A Merry New Year's to All, and to All a Good Weekend

I'm going to be incommunicado for the next few days 'cause we're leaving after work today for the Youth New Year's Retreat! I'm excited! Can't wait to see what God is going to do while we're there... Let's all submit to Him and let Him do what He wills, shall we?

Love to all, will catch up when we get back... in 2006!

P.S. Please, to everyone, no alcohol, please!

A New Year is coming...

I'll post long and hard about my Christmas later. Right now, I'm working on bookmarks for the New Years Retreat. I'm printing them with a poem I wrote.

I'm sure my rhyme scheme is off somewhere, but it's from my heart and I hope it pleases the Lord.

My Heart is in His Hands
(Proverbs 3:5,6)

I held my heart so close to me
Bidding no one interfere
With the plans I laid so carefully
And the dreams I held so near

But my fragile fingers couldn’t hold
The things so dear to me
They slipped right through
Before I knew
The pieces were at my feet

Through my tears I heard a Voice
So gentle and so sweet
He did not scold, He simply said,
“Give the pieces to me.”

I gave to Him my shattered heart
He took it, and with a smile
Fashioned the pieces into something
A little more worthwhile

All the dreams I once had loved
Seemed small compared to this.
My plans were all so commonplace
When compared to His

Now I‘m resting peacefully
Now I understand
I know my life is in His control
And my heart is in His hands

I'll be Home for Christmas...

YAY!!!!!!!

We're renting a car from Enterprise for the Christmas trip home!!

I'm so happy. And it was only like $130. Way cheap. I'm so happy. And I'm tired and when I'm tired and happy I start talking all Valley Girl. Pay no attention to the girl behind the curtain.

I've been wrapping presents. Presents rock the total planet!

Christmas time with Family

I finally have some kind of Christmasy stuff on my blog!
I'm so happy. :-)

I really should be asleep right now but I can't. It feels like the night before Christmas! I've been wrapping presents, and it just feels like any minute now, kids are going to come busting through the door asking if it's time yet.

I think that Christmas is more fun as an adult than as a child, now that I am one (at least, headed more in that direction). I really do enjoy giving gifts so much! I could shop for people all day. Oh, to have a bottomless bank account...

I really really hope that I get to go home for Christmas. Joshua says there's a 99.9% chance that he could be in Iraq within the next six months. So this could be my last Christmas with him... at least for awhile.

Why do I worry so much about Josh being in Iraq when anything could happen to him even on the way to Wal-Mart? I know that God is everywhere, and nothing is going to happen that God didn't let happen, and He is perfectly capable of protecting Josh where ever he is. I KNOW these things, but it's still so hard.

I wish we were closer. We used to be such good friends... until I got wrapped up in my own little world. Then we just... lost touch. It was so nice being there for his basic training graduation. I miss him so much.

So this is why it's so important to me to get home for Christmas. I'd miss being with my family anyway, but this year is different.

Who knows what's gonna happen next year?

Welcome my Hubby to the Blog World!!

My husband finally got his own blog! I'm so happy. Everyone go see how wonderfully he writes.



Brad's Blog: Becoming Clear



I have a ton of stuff to do in preparation for Christmas, and it's already getting late. I have to finish my Christmas cards! I'll have to blog a long post later.

'Tis the Season of Giving

I did some more Christmas shopping last night. I found something totally awesome for Brad! He's gonna love it!



It's so much fun to give people presents. I really could never get another present as long as I live and just spend all year giving stuff away!



I wrote our FIRST EVER Christmas newsletter last night, to be sent with our Christmas cards. Yes, I'm still working on sending out Christmas cards. We're such procrastinators. But I'm kind of nervous because this will be going out to Brad's family, and his Grandpa was an English teacher! He's as sweet as can be, but his English is very proper. Not in a stuck up way, but he sounds very sophisticated. I just don't want to look like Brad's country bumpkin wife! I guess I am to a certain extent... Although I'm more of a country hick since I moved to Tennessee than when I was in Arkansas for the first 20 years of my life!! See what y'all have done to me???



I WILL fix this silly blog eventually. There's just so much other stuff to do right now!



Have a wonderful day everyone!

If tomorrow never comes

If I died tonight, would you do things differently?



Would your words be the same?



You never know when the last time you will ever see someone will be. You never know when the words you're speaking are the last you will ever say to someone.



To everyone, please know that I love you. I'm not everything I should be yet, but I'm trying.

Christmas WILL prevail!!

It's a polar bear in a snowstorm, OKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

You're weird... and you should really stop that mumbling. I can't understand a word you're saying.

Ok, so please be patient while we are under construction. I'm trying to figure out how to Christmas-ize my blog!



I know. It looks weird right now.

I can't breathe!

I just checked my e-mail...

I can't believe what I found.

It's a good thing I'm typing because I'm speechless.

I won two tickets to the Jim Brickman & Friends Christmas concert in Knoxville on the 21st!!!!

Brad is totally gonna freak! He has never seen Jim in concert, except for that free mini-concert at Opry Mills. I saw his Christmas concert December of.... 2001, I think? With the Plumlee girls. Absolutely warm and cozy, romantic and fuzzy kind of wonderful! Definitely the kind of thing that will be much better as a couple.

Now the question is.... do I tell Brad, or do I kidnap him that day without telling him where we're going? He doesn't read my blog much... No, I can't keep a secret. Not from him, anyway.

Wow. What a wonderful thing to do right before Christmas!

I feel like putting on a little holiday music. Jim Brickman and hot chocolate, anyone?

I'm so happy! :-)

Ahhh.... a morning without rush.

It's Saturday!!!



I'm so glad. It's so nice to not have to be anywhere this morning. I do have stuff to do today, but at least there's nothing this morning. I like being able to sleep in and not rush in the morning time.



I think I'm going to start e-mailing my husband. I know, it sounds crazy. But we used to write to each other all the time. Now that we're married, and we see each other all the time, you kinda tend to just talk about everyday stuff. Now don't get me wrong, we do talk and we're best friends, but sometimes we just don't get deep into what the other person's heart is like we used to. I think e-mailing again might do it. Plus, you should see how Brad can write. He goes all C.S. Lewis on me, and I totally love it. He's so sweet and I love the way his mind works and how he expresses himself. I really am blessed.



Help me pray that I can make it home for Christmas! It's a very important year to be home, with Josh back and all. It just wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't home. We've got to get all this car stuff straightened out. Our present car just won't make it there. Plus it doesn't have any heat! Yeah, that would not be fun. "I'm here, but you'll have to put me in the oven with the turkey for awhile!"



Well, I just heard Brad waking up. I've got to go to the store and get ready for the band service tonight. Brad will need the computer to finish up his devotion for tonight too.



Later Y'all

Soldier Brother coming home!!!

Pray for my brother Joshua please. He's getting out of his Army training and finally gets to come home!!!!! But they are all under winter weather advisory... He was supposed to fly through Dallas and that was cancelled because of ice there... (Good grief, whoever heard of ice in Texas!!) I'm so excited that it's over with, I know he was miserable. I just wish that I was in Arkansas to welcome him.

I miss Josh.

No more wishing wells... Jesus and I are about to make our dreams come true...

Sunday morning, Bro. Campbell preached a message about soul winning. About how if it's in our hearts, we'll be active in His service, and when we do that, the Lord will be in control and things will happen the way He wants them to.



And then I bought this Sara Groves cd and the first song fit what I was feeling perfectly!



Past the Wishing





I'm standing at the foot of this mountain

Wishing so bad that I could touch that sky

But in the time it takes to make my wish

I never take a step and I never try



I wish that I were closer to Jesus

But not enough to get me out of bed

For an early morning prayer before the

Rushes of my life take me instead



I'm past the wishing

Past the wishing

Past the wishing



I'm gazing in these deep well waters

Where the pennies of my life have all been cast

I'’ve decided I am going to save my money

To do something that lasts



You've shown me my man of Macedonia

You're calling me further on

And I'm tired of saying it's a nice idea

I wish it could be done



I don't wish that I could go I am going

I don't wish that I could be I am being

I don't wish that I could do it I am doing

By the grace of God I am doing





I WILL go and be and do. I have such lofty ideas and for all of my ideas and plans nothing happens. I'm past the wishing..... God has given me all I will ever need.



"The road of good intentions doesn't lead to anywhere.... Love isn't love 'til you give it away...."



Here's me.... offering up my mustard seed of faith. It's so small. But in His big hands.... there is possibility.

Reinventing the Wheel- NOT!

Some things just shouldn't be reinvented, right?

There is this totally awesome website I've found! Okay, I used to go to this totally awesome Youth Conference put on by Joshua Harris of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" fame. Well, things happened and the yearly conference was no more. Well, now it's being brought back by one of Josh's friends.

The theme of the conference this time is Truth. You just can't reinvent the Truth. You can't improve upon it, you can't change it, it's just the truth.

These guys have come up with some hilarious stuff to prove their point. You've got to check out the "Your Flicks" videos at this website:
Save the Wheel

Here's where to read all about the conference in Louisville, KY:
New Attitude

Wow do I have a history with that conference. If it wasn't for New Attitude, I probably wouldn't be ther person I am today. Any one who's been around me for a while knows that. God has been so good to me.

Morning Rambling

Good morning y'all. I just woke up and I can't believe I'm not still sleeping!

We got home a bit after midnight last night after working from 8 am until 11:45 pm. It was the last day of quarter end and these people try to get as much product out of the warehouse and to the customers as possible so they will have made as much $$$ during the quarter as possible. So that makes for one sleepy me. And most of y'all know how I get when I am tired and sleepy and yet I'm hopped up on sugar! Needless to say it was an interesting night!

And what happens when I get home? I'm too wired to sleep! I couldn't get to sleep until 2 am!

And now it's 9:45 and I'm awake! What on earth is up with that?!?! Oh well. Maybe I'll sleep again later.

The really bad part about yesterday was that it was my sister Rebekah's 12th birthday and I didn't even get to talk to her on her birthday because I left the cell phone at home. :-( I love you Bekah, Happy Late Birthday! I know, it's the birthday season! When Brad & I want to keep celebrating something (or we want to see how many more presents we can milk out of each other) we just call it a "season". The Valentine's day season, the Groundhog Day season, etc. So it's the Bekah's Birthday Season!! Love you! :-)

I really wanted to go to Sis. Ondra's shower this morning, but there was no way after yesterday. Oh well. Hope everyone else is having fun.

My husband has informed me that I have the blogging terminology all wrong. This is not a "blog", this is a post within my blog, and other people aren't "blogging" on my blog, they are commenting. Ok, so I'm new to this alright! Cut me some slack!

Question: Why do some people scoff at other people singing to recorded trax at church, calling it "canned music," but when you give them a birthday card, they don't say, "Good grief, this is canned sentiment!" Just thought I'd share that weird thought with the world. Why I don't know.

I gotta finish shopping for my Christmas basket today. Think I'll go take a nap because NOW I'm sleepy again.

Thanks for hanging in there y'all. Oh, and hi Erica and Grace! Good grief y'all Church of God people get around, don'tcha?

Maybe for my next post (see, I said it right! I think) I'll be more alert and therefore it will make more sense than this one.

A few thoughts about PDA...

After Kasey's comment on my last post, I began to ponder ( I do a lot of that)...

There is nothing wrong with PDA! To a certain extent. Brad and I try to be considerate of the single people around and not do things that will make them REALLY uncomfortable, but otherwise, why not let them see what a loving Godly marriage looks like in public? i.e., holding hands, little kisses, etc. Just being loving towards one another. Now, if I was to totally make out with him or something like that, that would be cause for concern.

But come on, as long as we're acting like mature adults and not causing a distraction, ESPECIALLY during church services, PDA rocks!!

I don't really do anything during church because I'm trying to pay attention and I don't want to be a distraction to him. Thought I'd say that to all of you people who will be watching us during church now!

Thanks for posting, Wendy! (And totally thanks for the fudge last night! I totally needed that, you have like no idea!)

Later Y'all