Our Story

It's been several weeks since I've added a chapter to Our Story. If you'd like to read past posts of our story, click on the Our Story link under the Labels button on the left side of my blog!! :o)

His memories are so sporadic. It's one of the things that saddens him. She can recall so many things..he..only a few.

The one thing that makes him smile though, is the fact that he can recall many things since meeting her. His prayer...that God will bless him that he will always be able to do so.

One childhood memory he remembers well though........

It had been snowing for days. No school, couldn't go outside and play because the snow had gotten so deep..he was bored. It was so hard being couped up inside when you're 9 years old and there were so many adventures just waiting outside....

Mark lived next door. He was his best friend and they did everything together. Including getting in deep trouble.

And this time....deep was literal.

After several days of snowing you couldn't even see out of the window in the basement. It was just white. Snow was everywhere. The drifts were taller than his dad and people had given up shoveling more than a tiny path out their front door.

Bummed. He was just plain bummed.

Tired of TV and books, he was wandering around the house when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Philip! Mark. Whatcha doin'?"

"Nuthin'. I'm bored. Wish you could come over."

"Me too. I can't get out of the house though. Mom's watchin' me like crazy!"

"Yeah. Mine too."

"Hey, Philip...I got an idea."

"What?"

"When I open my basement door, there's a whole wall of snow starin' back at me. How 'bout you?"

"Haven't tried. Why?"

"Well, we could dig tunnels and try to meet in the middle, between each other's houses. Then we could hang out in the tunnels and play!! Wouldn't that be cool?!"

"Sure! But do you really think our folks will let us do that?"

"Well..........they don't have to know do they"?

Wow! He liked this idea.

"Okay. Let's get started. See ya later!"

Hanging up, he yelled and told his mom he was going to hang out in the basement and play for a while. Glad to have him busy, Mom gave him the okay.

Downstairs he opened the basement door and just like Mark, he, too, was looking at a wall of snow.

Looking around he found a shovel and began to dig.

Man this snow was packed!! What to do with the snow in the shovel???
Got it!! Put it in the bathroom sink.

Shovelful after shovelful he slowly began to see a dent in the snow. By evening he was exhausted, but he had a tunnel dug that was several feet deep. He wondered how far Mark had gotten.

Days later while inside the tunnel, he finally heard Mark yell his name!! He couldn't believe it!! All of this work had finally paid off. A little while later they finally connected their tunnels. The fact that this snow could collapse on them never entered the 9 year old minds..they had built a tunnel and to these young little minds if you could build one tunnel, you could build several.

And they did.

By the time they were able to go back to school they had quite the little underground mine going on...and it was awesome!!!!

Soon the temperatures warmed and the tunnel was but a fun memory.

The story of the snow tunnels would be shared with friends and family for years to come--always with a warning to his own children that crawling around in those snow tunnels was probably one of the most stupid things he'd ever done....but to this man who has few precious memories of his childhood---he was glad he'd taken the chance.....

Sharin' a Smile

Just wanted to share a smile with you today......

What's the difference between bird flu and swine flu??









For bird flu you need tweetment and for swine flu you need oinkment.


Have a happy day!!!

"We were filled with laughter...." Psalm 126:2a, NLT

Jesus, Bring the Rain!!!!

This past Saturday afternoon found me busy washing and hanging out laundry. I truly love to hang out my laundry. It's a peaceful time for me and I usually use that time to just listen to God and all of the sounds He's put around me.

During this time, the phone rang and it was my friend R wanting to know if me and DH would like to go out to dinner with her and her hubby. Sure! Sounds like fun!

I took in a few more loads of laundry and decided that even though it was close to dark, I would hang out another couple of loads. They would dry Sunday afternoon and I could take in that laundry before evening service. It was all good.

Fast forward...

We had a great Sunday morning service, went to get a bite to eat, off to buy some (more) pool chemicals..yes, we are still battling our pool water issues..aarrgghh!!!.....and home.

I saw the laundry on the line as we pulled into the driveway, but for whatever reason, it didn't register in my mind, "Hey! The laundry's dry Deb. You need to get it off the line."

I came in the house, got in some comfy clothes and read the Sunday paper.

Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for evening service and head back to church.

Getting back in the car, I looked at the laundry still hanging on the line and said, "Oh man!! I forgot to get the laundry in."

DH: "Want me to grab it for you?"...he is soooo awesome!!!

Me: "Nah, I'll get it as soon as we get home from church."

Holy Spirit: "Deb, you're not going to be late, just grab the laundry....it's going to rain before you get home."

Me: "Nah. It won't rain..hasn't rained in over a week, I'll get it when I get home."

Holy Spirit: "Okay........."

"Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest." Proverbs 20: 4, NLT

Or in this situation, Deb, being too lazy to take her laundry in will have wet laundry when she returns home.

And she did.

About halfway through service, I hear a noise. "Hmmmm..what's that I hear...no!!...it couldn't be....oh no!!!! It is!!! It's raining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Holy Spirit: "You know, Deb, I did tell you that you needed to get your laundry in."

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Big rounds of thunder...oh, how I wanted to jump up and yell, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ahh...but it was too late. I had ignored DH, I had ignored the Holy Spirit and now I was going to have to redo all that laundry.

In my procrastination..my laziness...I didn't save any money because that laundry is going to have to be put back in the washer to be wrung out and then dried in the dryer. All because I was lazy and deaf to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." Proverbs 21: 5, NLT

Or in my case, wasting my time, our money and adding a lot more work to my day.

I went to bed, wet laundry on the line. Why didn't I go ahead and bring the laundry in you ask?? Well, my thinking was, "Hey! It will be sunny tomorrow and even though it may take all day, it will still dry."

About 1 a.m and again about 3:30 a.m, I was woken up by my perfect Savior to the sound of more thunder crashing and rain falling.

Did I get upset or angry?? No...I just smiled and went back to sleep.

Why did I smile you ask?

Because I serve an awesome God. One Who doesn't give up on trying to teach me a lesson. One Who loves me enough to drive home the fact that He doesn't want me to ignore Him when He tells me something.

He reminded me that if I ignore Him in small stuff...that I'll probably ignore Him in the big stuff and that's not acceptable.

"Listen to My instruction and be wise. Don't ignore it." Proverbs 8:33, NLT

So...if this is what it takes to get my attention.....Jesus bring the rain!!!

Please Check Out DD's Latest Post!!

As most of you know, I don't usually do posts on the weekend. For me, this is time to spend with my family and catching up on those projects that DH and I enjoy doing together.

However......

Those of you that have been with me for any length of time, know that our children have both went through very tough battles in the wilderness in the last year. There were times when I truly did not recognize these kids.

But, as in everything, God is faithful. Through our prayers and the prayers of many friends, family and my bloggy buddies...through fasting and praying Scripture over them, they came through the wilderness victorious for Christ!!!!

So, with that being said, I would love for each of you to head over to DD's blog and read her most recent post. Added to her wilderness wanderings, bear in mind that the young man that had planned on marrying her in the fall, decided about a month ago to call everything off, break up with her and begin dating a girl 4 years younger than he.....in other words, someone barely 16...

Anyway.............

Please, for me, go over to DD's site and celebrate with us what God has done in the life of our daughter!!!

Thank you my friends!!!

Yet, Another Question....

Got a question.....yes, again....

I've been on several blogs and have noticed that several of you have the buttons of other blogs on this little rotating, live action thingy...yes, my Blogger/computer lingo is astounding.....

Anyway, I'd love to show more buttons of the blogs I love to read, but those columns can get mighty long. How do I get the buttons to be live (?) and rotate??

I would love any help on that! :o)

Thankful Thursday

It's that time again! Time to join Sonya over at Truth 4 the Journey for Thankful Thursday. I've said many times before and I'll say it again, I look forward to doing Thankful Thursday because it causes me to pause and look at how blessed I have been this week.

So...here we go!!

1) I am thankful that a good friend of mine went back for a cancer scan and she is still cancer free!!!! It's has been a tough ride for her at times, but God is faithful and we are all blessed!!!

2) I am thankful for humming birds!! Yes, I know, just call me the bird lady...but I really do think these are my favorite birds. I have a feeder in front of my kitchen window and one on my front porch and I just love to watch these tiny creatures. They constantly remind me how awesome God is and how He is so perfect down to the tiniest detail.

3) I am thankful for the peace that comes when we are obedient to God..even when we don't understand the why behind what He's asking us to do.

4) I am thankful for the beautiful fireworks show that we enjoyed as a family with friends this past Saturday night. We got there early and played some frisbee and threw the football around. It was great fun!!!! and with that.........

5) I am thankful for the men and women who have fought to give us the freedom that we have in this country. I have family and friends who were in the military during both war and peace times and it's because of them that we can--most importantly--proclaim the Word of God without fear.

Click here for more Thankful Thursday.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!!
His faithful love endures forever."
Psalm 136:1, NLT