Check my neck... Is it gone yet?

Yup, Kasey beat me to telling about our girls-day-out-turned-redneck-4 wheelin' - weekend. And no Kasey, you got me HUMMING Redneck Woman, not SINGING it. You heathen to get Gretchen Wilson stuck in my head! Blech!

It was so much fun! I don't think I've ever screamed that much in my life, except for maybe when we rode Thunderation 4 times in a row at Silver Dollar City in Branson. I was squealing and screaming up a storm. I'm just glad that Dave is good-natured to listen to me in the back seat all night. He seemed highly amused at me.

Mud is more fun! I wouldn't have liked it had it been wetter and therefore sliding around more, I HATE fishtailing, but turning doughnuts in the mud was THE BEST (and I'm so proud of you Kasey, you've finally learned to proper term!)!!!!

And I need to clarify some of Kasey's comments so as to not frighten anyone. We were back into a dump site, refridgerators and couches everywhere. Well, on one side of it was an old graveyard that apparently they just dug around so as to not tamper with it. But there was a really shiny urn sitting on top of something, and it looked like it was a table. It scared us. It turned out to just be a large headstone, but I was just thanking Jesus that He is on my side and I don't have to be afraid of anything the devil does.

And the pistol... it wasn't a big deal. He's a redneck, remember how everyone has gun racks in Arkansas, Mama? Anyhow, I just don't want anyone to be afraid for me, because I know how someone can IMAGINE something was can be a lot worse than it actually was. Anywho.

While I did enjoy it, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I won't do it again, because I did feel like I was putting my life into someone else's hands. I feel scared when anyone else is in the driver's seat besides me, most of the time. And that's just driving down the street, how much more while driving over trees and spinning in mud?

It will be a once in a lifetime experience that I will always remember. You really should have seen me hopping up on top of the luggage rack of that Jimmy and sliding down the windshield! I've always said I'd like to experience culture... never thought I'd be smack dab in the middle of redneck culture (what an oxymoron! but enough about dumb guys cleaning their face...)!

I was raised in Arkansas, and up until now, I've managed to come away uninfluenced by the rednecks. And after 1 1/2 years in Tennessee, and one night of four-wheelin', all that has been washed away.

Will I ever be the same? Is there any hope for me of becoming a distinguished citizen once again?

Y'all think 'bout that fer a spell... I'm a gonna fry up some chikn' n' biskits....

Clean up with Soaps!

For Wendy (Erika, sorry, you get the next one, this beat Farm Horror)

Soap Song by Carman

Gone are the days of Leave it to Beaver
Matt Dillon and his sidekick, Festus
Now we survive on the immoral lives
Of those on the Young and the Restless

It's not that they're young, they're just, uh... restless
Not living at all like they should
So they go to the General Hospital
But the Doctors can't do 'em no good

So they go on with their Search for Tomorrow
Not doing one thing that's right
And they all end up in Another World
About to fall of The Edge of Night

But that shouldn't matter, cause after all
As the World Turns
We only have but One Life to Live
There remains a blessed hope for you and All Your Children
More hope than Ryan could ever give

If we want true contentment, peace in our homes
With an end to marital strife
We must live for Jesus Christ
The only Guiding Light
Not one, but
All the Days of Our Lives

Meet Me at The Mills!

Good morning y'all! It is a good morning so far. Hopefully today will be a better day than yesterday. His mercies are new every morning.

Chris Rice is giving a free concert at Opry Mills Entertainment stage tonight at 7:00 p.m. I wanna go! Everyone needs to meet us there! Check it out on The Fish's website (bloop, bloop Buddy). :-)

www.94fmthefish.net

And tell me please if my music is not working. It's supposed to NOT play until you hit the play button on it. That way it won't blow you out of the water everytime you open up my blog!

Look to Jesus, people!

I Love That Place

What I got at Goodwill:

Cassettes

Kermit: Unplugged

New Kids on the Block: (whichever has The Right Stuff on it)

Raffi

Sesame Street

Dave Koz (awesome saxaphone guy)

Wes King : A Room Full of Stories

CDs

Matthew West : Happy

2 compilations cds with the likes of Newsboys, Tobymac, 4Him, etc. Great big hodge podge of stuff.

Clothing and Accessories

a purple purse

a pink striped t-shirt



Ok, I feel better now. Goodwill always has that effect on me.

Wanna hear my theme song right now?

Relient K- High of 75 clip

What's up with this weather?

It's been a weird day. I'm up, then I'm down, I'm up, then I'm down. But I guess all in all the good has outweighed the bad today. It must be the weather. "Lately the weather has been so bipolar and consequently so have I".

Okay, the bad first.

Cute girls make me feel bad. It's nothing against them, I just can't help comparing myself and I feel stupid. I need to lose weight and get over it. But then I'll make other people feel bad. Oh well.

I don't like it when people point out obvious stuff to me like I don't know what I'm doing. And they do it in a tone of voice that makes me feel inferior. I know this is easy to do partly because of my known and acknowledged lack of self-esteem (partly, in certain areas, and at certain times). But it is not all my fault. And maybe people don't even realizing they are doing it, but HELLO I've worked there since August. Don't treat me like a new comer.

Okay. Rant over. I feel better now.

Good stuff time!

Kasey & I are getting together this weekend!!!

I am slow to make friends. I am an outgoing person, but I am shy at the same time, depending on the situation. All of the personality tests I've ever taken have told me that I have so many different traits from every personality out there that I must be either a people-pleaser or schizophrenic! :-) And trust me, I am neither! I just have a very multi-faceted personality. In some situations, I am reserved, in some situations, I am wild and crazy.

I don't like to push myself on people. I am the kind of person who will sit in the back waiting for someone to talk to me. However, let me get with a shy person, and I will be extremely outgoing and friendly because I know what that is like. I know that to have friends I should show myself friendly, and I think I do. But I don't invite people over to my house because I am not proud of it. I know that we are newly married and everything, but I am a terrible housekeeper and everything is so plain and non-well decorated. Again, inferiority complex. It's not so much what people would think, it's mostly me, but I want people to be comfortable in my house. It was nice when Bro. Brian & Bro. B.J. came over that one time for dinner. He's so sweet and let us know that it's a person's spirit that matters, not the fanciness of their house (Thank you Lord, for reminding me of that just now. I needed that).

Anyhow, it's hard to put into words what I'm feeling. Good grief, this was supposed to be the good stuff part! Told you I'm being bipolar. :-) Anyways, I'm looking forward to spending time with Kasey. I'm in very bad need of some good fellowship.


Pray for my friend from work. She came to church with us Sunday, and while she wasn't delivered, she is looking the right direction. And to anyone who was there Sunday, please just pray for her. Until you are in a person's shoes, you really don't know what they are going through. And no one wants people who don't know their situation to jump to conclusions, right? She is a sweetheart and I know that soon she will experience the total freedom and deliverance that only Jesus can give.


Are you happy now Kasey, now that I've blogged a whole book? :-)

First Round of Photos

Us in Our African Hut

Am I Seeing Double???

African Lady Stirring her Pot
(Enjoy this people, you'll never see me like this again!)

Aussie Meg

More pictures to come once I upload them from my camera. Thanks so much for these Rose! :-)

NAH nah nah nah, nah nah, nah NAH- It's OVER

Wow. Africa was soooooo much fun, and it didn't turn out as awful as it was looking it was going to be.

But let's just say that I hope we don't do it again anytime in the near near future. I'm gonna need a bit to regain my sanity.

Going to bed, since I got barely zilch sleep today/last night (slept 6:30 a.m. - 9 a.m., but kept on waking up within that time). Will post pics later!

This is it

Joshua leaves for Baghdad tomorrow at 4:30. Please pray for Private Joshua Cook's quick return to his wife Heather and family.

Godspeed Josh! I love you and I'm so proud of you... my brother.

Can you hear the beat of those African drums?

I'm excited about International Marketplace next weekend. I'm team leader of Africa! I can't wait!

To those who don't know...

Our church youth group is raising money for missions this coming Saturday. We are setting up 7 booths, each a different continent. Each team will decorate their booth to represent their continent, and serve food native to that land. We're charging $5 for an International Marketplace Food Extravaganza!!!! I'm hungry already...

I have so many ideas. I think this is gonna be soooo great! Can't wait to find out what kind of ideas my team members have!

Two Men who Knew Jesus

One man said that he knew Jesus, and he did. He had spent the last three years of his life with Jesus. He had loved this man. But with a kiss, a token of what should have been love and friendship, he sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver.

And there was another man who knew Jesus. He also had spent three years walking closely beside the Man of Truth. But in his Friend’s darkest hours, he denied ever knowing the One who had given him life.

One man said he knew Him. The other said he didn’t. Both betrayed Him.

The first man, upon realizing what he had done, gave himself over to despair and took his own life.

The second man, upon realizing what he had done, wept bitter tears of shame.

But his story didn’t end there.

The man called Peter wept tears of repentance and rejoiced to find that even though he had not been there for Jesus when it mattered most, Jesus was indeed there for him, ready to receive him back into his arms once again, no matter what he had done.

I am that second man. I may not be a man, and I may not be named Peter, but I too have failed Jesus after having walked with Him. I too have denied him with my thoughts, words, and actions. But THANK GOD that the enemy did not win the battle for my soul! I am so thankful that His voice called me back with Love, and while showing me my sin, He opened wide his arms and accepted my heartfelt repentance and enfolded me in His Love.

Thank you Jesus. Help me to stay where you’ve put me and follow you all the rest of the way HOME.

Joshie and Other Randomness

I just got to talk to Josh!!! Dude I love my brother. I miss him. It's so cool to be able to talk to him and not feel like I'm making him put up with me. He's got a wife now! Dude! Joshie is married! I'm working on a surprise for them... hahaha I'll never tell!! :-)

Anyhow... why can't people remember that unless they are Native Americans, their own families were strangers in this country once too?

I think the picture of my eyes looks weird. No one has said it looks nice so that must mean that they think it's weird but don't want to be rude and say that. :-)

The Rest of the Story

Brad called right after I posted this... He had gone into the mountains to read and watch the sunset and had a flat on the way home. He fixed it and called to let me know what was going on. It's so nice when he calls instead of letting me worry.

Time is slipping away

Brad is out doing who knows what. Think he was gonna go hiking but it's dark now and I'm kinda getting worried. Times like this is when I wish we still had the cell phone, but we didn't want to pay for that and DSL. Maybe later on.

I've been working on fixing the checkbook. Fun fun fun. And listening to the Day of Fire pre-release CD I got from Goodwill for three bucks. Yay!

Their song "Time" says "Have you got the time to waste the day away?"

And the truth is, I really don't.

A girl at work lost her mother yesterday. She had called her brother's cell phone to ask him about something, and he was crying. She wanted to know what was wrong, and he wouldn't tell her, but then he went ahead and told her that their mother had committed suicide. I was on break when it happened, so I wasn't there, but everyone said she was absolutely hysterical. I can't blame her. I would be too.

It really shook everyone up. When things like this happen, it's so hard to understand WHY. I know that God could have prevented it, but God does not force anything on anyone. Everyone has got to make their own choices. This was NOT God's will. But I DO know that my Jesus can take something very very bad and make something good come out of it. I got to talk to Connie. We really don't know how much time we have. Every second counts.

We've got to make sure that there is nothing in our hearts that would get between us and Jesus. No sin will enter heaven. I'm so thankful that I don't have to live this life on my own! When Jesus changed my heart, I didn't want the same things I wanted before. I know that He is real because the me before is not the me that is now. No one can do that for me, I couldn't do that for me. But Jesus did.

Please, everyone that I love, PLEASE look into Jesus. Don't look at the people that claim to be Christians. Don't even look at me. But why not look into who Jesus is, and let Him speak for himself instead of the people who try to speak for Him.

You might not agree with me now, but wouldn't you rather find out now what the truth is now than to come to the end and find out you were wrong?

You lose nothing by looking into Jesus now.

In fact, you have everything to gain. Why don't you find out if what I say is true or not?

Please. Before it's too late.