of Heaven!!! How selfish would that be?! Of course, I understand that they are hurting. This is just my humble opinion.
Anyway, my Dad was a very traditional church music kind of guy. However, he loved this song once I introduced it to him. He asked that it be sung at his Celebration of Life service.
I'm just really missing him today.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
From Her Lips to God's Ears!
Bedtime prayer last night...
Cheyanne: "Please help Mommy's foot to not hurt anymore, and heal her eyes and her arms and her legs and her hands. Help them to heal and have strength...
...And please help Daddy to preach good tomorrow because people don't like to be bored in church..."
Do you know how hard it was NOT to laugh while she prayed this???
Cheyanne: "Please help Mommy's foot to not hurt anymore, and heal her eyes and her arms and her legs and her hands. Help them to heal and have strength...
...And please help Daddy to preach good tomorrow because people don't like to be bored in church..."
Do you know how hard it was NOT to laugh while she prayed this???
Sunday Sing-Along
I know...I've chosen this song before. I just really, really LOVE this song! Hope you enjoy it, too! Oh, and I hope to have a button for this meme within the next few weeks...won't that be cool?!
Friday, October 10, 2008
What a Week!
I really don't like to blog when I'm in a whiny, woe-is-me kind of mood. So, I haven't blogged this week. I'm on some hefty pain killers & it really messes with my mood.
I do have some really good things to share. I had a ladies' meeting last Friday night & it went so well!!! I did a devotion using the letters in the word FALL. It went over really well, and several mentioned that it really spoke to them. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I'm not great at doing the devotions. I'm too wordy! lol! At least they were jumping in and adding their thoughts. It was a great time of fellowship. We ended up talking and laughing until almost 11 p.m. Our cell phones started going off all at about the same time. Seems that our husbands all began to worry at the same time. At least they care!!!
Sunday we had our first official business meeting at the church. My husband has been working with the men of the church since he became Pastor. They had no constitution or bylaws or anything official! They had nothing legal to stand on if something happened. So, Sunday our church voted on the constitution/bylaws for the church. The vote was UNANIMOUS to accept it!!! Woo-Hoo!!!! It was so good for my sweet hubby.
The former pastor has been sort of a thorn in the flesh. He constantly calls people of our church and plants seeds of doubt in their minds and hearts. I'm not sure why he's doing this. He's the one who recommended my husband in the first place!
Nothing had been done "decently and in order" while he was the pastor. He & one other man made all of the decisions. When DH became the pastor, the people began to voice their feelings about being left out of the loop. This is what prompted us to implement changes...the first one being that the church as a whole votes on decisions. The people are very happy with this change.
He (former pastor) left the church with a car. He said that it was so that my DH would have something "pastoral" to drive around. It's a huge boat of a car! I told my hubby that it's more like Noah's Ark! lol. Anyway, after DH took over, he found out that this car is draining the church financially and that the car doesn't belong to the church -- it is in the former pastor's name! He bought the car new in 2006. In 2 years he put almost 100,000 miles on it. He still owes over $16,000 on it and it's blue book value is only $6,500!!!!
Once the church figured out all of this, they realized that he wasn't doing us any favor by sticking us with this financial burden. My DH called him and told him "thanks, but no thanks" (yes, I watch Sarah Palin when gives a speech). He said to DH, "Too bad. My first priority is to get my wife the house of her dreams here in Florida. The church took the car so it's their responsibility now." WHAT??? I don't understand his reasoning in this! The church didn't vote to take over the car. He just announced that, since the church had been making the payments as part of his salary, they could keep the car. We never voted on it or anything! It was just stated as a matter of fact.
The thing is this...he purchased the car for himself before he was the pastor of our church. Then, he asked one man if the church could make his car payment as part of his salary so that he wouldn't get hit hard with taxes. How on earth do you go from that to assuming the church is permanently responsible for this car????
At the business meeting the church got to vote on what to do with the car. My husband has forgone his pay for now because the church is small & needs to pay its bills first. We had prayed for a long time that the church would want to get rid of this car. We knew that some of the people have a soft spot for the former pastor which is only normal. What we did not know was that he'd been calling different families and asking them to purchase the car in their name to get it out of his, and then have the church make the car payment. Apparently the church was sick of the whole car situation, too. One man made a motion to put it on a car carrier & ship it to Florida to the former pastor. Another person second the motion, and the church voted unanimously to ship it back to him. I have to tell you -- I was VERY glad. The one lady said, "If we can't afford to pay our current pastor, then why would we want to keep making a car payment for the former one? He stuck us with a lemon."
Repentantly I must admit that I've felt the same way over that car. It has been a sore subject with me ever since my husband became the pastor. I've had some harsh feelings toward the former pastor and I've had to ask God for forgiveness. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that he, knowing the financial state of the church, would stick us with this huge burden.
It was so nice to leave the business meeting in one accord!!! I've been to some very heated business meetings and was very leery about how this was going to go. I'm just so glad that God went ahead and worked on hearts. What an AWESOME God we serve!!!!
Sunday night I ended up in the ER. I had to get X-Rays of my foot. It's a sprain, but WOW -- it HURT! While in there to get treated for my foot, they hooked me up to an IV of antibiotics because I mentioned that I had some back pain. They did the "please force yourself to pee even though you don't have to go" thing. It came back that I still have the kidney infection. She put the IV in the vein on my wrist. I must say that it HURT LIKE CRAZY! Never have I had anyone put an IV there before. Then, when I was finished she couldn't get it to stop bleeding! They took several tubes of blood to test me for...well, who knows what because they don't tell me even when I ask. I really dislike that hospital. Get this...their huge bill board advertisements are, "xxx Regional Hospital -- the closest hospital" -- not the best or the fastest or anything really good. Nope, their hook is that they are the closest. lol.
Since I can't use crutches because my left foot is too numb from the MS, I've had to stay off my foot all week. It's still hurting like crazy. I'm still being reassured that it is "only" a sprained ankle, and that the MS is causing the pain to be excessive. UGH!
Well, if you've read this far...thanks! Told ya I was too wordy! lol.
Love,
Stacey
I do have some really good things to share. I had a ladies' meeting last Friday night & it went so well!!! I did a devotion using the letters in the word FALL. It went over really well, and several mentioned that it really spoke to them. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I'm not great at doing the devotions. I'm too wordy! lol! At least they were jumping in and adding their thoughts. It was a great time of fellowship. We ended up talking and laughing until almost 11 p.m. Our cell phones started going off all at about the same time. Seems that our husbands all began to worry at the same time. At least they care!!!
Sunday we had our first official business meeting at the church. My husband has been working with the men of the church since he became Pastor. They had no constitution or bylaws or anything official! They had nothing legal to stand on if something happened. So, Sunday our church voted on the constitution/bylaws for the church. The vote was UNANIMOUS to accept it!!! Woo-Hoo!!!! It was so good for my sweet hubby.
The former pastor has been sort of a thorn in the flesh. He constantly calls people of our church and plants seeds of doubt in their minds and hearts. I'm not sure why he's doing this. He's the one who recommended my husband in the first place!
Nothing had been done "decently and in order" while he was the pastor. He & one other man made all of the decisions. When DH became the pastor, the people began to voice their feelings about being left out of the loop. This is what prompted us to implement changes...the first one being that the church as a whole votes on decisions. The people are very happy with this change.
He (former pastor) left the church with a car. He said that it was so that my DH would have something "pastoral" to drive around. It's a huge boat of a car! I told my hubby that it's more like Noah's Ark! lol. Anyway, after DH took over, he found out that this car is draining the church financially and that the car doesn't belong to the church -- it is in the former pastor's name! He bought the car new in 2006. In 2 years he put almost 100,000 miles on it. He still owes over $16,000 on it and it's blue book value is only $6,500!!!!
Once the church figured out all of this, they realized that he wasn't doing us any favor by sticking us with this financial burden. My DH called him and told him "thanks, but no thanks" (yes, I watch Sarah Palin when gives a speech). He said to DH, "Too bad. My first priority is to get my wife the house of her dreams here in Florida. The church took the car so it's their responsibility now." WHAT??? I don't understand his reasoning in this! The church didn't vote to take over the car. He just announced that, since the church had been making the payments as part of his salary, they could keep the car. We never voted on it or anything! It was just stated as a matter of fact.
The thing is this...he purchased the car for himself before he was the pastor of our church. Then, he asked one man if the church could make his car payment as part of his salary so that he wouldn't get hit hard with taxes. How on earth do you go from that to assuming the church is permanently responsible for this car????
At the business meeting the church got to vote on what to do with the car. My husband has forgone his pay for now because the church is small & needs to pay its bills first. We had prayed for a long time that the church would want to get rid of this car. We knew that some of the people have a soft spot for the former pastor which is only normal. What we did not know was that he'd been calling different families and asking them to purchase the car in their name to get it out of his, and then have the church make the car payment. Apparently the church was sick of the whole car situation, too. One man made a motion to put it on a car carrier & ship it to Florida to the former pastor. Another person second the motion, and the church voted unanimously to ship it back to him. I have to tell you -- I was VERY glad. The one lady said, "If we can't afford to pay our current pastor, then why would we want to keep making a car payment for the former one? He stuck us with a lemon."
Repentantly I must admit that I've felt the same way over that car. It has been a sore subject with me ever since my husband became the pastor. I've had some harsh feelings toward the former pastor and I've had to ask God for forgiveness. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that he, knowing the financial state of the church, would stick us with this huge burden.
It was so nice to leave the business meeting in one accord!!! I've been to some very heated business meetings and was very leery about how this was going to go. I'm just so glad that God went ahead and worked on hearts. What an AWESOME God we serve!!!!
Sunday night I ended up in the ER. I had to get X-Rays of my foot. It's a sprain, but WOW -- it HURT! While in there to get treated for my foot, they hooked me up to an IV of antibiotics because I mentioned that I had some back pain. They did the "please force yourself to pee even though you don't have to go" thing. It came back that I still have the kidney infection. She put the IV in the vein on my wrist. I must say that it HURT LIKE CRAZY! Never have I had anyone put an IV there before. Then, when I was finished she couldn't get it to stop bleeding! They took several tubes of blood to test me for...well, who knows what because they don't tell me even when I ask. I really dislike that hospital. Get this...their huge bill board advertisements are, "xxx Regional Hospital -- the closest hospital" -- not the best or the fastest or anything really good. Nope, their hook is that they are the closest. lol.
Since I can't use crutches because my left foot is too numb from the MS, I've had to stay off my foot all week. It's still hurting like crazy. I'm still being reassured that it is "only" a sprained ankle, and that the MS is causing the pain to be excessive. UGH!
Well, if you've read this far...thanks! Told ya I was too wordy! lol.
Love,
Stacey
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Sunday Sing-Along
I love this blue-sy rhythm. When I was growing up, Sandi Patti was totally off limits. I never understood why it was okay for our church to have all the Southern Gospel music all the time, but nothing contemporary. I would debate this with my Mom often.
"Stacey, contimporary Christian music and/or Christian rock got its foundation in modern music. It's the same music you hear on rock stations...just with different words."
"But Mom, Southern Gospel is just like Country Music. Turn on a country station & you'll hear the same music, just with different words. Why is Country music 'okay' in the church, but not contemporary?"
We'd debate this in a respectful way week after week. I wasn't allowed to listen to anything but the Southern Gospel stuff. By the time I was 14 I was SICK TO DEATH of it!!! Thankfully, my Mom bought me a Sandi Patti tape for Christmas that year and I played it until it died.
Of course, this clip is from a Gaither program so it is considered SG. I just really like this song. ;)
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Tagged
My friend Bobbi tagged me, and I figure I'll get her back down the road somewhere. lol.
7 Random/Weird Facts About Me...
1. I use large plastic drinking cups instead of glasses because I drop them too often (then miss some of the glass & end up finding it with my foot). I have cool colors (blues & pinks) & warm ones (oranges & yellows). When they come out of the dishwasher, they must be stacked in the cupboard alternately as such: warm, cool, warm, cool... If 2 warms are touching or 2 cools, it drives me bonkers!!! PLUS...I'll only drink out of the warm toned cups.
2. I always peel the brown top off of my hamburger bun leaving only the white bread part. I eat the brown part first, but don't like it actually on the hamburger. I know...weird.
3. Fall is my favorite season. As soon as it begins to cool off, I begin diving into my recipe books to plan a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. Move over Martha (aka DENISE). Of course, the people I invite all are always dieting & eat hardly anything making me feel lousy because I've just spent 3 days in the kitchen pouring my heart into a dinner that they won't eat for fear of gaining a pound! UGH!
4. I love to bake and quickly get sucked in to any cooking show. Thankfully we don't have cable or anything but an antenna or I'd never get anything done!
5. I hide money from myself so that when I come across it I get excited. Like I just found a $5 bill in my jacket that I left there last spring. Woo-Hoo!!!
6. I absolutely despise most books that the majority of homeschooling moms find "imperative" for their children.
7. I was engaged 3 times before finally marrying my wonderful husband. I'm SO GLAD I saved the best for last.
So now I'm supposed to tag 7 random people. This is hard...I'm hiding from someone and if I tag the wrong people, she will find me again. Let's see...I think I'll wimp out & just let you do this if you want to do so.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)