He laid one on me...

Well, here we are ten years later. Today marks the spot in the road when Kent & I had our first blind double date. It was a Thursday and a very cold Halloween, I might add, when we went on our first date to a Junior High football game in Archer City. If we had not been fond of one another it would have been a miserable experience.

Later in the evening, we warmed our toes at Bennigan's in Wichita Falls (the receipt is still in my billfold, and no I didn't pay). Two things stick out in my memory. First, I ordered a hot chocolate and they brought me a cup of hot water and a package of mix. After seeing the disappointment on my face, Kent sent it back to be fixed just the way I wanted it...whip cream and all. Lastly, Kent prayed before the meal in the midst of an atmosphere of the holiday haunts and howling. I was impressed!

The date ended with the two of us all alone in his pickup truck. He turned, for what I thought was gonna be a big sloppy one, and asked if we could pray for God's will in this friendship. Did he kiss me? I'll never tell!

Somewhere Called Nowhere!

We saw the movie that was filmed in Guthrie @ the 6666 Ranch. We provided ice for the caterers that fed the cowboys and film crew. It was neat. And lo and behold, we caught our name, Trainham Ice, in the credits. Thanking us for what I'm not quite sure, but maybe they were a little shocked that anyone would deliver ice out in the middle of nowhere. It's no biggee when you already live in the middle of nowhere.

Kittysitter!

Well, on October 7th we had a wedding shower in our home. Needless to say the kitties couldn't keep from peering into gifts and exploring the serving table, so they spent the night at the Holiday Outside Inn. The shower was blessed by the hand of God. The geraniums came out of their month long slumber and once again decided to bloom. The mums peeked out, as well, making an early debu. The breeze was cool and gently rushing through old-fashioned freshly painted screen doors. The a/c was set on seventy degrees and didn't kick on till the last few minutes of the shower. Our hometown couple was blessed with gifts that covered every crick and cranny of my home.

Last weekend we went for a trip to Lubbock. My friend offered to kittysit. This was a huge first for us--a kittysitter, who has a kittysitter? After the shower antics, my hubby thought these kittens can stay outside for three days. I, of course, thought three days in the Holiday Outside Inn was unthinkable. We compromised with a kittysitter.

After an all-over-my-toes sermon on Sunday, I was feeling the need to have a nose-in-the-carpet of the alter moment. But, not wanting to embarrass our hostess with the mostest, I went to my knees on the inside of my heart. Later, hubby made mention that it would have been better for me to offend our hostess than the Holy Spirit. Now you see my point, I am the one that needs a 'sitter'. I'm as finicky as my kittens. And thank you God for the 'sitters' assigned to me. Daily, hourly, minute-by-minute they have the large and in-charge task of taking care of me. I'm sorry for times when my claws come out!

Psalm 91:10-12
Evil can't get close to you,
harm can't get through the door.
He ordered his angels
to guard you wherever you go.
If you stumble, they'll catch you;
their job is to keep you from falling.

Saved From Armageddon?!

Wow, we (Amber, Nina, Michelle and I) watched this movie last night and it was awesome! We were suppose to be having Sunday School, but Amber talked us into a movie. It had a bible-sounding-enough title. The definition for Armageddon: 1a...the site or time of a final and conclusive battle between the forces of good and evil. In the end, the movie proved to be a cool teaching tool.

First of all, the reminder that someday the world really is coming to an end, the real armageddon, and second of all, the hero has already saved us. Like Bruce Willis, sacrificed his life to save mankind from utter destruction (6-mile meteor), Jesus Christ has sacrificed His life so that we won't have to experience total destruction that is to come. This movie moved me emotionally and spiritually!

Trivia: Bruce Willis had a picture of his daughters in front of him to help him cry during his goodbye to Grace.

Did your ice bin break down?

As I was sharing the details of a rough day in children's ministry, my hubby hit the nail on the head. You see, this summer was monumental for equipment and vehicle breakdowns in his ice business. I shared that my right hand woman was sick, my craft-deva resigned, some volunteers no-showed and a child cried for an hour. My hubby replied, "Sounds like your ice machine broke down, the transfer bin refused to push ice, some of your employees didn't come to work and a customer called crying with a complaint." Who says that my man doesn't understand what I've been through?!? And more importantly than that, my Father understands and is in total control. He's blessed us with sixty five 3 year old through 3rd graders and He knows we can handle it. We've obviously been faithful with a little and He's given us more. And He promises not to put more on us than we can handle. YeeHaw! Bring it on!

If I Only Had A Brain, Part 3

Okay, the big busy day came and went. And I need to make a note to self... "Self, you need to check with the school and see if the dismissal time is the same as last year." Can we say, forty some-odd children waiting for Miss Tammie and the church vans? Oh, one more reason to keep my "If I Only Had A Brain" coffee mug.

If I Only Had A Brain, Part 2

Well, I knew I was going to have a great big day and the tea picture was empty. Sooo, while having coffee and quiet time I put some tea to boil. This morning was prayer group so when my ride arrived I jaunted on out the door. I arrived back home an hour or so later to a reeking smell of something burning. YES, toasty tea! My hubby had already put out the fire, but the smell still lingered in the air. One more reason to keep my "If I Only Had A Brain" coffee mug.

The Storage Room

What did I learn from my storage room? Deal with the past! Throw away what hinders! Hold on to what helps!

There is a mud nest on my front porch. Coach Murry said, "Keep those kind of birds around because they eat mosquitoes". Ya know, they will use just about anything mixed with that mud to hold a nest together. This is the second set of babies these parents have raised. A few years ago, I watched the first set of babies hatch and grow. Though, one of them never left the nest. Ya see, he was caught by a string and chained to his nest. I tried to rescue the little thing. I thought if I could wet the mud then maybe the string would loosen its grip on the bird's ankle. Nope! I just destroyed the nest and killed the baby bird. Bummer...

Well, another generation is here. And you are not gonna believe it, but a teenager bird is chained to that same nest. I've known about the captivity for about a week now. Do you think I'm gonna kill another bird and destroy another nest. No Way! After awhile, I couldn't stand it any longer. If I could possibly help this little guy then I had to take the risk. I took a rag in one hand and scissors in the other. After covering the bird, I carefully snipped the string. My kitty's were peering up at me, "Lunch!". I put him in the nest and he fell back out with another string restraining him. I repeated the process and he's free, but can he fly? I walked to the end of the sidewalk treasuring my little raggedy package. At the right time, I held open my hand and thrust it into the air. And away he went, wobbly, but he went...up, up, and away.

Lord, all I have is a faulty nest and filthy rags to offer You. The storage room? Yeah, well, I guess I do feel a little less captivated by the past. I'm free? Yeah, I'm free!

Down & Dirty

I had been dreading this project for over nine years. I knew it was there, but if I kept the door closed on it maybe it would go away. My storage room contained a lifetime of my memorabilia. If I wanted my house to be sanctified then this was the place to start. And start I did, on July 28th 2006. For an hour and a half in the cool of the morning, I trudged through memories, good and bad.

I found trinkets, letters, and clippings. You name it and I found it, stuff spanning over my lifetime. (Childhood, teen, college, single adult and married) Ugly stuff, pretty stuff, weird stuff, useful stuff, useless stuff, stuff I just wanted to forget and stuff I don't ever want to forget. What do you do with such stuff? I chunked most of it, charred a lot of it and cherished much of it. You mean a cozy chiminea fire in July? Yes!

There are videos and tapes that I wanted to stop playing in my mind. It could only help matters if I destroyed certain triggers that keep hitting the play buttons. And for that matter, I wanted to destroy evidence! I want the evidence of Christ to far outweigh the evidence of evil. I'm not who I used to be, thank God, I'm a new and clean creature in Christ. And by the way, so is my storage room after a month!

Corn Splat!!!

My house is soooo sanctified! NOT!!!

I wish that it were clean. One night I dropped a cob of corn on the floor. "Oh, I'm tired", I sweared, "I'll clean it up tomorrow." The morning came and I was still muttering, "I'm still tired, even more so than when I went to bed, if that could be possible." Yuck! Look at that caked spagetti on the stove top. Scrub a little harder...yawn...almost done...there. What did I just step in? What in the world is that? Crusty, yellow goop! I bend down to take a closer look, rag in hand. It will not come up! Euuuwwwwa, it's corn splat! I'll heat up this rag again and get after it...nope...won't budge. There, I'll leave a dripping hot rag sitting on top of it for awhile to soak and soften. Wow...now I wish I had dealt with the mess right when it happened. It's harder to clean up the longer I wait.

This little talk with myself is making a strong case for night-time meditation and prayer. I need to get my life straightened up before bed so that I can awake to a spic-n-span kitchen or I mean heart.

The Flying Pickle Jar

What do you use your empty pickle jars for? We recycle them as drinking glasses. They are my hubby's favorite. On March 2, 2005 an empty pickle jar came flying off of the second shelf of the cabinet as I grabbed a drinking glass, my favorite are the dainty one's from our shower. All I could do was slam the cabinet door to keep the jar from crashing to the floor. I slowly peeked into the cabinet to see the jar tottering happily on the first shelf right side up, safe and sound. I sighed! The thought crossed my mind about when a heated issue reaches up at me and I want to bolt off the shelf, then is when I need to quickly slam the door on it until I gain control and be reasonable. The tall glass of water is good and refreshing, as I take a gulp. And I didn't have to clean up any messes. The cup, my relationship, is 'still' in one piece.

Funny that I should reread this story from my journal on this day. Yesterday in the morning hours such an issue reached up at me... (Pause to answer the phone and another issue just flew into the picture) ...whew! I finally dealt with yesterday's pickle late last night. And now I must ease onto the next shelf for today's pickle. Thank you Lord for the pickles~I Love Pickles, kosher to be exact!

If I Only Had A Brain

Well, well, well...it's Clinique bonus time and one knows that I cannot resist. And instead of the bar of soap they now have this handy dandy squirt out kind. I was so excited! I may mention that a little goes a long way. This fact I did learn the hard way. Last night in the shower I lather, way more than I need, in my hands and squash it all over my face creating a huge bubble over my nose and mouth. Yes, yes I did...I breathed in! With all the coughing, snorting and hacking my husband poked his head in the bathroom and asks, "Do I need to call 9-1-1?" Needless to say, I now have one more good reason to keep my "If I Only Had A Brain" coffee mug.

My Heart Is His House

One Tuesday last year, I had one of the most amazing moments of my life. Some friends and I became aware of a family (mom and 3 kids) that were sleeping in sleeping bags, no furniture. Word spread and, before I knew it, that family had beds, couch, tv, groceries, etc.

The next week I took some items from folks in my church that seemed to 'just' fit with all the rest. At that time, I met the Mom and her Kindergartener. I invited the child to the Tues' TeamKids program at church. On Tuesday, guess who showed up? Him! And here are the words to a song we sang that very day.

"Come and go with me, to my Father's House.
It's a big, big house with lots and lots of rooms.
It has a big big table with lots and lots of food.
It has a big big yard where we can play football.
Come and go with me to my Father's house."

I briefly explained who the Father was (God) and where the house is (heaven) and how we get there (believe in Jesus). You have no idea what it felt like to look into that child's eyes and sing those words.

On Wednesday, I asked this child's big brother, "How did he like TeamKids?" He said, "Oh he had fun and all he talked about was God's big big house." That's it...that's my calling to introduce, reproduce, represent Father God and His Son to kids. I pray that God would bless the total stangers who gave from their excess. And I pray that that little boy will know that Father God gave him those gifts, not us. Finally, I pray that God will no longer be a total stranger to him and his family, but their best friend, Abba.

From muddy to mushy

Muddin'

Mushy'

'Lil Mac sure did clean up! Love, Aunt Mimi

In Memory Of Teddy Ray Lewis

In 1953, my uncle, Teddy Ray Lewis an 8 year old was on his way to the store for a loaf of bread. While riding his bicycle to the store a young man under the influence of alcohol ran over and killed Teddy Ray. The drunk driver was leaving a liquor store. One day while I was talking to my Granny, she pulled out boxes of memories. These boxes were kept in a deep, dark place in her heart and in a deep, dark place in the closet. The box from her heart shared the story of Teddy’s death and the box from her closet contained Teddy’s blood-stained clothes that still held the money for the bread, floral cards from the funeral, and various snapshots and memorabilia.

These thoughts rushed into my head as I considered how nice it would be to buy a loaf of bread at a local convenience store if Goree is voted wet. Then I thought, it's not worth the cost. On November 8th 2005, we as Goree citizens exercised our right to vote. It passed. Even though, I have bought milk and bread at Goree's Lake Creek Beverage Store it wasn't without remembering the uncle I never knew.

The highway where he was ranover.

Bibleman

My husband says one of the main reasons that I do what I do, Children's Ministry, is because I get to act like a kid. He may be right...Fiesta VBS was a hoot. And who else would die for Bibleman's pic and autograph, but me?

We're Off To See The Wizard!

We're off to see the wizard

The wonderful wizard of oz

We hear he is a wiz of a wiz

If ever a wiz there was

If ever oh ever a wiz there was

The wizard of oz is one because

Because because because becaaaause

Because of the wonderful things he does

bum bum bum bum bum bum bum

We're off to see the wizard

The wonderful wizard of oooooz

Yes, I sang it. And it took a lot of rewinding to get that much of it. I'm still working on the skip, though. Well, I love the movie and I had dogs, named Wizard (grey poodle) and Oz (eskimo spitz/chow), to prove it. I lived out the movie, too.

Upon graduating from high school, I thought I would venture, like Dorothy, to a better place, college. Only to find, it's not all it's cracked up to be! Which in turn revealed my intermittent lack of heart, courage, and brains. I don't know what or who I was searching for, but one day I found Him.

On July 4th, 2002, a good witch knocked at my door. No not really, it wasn't even a lady, it was a guy named Rusty. And he wasn't a witch he was a youth minister. He helped me realize that I had the power to go 'home' the entire time I'd been wandering. We prayed and I reacquainted myself with Jesus, the One with all the heart, courage, and brains I had been looking for.