Selling Our House . . .

So, now God's told us to put our house on the market. We did that just a few months ago and tried to sale it For Sale By Owner and nothing happened. This time, I think we have a great realtor and this time, God is in it!!

The other day I was asking God why He didn't sell it the last time that He told us to put it on the market and I really didn't want this reply: "Because your heart was greedy." WHAT?!?! Then, I started thinking back to that time and who wouldn't think that $20K wouldn't be great? But, He showed me that my heart was wrong. He wanted to give me that money, but He had other plans for it.

So, this time I'm believing God is going to sale it for our asking price or more. But this time, I know that God will supply all my needs and I'm asking Him to use me to meet the needs of others with the profit on the house.

But, the grand ol' question: Where are you moving to? I have no idea! But, I have a peace that if God told us to put our house on the market, I know He has a plan for where we're going. Sometimes I just laugh and wonder if God is preparing me for some kind of mission work because we've moved so many times!!

On another note, tonight is the end of family camp. I'm a little relieved, but I'm a little sad that it's over! This has been one of the funnest weeks ever!! My prayer now is that families will catch hold of this vision and RUN with it. Because if they do, there is no end to what God is going to do through this family ministry and that excites me -- knowing that God can make this thing EXPLODE in Clyde!! =)

I love God's Family!!

I just have to share!!! I'm telling you, God is stretching me to places I've never been before!! The good news is that once you're stretched, you don't go back to the "before"!! =)

This week is Family Camp at our church. Every night, we are doing a family "production", which requires actors, sound people, media people, behind-the-scenes people and probably more that I'm just forgetting to mention!!

Just a few short weeks ago, I was ready to walk into Pastor Bryan's office and tell him that I was going to have to cancel it because it wasn't coming together. But, I knew if I did, he would tell me that it was too late and to depend on God for the answers to my problems. I'll be real honest -- even if I EXPECTED him to say that and I know it would be good for me to just walk this thing out, I still would have walked away mad! =) Know what I mean?

So, last night was the first night and it wasn't all that great. I take that back -- my actors were AMAZING!! They knew their lines and they were right on cue!! My sound was all off and crazy because I thought the easy thing to do for everyone was if I put everything on my computer. It wasn't -- and that's why I don't run sound at our church!! =) I felt so sorry for Tim back there trying to make it work and just being frustrated that it wasn't working. We just both agreed that we would just pretend that Monday night never happened!! =)

However, tonight, WE ROCKED!!! Right before the service, I was trying to figure out how to get the audio parts OFF of my computer and on to a CD, but I was convinced that I didn't have a CD burner on my laptop!! Well, one of our computer guys started messing with my computer and I DO HAVE A CD BURNER (I guess it wasn't "activated" or something)!!! I know that sounds silly to you "computer people", but that's also why I'm not a part of the computer team!! =) So, about 30 minutes before we were to start, we burned the CD and tonight was AMAZING!! Everything went just as planned and I'm telling you that I couldn't be more pleased with our cast and sound guys!!! This week we're talking about HONOR and those guys deserved to be honored this week for putting up with me and all my stuff!! =)

But, tonight I was thinking about this whole thing and about how far God has brought me. I am usually one that I want to do everything by myself because I'm sure to get it done and I don't like to depend on other people, but God has showed me that if I am serious about growing His kingdom, I MUST be a team player!! I haven't really added up how many people that it has taken this week to pull this camp off, but I know it's probably over 20 -- and that's a separate team than my team mates on Sunday mornings (there are 16 of them!!) Who would have thought that I would be leading a team of almost 40 people?!?!?!

Now, it may sound like this is all about me, but I guarantee you that it is not. I am blown away at how God takes you through things and then you can look back and say, "WOW! Look how much I've grown!" God didn't throw me off the cliff and say, "Here, lead 40 people." He took me by the hand and said, "Here, lead 5." Then, it was 16. Then, it was 40.

I'm also NOT saying that I have all of the answers!! In staff meetings, we've been watching some leadership videos and with every one, I'm challenged to look at my team in a different light. God has absolutely blessed me with the most amazing team EVER!! I'm even at a place where I don't necessarily need more helpers on Sunday mornings -- when does that ever happen?!?! I'm sure there are areas that I'll soon turn loose of and I'll need more people, but I'm telling you that I truly and honestly have the BEST team EVER in the history of children's ministry!! =)

I think that I'm slowly learning to be a team player. At our first leadership video in staff meeting, I struggled because from the time I was a little girl, I didn't want to be on a team. I wanted to do things by myself because people always let me down or they were the ones making fun of me on the playground and then they get me as a partner and get an A on a "group project" for me doing all of the work.

But, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that I could have done this week of camp by myself!! I have so many people that have been doing so many things that I'm afraid to list them all because I'm afraid I will forget someone!! If any of you are reading this, YOU ARE AMAZING!!!

God has really shown me through this process that he TRULY has put people around me that want to see me succeed and they will do whatever it takes to make God look good. I love my church just for being the "family" that they say they are.

One last thing before I go CRASH into my bed: You know the Bible says that God has hidden treasures and will reveal them to those who seek after them? I have to tell you that when we bought my laptop, we didn't buy the computer with the "CD Burner Upgrade". But, somehow we walked away with one!! I think God knew that tonight -- July 25th, 2006 -- over a year after I bought it -- I would need that CD burner and I think He just put it in there for me!! =) Of course, you know that I'm God's favorite -- right?!?! =)

A Tribute to Grandpa Bowen

Aaron and I just returned from Colorado yesterday. I can't say it was a fun trip because we had to attend the funeral of his grandpa. He had a stroke last year and was in and out of the hospital until he died.

There's a weird thing about July 5th with that family. Grandpa Buster's sister died on July 5th (not sure what year). Grandpa Buster's son, Greg, died on July 5th, 1970. Grandpa Buster died on July 5th at 11:45 pm. Aaron's birthday is July 5th.

Grandpa Buster was a funny man. He always had stories to tell and it always seemed like something funny was happening to him on his ranch!! They told a story how he fell in a hole -- upside down -- and just his boots were sticking out. Roy (Aaron's dad) found him and pulled him out!

Grandpa Buster could tell the "Flying Cat" & "La Wee Wee" stories like nobody else. We were all sitting around the table on Sunday trying to remember how it went and trying to tell it like he did. We were successful in figuring out how the story went eventually, but I know we were all thinking that we could never tell it as good as he could.

Grandpa Buster served in World War II and his plane was shot down somewhere over Japan (I think). On display was the shirt that he was wearing the day his plane was shot down. Grandpa Buster was hit with scrapnel (sp?) in his left shoulder. You could see where it tore the shirt and they said he had scars there. On display was also his purple heart that he earned for that flight. There was another medal there, but I can't seem to remember what it was.

In some papers, we found that he was flying the day that we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. His papers told him to fly 50 miles outside Hiroshima that day. 50 miles. . . can you imagine being in the air just 50 miles away from that atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima? Talk about witnessing history!! On the other hand, 50 miles doesn't seem like very far when you're talking about an atomic bomb!!

During the funeral, they had an open mic where people could tell stories on Grandpa. Aaron told the story about the "call to breakfast". Grandpa would knock on your door about 6 am and say, "First call to breakfast." He would come back about 10 minutes later and say "Second call to breakfast." Another 10 minutes would pass and he would say, "Last call to breakfast." As he got older, he would just say, "First call to breakfast. Last call to breakfast!"

Then, as we sat around the breakfast table, Grandma Frances would read a devotional and Grandpa Buster would pray over our breakfast. Nate (one of the grandsons) said that of all the things he learned from Grandpa, his faith in God was what would continue to pass on down. That is the truth and it is very evident.

I only knew Grandpa Buster as a rancher and a great rancher he was!! You could tell that he liked working the cows and fixing the fences. I learned how to fix a fence from Grandpa Bowen. I think it was my first time to the ranch. I thought I would just go watch, but before long, they had me digging holes with the post hole diggers!! =)

While we were there, we also got to look at some artifacts that had been found on Grandpa Buster's land. Sand Creek runs right through his property and we believe that The Battle of Sand Creek was fought on his land. The government has recently purchased the land next to Buster's and they claim it happened there, but the artifacts speak for themselves. It was neat to see buttons from war shirts and women's dresses. There were rings and kettles. There were spurs and horseshoes. There were cannon balls and bullet shells!! All of these things found on the Bowen Ranch down on Sand Creek.

As I sit here, I'm thinking about how much Grandpa Buster was a part of history. On his land, history took place with the Battle of Sand Creek. Grandpa Buster watched history play out before his eyes in WWII. And, Grandpa Buster made history with all of his family. I know that Grandpa Buster's history will long live on and stories will continue to be told about him.

I hate that we didn't spend more time at the ranch. I hate that I thought the drive was too long with 2 kids. I am thankful, though, that Payton has memories of Grandpa Buster and the ranch. My prayer is this: God, please don't let me be too busy to spend time with history makers!!

Do it the easy way!!

Last Friday, we were packing and getting ready to head to Wheeler for a 4th of July "vacation". We had been to town and Payton found his bicycle horn at Aaron's warehouse (goody, goody), so when we got home, he wanted to put it on. First, we had to find a screw to put it on his bike. We found one, but the biggest obstacle seemed to be finding a screwdriver to put it on!!

I have a golden hammer that I use for scrapbooking and it has screwdrivers in the handle, but we couldn't find it anywhere. Just a few days before, we had used it to put a cork board up in the boys' room and Evan had it, but I remembered taking it from him -- just couldn't remember what I did with it after that!

So, we're going through my office looking for this hammer and I was starting to get a little frustraed because I had other things to do and this hunt was taking too long for something I had just had a few days before!! I looked at Payton and said, "I just don't remember where I put it." Here's how the rest of the conversation went:

P: Well, mom, you need to just pray and ask God to help you find it. That's the easy way.
M: OK . . . Dear God, help me find this hammer and screwdrivers so we can put this on Payton's bike. Amen
P: Please. You need to say 'Please' and then 'Amen'.
M: OK . . Dear God, help me find this hammer please. Amen.

A few mintues later, I was in the kitchen and on the counter sat my golden hammer with the screwdrivers!! I took it to Payton and showed it to him. He said, "See, mom. I told you that was the easy way." So, now I'm going to just start doing things the easy way -- asking God for help -- and make sure I say "Please".

Funny things I think . . .

Today, I was on a "fly killing rampage" in my kitchen -- will we ever win the war on the flies at our house?!? As I was waiting on this one fly to land, I had this thought:

Do you think a fly ever gets to where it's going?

What a life -- fly around aimlessly with not much purpose in life. I read once that a fly throws up 7 times every time it lands. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but the thought came back to me this morning and I thought what a life -- fly around, land, throw up 7 times, fly again, hoping that a human isn't stalking me just waiting for me to land again. And, do you think a "fellow fly" has warned them about the flyswatter? Or, do you think they just fly around oblivious to the thing that in one swat can take them out?

And, can you imagine how big my kitchen must feel to a fly? I wonder if he thinks, "Now, if I fly off of this table, I won't be able to find my way back, probably ever."

Anyway, that's my thought for the day -- as weird as it may seem!! =)

I'll also share these pictures:

This is a bird's nest that is in under our carport. We have been watching for the momma bird to come back, but we haven't seen her. I guess that doesn't really mean much.









They are funny because whenever we get out of the car and shut the door, they open their
mouths and start chirping, like we're the ones going to feed them!! I never knew a baby bird's mouth was so big!!

I just couldn't resist sharing this!! Last Saturday, we got home from our "vacation" to Ft. Worth. We got the car unloaded and played with the dogs. It was beautiful outside!! When we pulled in the driveway, we noticed that our trampoline had been blown into our backyard (it's usually on the side of the house), but we didn't think much of it.

About 10 pm, the wind kicked up and started blowing really hard. We moved the boys from their room into the living room in case it blew out a window -- yes, it was blowing that hard and it started hailing small pieces!! The floor started shaking and the electricity was going on and off. We turned on the news and they weren't reporting anything -- no storm watches, nothing!!

About 10:20, the weather came on and they said there was a storm moving through town and it would be through by 10:45 pm and that it could have wind gusts of up to 40 mph.

I went in the kitchen and looked out in the backyard to see that the trampoline was GONE!! I went outside to see if I could see it anywhere, but it was too dark. The wind finally just quit blowing all of a sudden -- not good news normally -- but it was just calm! I went out again to see if I could see the trampoline, but I couldn't see it anywhere.

At about 3 am, another strong wind came just like the previous one. I turned on the news and nothing. . . they had the dopplar recording on and it was reporting a storm about 2 hours south of us, but nothing around home. So, I went back to bed.

The next morning, when I woke up, I looked outside and saw our trampoline:




The trampoline is a twisted mess!! We had the safety net on the top and it's all wrapped up inside the mess shown here!! We haven't had a chance to try to untangle it all yet. We're planning on doing that sometime soon.

There were springs scattered all over the place!! If you've ever put a trampoline together, you know how hard you have to stretch those springs to get them to attach on the side!! The wind just scattered the springs everywhere!! There were only 2 left attached to this piece.

I would not be surprised if this was the working of a small twister. The way the house was shaking and the way the wind was blowing, it just shocked me that the news didn't have anything on it. . . Crazy!!

"This morning Payton came in and said, "Mom! God helped me find dad's knife thingy!!"

In his hand, he had a butter knife thing that has a penguin on the end of it. Aaron's mom got it for us at some point. It's small and you can use it to spread butter or jelly. . I don't know the "real name" for it, but we've never really used it that I can think of. Anyway, I guess Payton had taken it outside and he lost it. But instead of telling anyone, he went outside to look for it again. Here's the story in his words:

Mom, I went outside to look for that knife thingy. . you know that thing of dad's that has the penguin on the end of it. . it's a little knife thing. Well, I went outside to look for it and I couldn't find it anywhere, so I looked up at the sky and I said, 'God, will you please help me find that knife thing of my dad's?' Then, I just looked down at my feet and there it was. I think God just picked it up and moved it because I prayed and asked him to help me. So, I picked it up and I looked back at the sky and I said, 'Thank you God for helping me find this thing for my dad.' Then, I just came it the house and showed it to you. Isn't that awesome, Mom?"

I can definately say that I was excited about that and I did tell him that it was awesome!! You know, God is constantly showing me that He cares about the little things that we care about. God even cares enough to help us find the things that we've never used before!!

Here are some pictures of the dogs:

Here's a picture of Evan, Aaron, Blue, & Cracker.

This is Blue. She is full blood Blue Heeler. She is a very good dog. She's just been a little shy with Evan. =)

This is Cracker. She is 1/2 blue heeler and 1/2 sheep dog. She is a little more mischevious than Blue. As you can see, she doesn't seem to mind Evan hanging all over her, which is good for Evan!! =)

Our dog, Creek, died just a few weeks ago. We think she got bit by a rattlesnake. We really miss her and things have definately been different around here. She used to always walk me to the mailbox to get the mail every afternoon. She would run out ahead of me and jump in the ditch acting like she was making sure nothing was in there. I would get the mail and she would run back to the house with me and make sure I was safe.

When she died, I didn't think I would miss her as much as I do. . . I mean, she was a dog. But, when you've woke up every morning for the last 7 years and the first thing you did was feed her, then you wake up one morning and she's not waiting there.

I don't like to go on the back porch in the last few weeks. That's where she relaxed and whenever we opened the door, there she was wagging her tail.

After she died, I didn't think we would get another dog. I was wrong! Today, we got 2 new dogs, Blue & Cracker. Blue is full blood Blue Heeler and Cracker is 1/2 Blue Heeler and 1/2 Sheep Dog. They are still adjusting to our home, but the boys LOVE them!! They love to play catch and they haven't tried to run away, so I guess that's good.

So, now I have somebody else to feed in the mornings and I have somebody else to walk me to the mailbox every afternoon. I'm going to try to post pictures later.

Yesterday, I was thinking about children's ministry and all the things it entails. I'm a teacher, friend, organizer, planner, cleaner, etc. The one thing that I don't think is in my job description is cleaning out melted chocolate from plastic Easter eggs. Picture this: We have a MASSIVE Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday and it was close to 90 degrees outside!! Is there anywhere that you can hide an Easter egg in 90 degree weather that the chocolate inside won't melt? I think those eggs were doomed before they ever left the church!! =)

So, after the egg hunt, we asked parents to return the eggs if they weren't going to use them again so that we could recycle them for next year. I got back 2 clothes hampers FULL of eggs. The only thing is that most of them had melted chocolate somewhere on them.

So, I came home and just put the hamper behind my office door. I guess I hoped at some point they would just clean themselves or something. But, my husband was out of town one night this week and I decided to get a little organized in my office. I moved some stuff around and looked behind my door and there was that hamper full of chocolate covered plastic Easter eggs!! So, the boys and I decided that we were going to clean them. I didn't think it would take more than 30 minutes to clean the whole hamper full.

4 hours later, I was reaching the bottom of the hamper. We sorted all of the eggs from the original hamper into two groups: Dirty & Clean. Our dirty pile was about 1/2 of a hamper full. I sure didn't think it would take that long to clean 1/2 of a hamper full, but boy was I wrong!!

As I'm wiping off melted M&Ms from this one egg, I looked at the hamper and wondered: Is this really in my job description?!? Does it say somewhere that the children's pastor has to clean melted chocolate from the Easter eggs?

Then, I had a funny picture in my head: The Bible says to store up your treasures in Heaven and when we get to Heaven, that's where the real reward is. I wonder how God is going to reward me for cleaning Easter eggs? I pictured my first day in Heaven just looking around and someone takes me to my mansion and says, "Welcome Home". I open the door and there is a hamper of SPOTLESS, SPARKLING Easter eggs. Whoever led me to my mansion said, "Chocolate doesn't melt in heaven."

Wouldn't that be just like God? His sense of humor? There was also a golden bottle of ketchup on the mantle above the fireplace!!

My sister and I went to Canton, Texas to the First Monday Trade Days this past weekend. It was so much fun!! We ended up leaving my house late, so we hit rush hour traffic in Dallas and some nasty construction areas close to my friend's house where we were staying the night. I'm used to driving a little SUV, but we took her BIG OL' TRUCK!! It's definately different, but it's intimidating to those little cars that try to cut you off or cut in line!! =)

There was so much to see in Canton!! If your home is western decor, it is a MUST to go there!! That stuff is EVERYWHERE! I could have decorated and redecorated the boys' room several dozen times and not had the same things twice. My sister found quite a bit of stuff. I mainly found some ribbon -- yep, that's right -- ribbon!! It's great for scrapbooking and I think I got over 40 yards of ribbon for $17!! I also got a zebra cell phone cover, which was my "big purchase" of the day!! At the end of the day, I decided to go back and get some wrapping paper -- 2 rolls of zebra paper, 1 roll of leopard print, and one roll of pink tulle. That is all -- after walking probably over 5 miles and not seeing nearly 1/2 of it, that's all I walked away with.

So, we had to stop at the outlet malls on the way home. I did better at those!! =) Got a few things at Old Navy and got a few things at the Gap Outlet. Now it's time to get all of my ribbons organized (somehow) and get my new clothes washed!!