Corbin's Bike Show

Yesterday Corbin told me he and his friends were having a bike show on his street today from 3:00 to 4:05. He and his friends had put flyers on doors of several of the neighbors. He asked Pa & I to come and then asked if we could bring some brownies to sell. Sure, we could! So this morning I baked some brownies and we drove over there to watch the show. They set up a table to sell brownies and lemonade that Jenny made.

They plan to donote the money they made to St. Jude Children's Hospital.

We were quite surprised that several neighbors came out to watch the show and buy refreshments.



The boys did great!



There was only one little mishap:



Here are the stars of the show:

Good Advice From PAJ

Always keep yourself in a position financially to where, if you lost your job tomorrow, you would still be OK.

PAJ, (my Daddy) told me this many times and I think it is such good advice. I keep hearing all the stories in the news about people loosing their jobs and are now in such financial trouble. I just have to wonder if maybe they didn't create some of this trouble themselves. If, when they had good jobs, they had lived as if they might loose their job tomorrow, surely they wouldn't be in such financial trouble now. I know there are exceptions to this. Some people have a bad illness, or some other hardship, and I'm not talking about those cases. I know that happens, but I do believe it is the exception and not the rule.

If, when someone is making good money, they spend wisely and live below their means, saving money, doubling up on house or car pmts and such, and they loose their job, they can go get a job at McDonalds if need be, and still be OK for a while.

Don't buy houses with house payments you can barely afford, the best vehicles with big car payments, and run up lots of credit card debt. Then of course, if you loose your job, you will be in big trouble fast.

I just believe this must be what has happened with so many people that are in such financial trouble now because they have lost their jobs. (Certainly not all). And we are asked to bale them out. We, who have tried hard to live within our means. ---I just don't get it.

What happened to suffering the consequences of our actions? We are never promised a life without hardships. Loosing a job is always a possibility. No one is immune to it. Why not think ahead when we HAVE the job and make wise decisions?

Just doesn't make sense to me.

Today was my day off and a good day. I have been working hard all week. My boss bought out a gas pipeline construction service company with over 100 employees. I have been getting all the employees set up in our system along with getting health insurance put in place and lots of other stuff. It has been alot of work, and will most likely continue to be for a while here, but I am enjoying it. I'm learning new things and meeting new people. It's been great and I'm excited about a new adventure. ....But I was glad to have a day off today.

I went to watch Corbin's basketball game this morning and saw Cody & Jenny, then I went to eat lunch and shopping with my good friend, Rhonda.

After that I went to the airport to pick up Bo, who has been in Phoenix all week, and we went to eat Mexican Food. Now I am enjoying a small glass of wine and just relaxing.

It was a good day. Hope yours was too!

If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36).

Enjoy The Righteousness Of Christ.

Our standing as Christians is founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We say it, we hear it, and nodding affirmatively we agree that it is true. Yet, all too often we fail to grasp the implications of this fact.

All too often our actions and our attitudes, our feelings, our hopes and fears are motivated by something quite different. Instead of looking to Christ we look to ourselves. We imagine that if we could better overcome temptation we would be happier, if we could subdue our sin we would find more peace. We suspect that our interest in God’s love is hindered by our lack of faith and wonder if our conviction for sin has been deeply enough felt.

So we become pre-occupied with ourselves and measuring the successes and failures of what we do as Christians, instead of being pre-occupied with Christ, the foundation that never fails. We build our hope upon our reputations, until our reputations take a dive. We draw comfort from our Christian service then stumble upon the suspicion that much of it is self-promoting. We are encouraged by numbers and size until we glimpse how fickle are the little kingdoms we have built.

It is Christ that justifies, it is Jesus who makes peace in our soul. Our happiness and our assurance will never be complete if we base it upon anything we do in this world. When we look to ourselves to any degree we are looking away from the Lord. Our failures cannot breach our union with Christ any more than our successes can improve it. What I do, what I feel and what I say does not alter the Father’s free grace to me, the Son’s finished work for me, or the Spirit’s providential care of me.

Too many Christians are joyful or depressed in measure to how well or poorly they feel they have performed their Christian duties. Too many preachers use these feelings to badger and manipulate their flock. Christians who are required to scale the bar of sanctified behaviour are always watching the bar. They never lift their eyes from their own works, never enjoy the liberating peace of looking away to Christ.

Christ is the peace-maker of our souls; our happiness in this world, and in the next, depends upon Christ alone. Robert Hawker puts it nicely, "Beloved, if you will fetch your peace from anything in the world but Christ, you will fetch it from where it is not. None but Christ! none but Christ! While your own acts proclaim nothing but war, Christ alone and His blood proclaim nothing but peace."

God grant us freedom to enjoy the righteousness of Christ.

by Peter L Meney

Vehicles

Mason got a new "used" car. Yeah, it's my old Honda Accord. But it's a good one!


So you might ask, what am I driving now.


Ta Da!!


My New Honda CR-V!


Isn't it pretty??



Bo & I went to Lubbock yesterday and picked it up --off the showroom floor. It is loaded, with a voice command GPS, dual air, heated leather seats, XM radio, a backup camera, and much more! I plan to keep it for a long time, so I might as well get all the bells and whistles that were offered. It's really not a very expensive car like some, but it's is just perfect for me.

On another note, we listened to a great sermon this morning and I thought I would share it with ya'll. It's called 'The Angel Sent Before Us --Christ, Our Protector." You can find it here. I think it explains very well how I'm always saying we don't HAVE to work. We are not under the law. Christ kept the law for us!! Praise his wonderful Holy Name!

That's all for now.

Max

Corbin's cousin Max who is just 9 years old was just recently diagnosed with Leukemia. Oh, my heart goes out to him and his family. His mom, Christian, Jenny's sister has started a blog. It's called "It's A Good Life..of Course it is...I'm A Pirate!" and you can visit it here.

Not too long ago I posted pictures of Lilly before and after bathtime. Mary Ellen, in the comments, asked me if Lilly liked getting a bath.

Here's a short video of Lilly when we told her it was time for a bath. She knows what the word 'bath' means, mind you. ---Now you decide if she likes taking a bath.

Here's Mason standing out by his Tahoe a few weeks ago



Here's Mason standing out by his Tahoe today



Yes, last Friday afternoon, I got a frantic call from Mason. 'I've had a wreck!' Oh dear, oh dear. He ran into the back of a city garbage truck as the truck was turning into an alley. He wasn't hurt at all, and that's good! The garbage truck wasn't hurt either. But I can't say the same for the Tahoe. I'm afraid it's headed to the salvage yard.

We just had a great Christmas this year. We decided to have a very nice, pretty formal Christmas dinner with our kids. So that's what we did.

This was our menu:

Gingered Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Beef Tenderloin with Cranberry Dijon Mustard Sauce
Roasted Red Potato and Onion Wedges
Sauteed Green Beans with Shallots and Sweet Corn
Glazed Carrots and Sugar Snap Peas
and Creme Brulee for dessert

Bo & I worked hard all morning getting everything ready, and it all turned out really good. The Beef Tenderloin and the Creme Brulee were excellent, if I do say so myself!




Bo put together a Scavenger Hunt for the kids before we ate and that was lots of fun too. They had five places around town to go. Bo had written all the clues which were really pretty witty. (He's good at that sort of thing). About an hour before the kids got here, Bo went to all the places and taped envelopes with the next clue. I wondered if they would all figure it out, but they all did, and Mason & Whitney were the first to get back. It was really fun and we were thinking "maybe" we should make the scavenger hunt a new family tradition. We'll see.

You know, we always take our family kid picture at Christmas, and here's this years:



A pretty good looking bunch, I'd say!

I hope you all had a good Christmas too. And Happy New Year!!

My Weekend

All of our kids are coming for Christmas on Christmas Day and I'm looking so forward to it. Bo & I have been working on a little surprise for them. (Nothing much, but hopefully fun). I will let you all in on it with pictures after Christmas.

Jocelyne should be here tomorrow, and we will be so glad to see her. I just love the family time at Holidays.

Bo & I drove to Clovis, NM on Saturday. He is looking for some new boots & a hat. We needed something to do that day, so on the spur of the moment, we jumped in the truck and went there to a big Western Store. He didn't find any boots OR a hat, so we just decided to wait until after Christmas to look again. Maybe they will be on sale then. We stopped and ate at a Mexican Food Restaurant on the way home and that was good.

I went and did a little late Christmas shopping today and WOW was there a ton of traffic and people out. Hopefully I won't have to do that again this year.

Tomorrow it's back to work, and that's OK too.

Have a great week!

Dirty Lilly


Bathtime


Clean Lilly

We had a nice Thanksgiving today at Bo's sister's little restaurant. The restaurant was closed, of course.





Watching the game after the big meal.

Yesterday we went to Corbin's basketball game. His team lost the game, but they played hard and had fun.



Here are a couple of spectators:



Then after the game, at home with Lilly

Well, Bo & I finally made it home. We went to visit my family after we left the convention and had a very nice visit.

First we went by to visit my PAJ and Dorothy and enjoyed seeing them. Here's me & PAJ:



Then we went to eat Mexican food with Mary Helen, Gendy, John & Rudy:



It's always so good to see my family!

Here's How they Got up & Down

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Bo & I are at a cattle feeders convention in Grapevine, TX at a BEAUTIFUL hotel and having a great time. We are on the ninth floor and here's the atrium view from our balcony:




Pretty impressive, I think!







This morning I went out on the balcony and saw this. (Yes, they are putting up Christmas decorations already).




If you click on the picture and make it bigger, you will see little men sitting on those steel beams. Over nine stories up! Wow.






Here's one up close:




Those are some brave guys!







Well, I'm heading out for a walk around the lake outside. It's supposed to be around 80 degrees today and beautiful. I am loving this!!

Maybe I'll post some more pictures later. I sure am lucky to have such a sweet husband to take me to such cool places as this.

I got to go trick or treating with these guys tonight. They were Greasers. You know, like from the movie, Grease.














It was fun and there were LOTS of trick or treaters out.

Happy Birthday to my Boy

The Amazing Mason

One more

Mason started back to college on Monday taking Surgical Technology this time. Today we went and bought him some scrubbs to wear. Here he is:










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It's Been Raining!

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Yesterday morning Corbin, Lam & Quan came over. I was so glad to see them all. They were hungry guys so I made them some bacon & eggs for breakfast. Afterwards, we decided we would head out to Palo Duro Canyon. It was a nice cool day and that's what you need when going to the Canyon. Hiking around in the hot sun can be exhausting.

We stopped off at Subway and got some sandwiches to take with us. When we got there and starting to take off on a trail, we noticed it was pretty muddy because of the rain the night before. Ugh, that's was no good. So we got back in the car and drove around.

We pulled into the outdoor theater where they do the world famous play "Texas." Well, maybe not world famous, but famous in these parts anyway. We walked back stage and looked at all the staging equipment. It was pretty cool. I kept thinking, we probably shouldn't be back here, but we didn't see any signs that said 'keep out' or anything, so we kept wandering around and even took some pictures.












And then we looked up and there was a man with a mean look on his face. Uh-oh.

"You folks need to get out of here!" He said.

"Yes, sir! We are sorry, and we will leave right away."

He seemed very agitated at us and just stood there staring.

"You're not supposed to be in here." He said.

"So sorry Sir. We didn't take anything."

And we hooked 'em to the car. Whew! That was scarey. LOL.

We went across the street and got out of the car to try another trail. Corbin couldn't find his water bottle. He had given it to me to hold while I was taking their picture when we were backstage. I sat it down to take the picture. Oh dear, ----we left it there.

"We don't really need the water bottle," Corbin said, not wanting to go back over there.

I would have just said to forget it, but this water bottle was Cody's water bottle that he had while on the football team in high school. It says "Roye #32" on the side of it. I've had it for 10 years, and I wanted to keep it. O Brother.

So we got back in the car and headed across the street to find the boss of the outdoor theater. We waited outside for a few minutes because we sure weren't going back in there without permission. He finally came out.

"Sir, We left our water bottle in there. Could we go back inside and get it?"

"You left your water bottle?" He said.

"Y-Y-Y-Yes Sir. Could we please go get it?"

"Sure, you can." He said as he cracked a big smile.

"Whew! Thank you!"

And one of the twins (don't know which one, I still can't tell them apart) ran inside and got it.

We finally did find a trail to hike, so we did that and then went to the gift shop and looked around for a while.

It was a fun day.

We took this picture as we were leaving the park.








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Today was a busy day, but a very nice one. Friday is my day off, but there were a couple of things that really needed to be done, so I went to work for a couple of hours after going for a nice early morning walk. At noon, I left work and went to have lunch with Cody Lynn and Corbin at Chili's, and of course I loved that. After lunch, Corbin, Lam, Quan & I went swimming. I actually got in the water and swam. It was so hot just sitting on the side in the sun, and it was really fun.













After swimming, I met my friend at an Al-Anon meeting, which I enjoy attending, and it was a good meeting. I saw an old friend and his wife there, and they told me that her son had died just two weeks ago of a drug overdose, so she wasn't doing very well. Oh my, so sad. After the meeting, Rhonda & I went to eat Mexican Food and had a nice visit.

I got home and Haley, Mason's new friend is over visiting. Here's a picture I took of them.













It was a great day off!

I Love The Gospel

We have been visiting a ‘Calvinistic’ church the last few weeks, the only Calvinistic church I know of in our area. It’s the same church I wrote about a few months ago here. We decided then that we would not attend because of what we perceive as ‘works’ preaching.

I believe in gospel preaching. Preaching Christ and him crucified, and there is some of that going on at this church.

I decided to try the church again mainly because I wanted Mason to be around other young people, young people that have morals and values. And Mason likes the young people he has met there. I do too. In fact, Mason met a young girl there that he really likes. Her name is Haley and he has been hanging out with her quite a bit. A very sweet young girl. All the people at the church have been so nice and friendly. I genuinely like them. I went to a ladies gathering with them last Wednesday night, and talked at length with several of the ladies. Such nice people.

I’ve had a nagging feeling though about going to the church because of the ’works’ preaching and teaching. I’ve been praying that the Lord would show me if I should be attending or not. When I talk about my concerns with people, I am told, you will never find a perfect church. ----OK. I’ll keep going, I think, knowing all along in my heart that I am not looking for the perfect church. I know what dreadful sinners all people are, me included, and of course there is no perfect church. I can live with an unperfect church.

But, I just think there are some core things that I must have in a church that I am going to attend. One of those things is no works preaching. I believe the bible emphasizes repeatedly how it is all of grace and none of works. And not just in salvation. Look at Galatians 3.

1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if [it be] yet in vain. 5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, [doeth he it] by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

I don’t want someone telling me what I need to DO for Christ. I want to hear Christ preached. I want to hear about what Christ has DONE, not I what I should DO.

When I hear about Christ and him crucified, it wells up within me such love for him. That makes me want to do the right things. (Not that I always do, in fact I fail miserably).

This morning in Sunday School, the lesson was on evangelizing. Teaching us a method to use to talk to people about Christ, about how even though we don’t want to talk to others about Christ and it sure is hard to do, we are commanded to, so we must work hard on doing this.

And yes, we ARE commanded to go out into all the world and preach the gospel. I know this. But give me a lesson on what Christ has done for me and I WANT to go evangelize. Give me a lesson about how I NEED to evangelize and I feel guilty because I don’t evangelize enough, or I feel pumped up to get busy and go evangelize to make some points with God. ---And what good is that?

There is lots of talk at this church about repentance and sanctification. Do I believe in repentance and sanctification? You bet I do. But probably not in the same way it’s being teached there. I believe repentance means a change of mind, a change in our thinking, and of course, as that happens, there will be a change in the way we do things, but the main focus is on the change in our minds in the way we see the gospel. The main point being that Christ does it ALL. We no longer work to gain acceptance with God. We rest in Christ alone.

And I believe sanctification means: being set apart and holy, which we are if Christ died for us. We are set apart and holy, as holy as we will ever be. We do not become more and more holy as we go along. When we are in Christ, we are as holy as we can get. God sees us as completely holy and perfect because that’s what Christ is. We don’t work to become more holy. Although we do grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord as believers.

There are so many pictures or allegories in the bible about works vs. grace. I know it must be so important to God. He will have us relying only on Christ. Christ gets all the glory. We get none. I believe that’s what it’s all about. Resting in Christ alone. And that takes all the pressure off of me. I don’t have to do a thing. What a wonderful gospel. I love that gospel and that’s what I love to hear preached.

What am I going to do about attending the church? I don’t know for sure, but I’m leaning towards not going there, and that makes me somewhat sad because I sure like the people there. I’m still praying about it, but I feel in a way that my prayer has been answered already.

Mason & I left after Sunday School and listened to a sermon when we got home on the computer. It was called “Christ, our Hope,” and it sure was good.

I love to tell the story,
'twill be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story
of Jesus and his love.

Pride is concerned with WHO is right. Humility is concerned with WHAT is right.

I found this quote today and I like it. Not sure about who said it, (I didn't), but it's a good one, I think.

A Good Sermon

Today we listened to THIS sermon and I thought it was so good. If you've got 45 minutes to spare and would like to, take a listen.

A Wonderful Summer Day

Two Different Jesus’s

It seems that in religion today, as long as you believe in Jesus, well everything is just fine and we can all get along and worship together, no problem. I just have one question about that. Which Jesus?

There’s the Jesus who loves everybody & died for everybody (even though not everybody will be saved). The one who desperately hopes all will accept him and be saved. The one who failed to accomplish what he really wanted to accomplish.

Then there’s the Lord Jesus who loves his people and died to save them (and everyone of them WILL be saved). His death was completely effectual. In fact, his death is the only reason they will be saved. He is the victorious king!

These really are two different Jesus’s, I believe. In the first one, what makes the difference in a person’s salvation is the person themselves, their decision to accept him, their work. In the second, what makes the difference is the Lord Jesus alone.

I do not believe God will accept a salvation in which a person makes the difference. Just as he would not accept Cain's sacrifice because it involved a work of his own. --But God most definitely WILL accept a salvation in which Christ makes the difference. Just as he accepted Abel's sacrifice because it was a blood sacrifice and picture of Christ. Christ will always get all the glory in the salvation of his people. Always.

Which Jesus do you believe in?

My Friday

It has been so windy here lately, but this morning for a few hours it was pretty calm. Yea! So I got out my bicycle and went for a ride. I only went five miles though. For some reason lately, I just don't feel like riding my bicycle. I get on it and go a few blocks and am ready to come back home. I don't want to get too far from home because I'm afraid I will get tired and then I can't stop until I get all the way back, so if I stay close, I can quit just about any time I want. --And it seems I WANT very shortly after starting. I don't know what's up with that.

Anyway, Corbin & his cousin, Max came over for a few hours this morning after my short ride.

They played outside with Lilly and took turns on the swing.









Mason worked from 6:30 until 1:30, then went and got a haircut, and has been on the computer all afternoon.

Doesn't his haircut look nice?? I think so.





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How Very Strange

Something very odd (to me) happened last week. My mother died. You might say, “Odd, how? People die all the time.” And yes, I know they do, but I’ve never had my mother die before. I stood by her bed with my siblings and watched her take her last breath. It felt so odd to be doing such. It happened exactly as the nurses said it would, those last couple of hours. Her breath got shallower and shallower until it finally just stopped. Several times she would stop breathing completely for a few seconds, then start again. Each time I would think, “….this is it. She is gone.” But then, she would start up again. A couple of times she made a loud gasping noise. But her breaths just got shorter and shorter and shorter. When they couldn’t get any shorter, they stopped. The nurse listened to her heart and said, “Her heart has stopped now. She is gone.” How very strange it all felt.

I kept talking to her as she was dying because people say the hearing is the last thing to go, and that she could hear me. I really don’t know if I believe that. In fact, I think I lean towards not believing it, or that if she could hear me, she probably couldn't make sense of what I are saying. My mother was on lots of pain medication and was talking out of her head some before she went unconscious, for one thing, and I guess I think that with all that was going on in her body, she probably couldn’t process very clear thoughts at that time anyway. But, I don’t know. I could be wrong. She may have known exactly what was going on around her. I just don’t think so, ....but that’s just my opinion.

I dreamed the other night that my mother was alive again, and was in the same miserable state she was in before she died. “Oh no,” I thought, “I don’t want this. I would rather her be gone and out of her misery." --I’m glad she is pain free now.

But I will miss her. Heck, I've only known her for 52 years! And she was a lovely, sweet lady. She loved me very much, I know she did. And I loved her too.

When I was in Tyler last week, Dorothy my stepmom gave me some bulbs to plant. They were Daffodils, Red Oxblood Lillies, & Red Spider Lillies. Today I got out and planted them in the back yard out my bedroom window. You can't see them all because some are just bulbs. ---Hopefully they will all come up.

Thanks Dorothy!


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Working Hard

Here's what I've got Bo out doing today:












And here's a front yard shot where he's finished already. Remember the trees we bought not too long ago. They're putting on leaves and doing good!











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Move On Down

I need to do a blog post to get that annoying picture to move on down, but I don't have much to blog about really. My forehead IS healing nicely and my black eyes are about gone, thank goodness.

Here's a funny picture of Lilly taking a nap out in the sun in the backyard.










And here's a cute one of Corbin & his friends. We took them to Palo Duro Canyon again for hike a couple of weeks ago.











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