Thursday, July 31

Go! Go! Go!

Wow, was I busy today! I had a nice little schedule planned out. Study during the morning hours, then break for lunch with a friend, then off to take care of politic stuff in the afternoon, home by 5:00.

Yea well, that didn't quite work out.... Instead I didn't get to do any studying, I did politics from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. I drove 45 miles to get my van dropped off for some maintenance work, then 65 miles to go do politics, then back 65 miles to get my van, and then the return trip of 45 miles back home. Meanwhile, I cancelled lunch with my friend and ended up skipping lunch all together because I was busy with the politics stuff. Whew!




Next week we will go with Patrick to his new job's office. Even though Patrick will be working, I am looking forward to some time off with no e-mail, no computers, no drama, no time restraints. Just reading a book by the pool after a lovely stroll on the treadmill! (Thank goodness it's cooler up north than it is down here. I'll be thinking of you while I'm relaxing in 85 degree weather. Hope you enjoy your 98 degree weather here at home!!)

Tuesday, July 29

Bad News


It was all over the papers today. The election board went through the signatures and counted 59 signatures as not registered. Then later that afternoon came back and said they had cross referenced some of them and that 5 more were counted as registered. That means we are still 12 short of the needed 500. So off to work we go trying to figure out what we can do.

Meanwhile today is an election day which means the election board is busy with that. So it will be Thursday before we can do anything with it. So for now we wait....



Have I mentioned to you before how much I HATE waiting???????

Monday, July 28

My husbands new job

I'm really excited for my husband. After 20 years with one job he is moving on to a bigger (and hopefully better) company. It is in the same industry and he will continue doing sales. Actually he will only be doing sales, which will be a big change for him. It is a welcome change, but change none the less.

We will leave next week to visit his new work place as a family. The children and I will get to see the plant and meet his co-workers. The bad news for Patrick is he will get to work the rest of the week, while the children and I will be vacationing!!

I am looking forward to the time off and I am looking forward to new beginnings. I'm sure I will be sharing more as time goes on.

Sunday, July 27

Transparency

Today was a difficult day for my husband and I. We recently had Martha Tennison and her husband, Don at our church. During one of our many conversations, Martha and Don corrected Patrick and I for withholding personal information from the congregation. So today, we walked in obedience to our elders and talked with the congregation.

The two areas that we don't discuss openly is team ministry, and salary. Withholding the salary part, well, that's easy, because we're certainly not in this for the money, so its easy to not talk about the money. The team ministry part? Well, it just never occurred to us that we needed to address it. We have always operated as a team and its normal for us. Martha asked if we had ever addressed it from behind the pulpit, we told her no, and she told us we needed to. Patrick was actually the one who did the majority of the talking, I can't really tell you what he said, because I was so uncomfortable with what we were talking about. My insecurities were determined to push their way through, but I kept fighting and pushed them back to the pit where they came from!
The salary part, well that's a whole different story. Over the last year and half we have chosen not to take over $14,000 of salary due to us simply because it's not in the best interest of the finances of the church. Over the past eight years we have used our salary money to re-invest in the church buying equipment, decorations, or any other needed item for ministry. We also personally paid for retreats and gifts for leadership in the church. None of this was done to promote ourselves, it was just what we chose to do. Martha and Don helped us realize that the enemy of our souls is using our silence against us.

So, this morning we exposed ourselves and we stand on the scripture John 8:32 (KJV), "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free." We believe that exposing the choices we have made concerning our salary will bring closure to the enemy's attempts to destroy us and the church.

Saturday, July 26

I'm a Superstar!!

I know, it's hard to believe, but little ol' me has turned into a super star!!!

Okay, so I'm just kidding.....yesterday was another lesson in politics. I had a television interview with a local station in regards to the petition for a grand jury. I was somewhat nervous, but not too bad. The reporter said I did well, and asked me if I wanted her job! No doubt she was trying to feed my ego, but none the less!
The one thing I flipped about was my jewelry. (I know, of all the things to be worried about!) I chose an all black outfit, but the jewelry I wear with that outfit is a little gaudy. It's not tacky, just big. I have very little jewelry that's not big simply because I like big jewelry. So I took along some silver, but then that would make my jewelry bling, bling and I wasn't sure if that was a good choice either. I just couldn't decide. I know, I know, I know, I sound like a girl. Well, I am, can't help it!

So back to the interview, it was actually very easy to answer the questions, since I'm passionate about the cause. It was a great opportunity to communicate my opinions about the whole issue. The interview aired last night at the 6:00 and 10:00 editions of the news. I've heard they will send you a copy of it, so I'm hoping I can request it since I didn't get to see it.

Thursday, July 24

We did it!

Today the signatures supporting the petition to call for a grand jury were filed. We filed 544 signatures, well over the 500 that was needed. I feel very good about our efforts and I am thankful for the obvious support of our community.

An interesting note: The last school board election had only 274 votes total. As you can see the number of signatures obtained more than double that amount. We have, at the very least, increased public awareness and for that I am thankful.

The election board will have until august 4th to verify the signatures. So for now we wait! (Have I mentioned to you I hate waiting???!!!!)

Wednesday, July 23

More lessons on Politics

Today I learned that there are attorneys out there who lie! Wow, I know that's a big shocker for all you out there. As you know, I live a pretty sheltered life, and in my sheltered life attorneys are upstanding professionals with good ethics. Today I interacted with a lawyer who doesn't have good ethics and didn't show himself to be upstanding or a professional for that matter.

I must say, I am amazed that someone else would bold face take the credit for a decision knowing it wasn't their decision at all. What ever happen to "give credit where credit is due"? I just can't believe he told his superior at his firm that it was his idea just to make himself look good. Of course, me in my ignorance, I totally exposed him not knowing what I was doing. I thought the superior thought I was mad, and I was explaining to the superior that I wasn't mad, because it was my idea. Oops! That's when the superior told me the attorney hadn't told him it was my idea. It was my desire as the client to proceed, instead he made it look like it was his idea just to look good to his superior. Oops! You know, that attorney really should have shared with me what his plan was, because I totally made him look bad and didn't even know it!!

Tuesday, July 22

Coming to a close


We have reached our goal of obtaining 500 signatures and we are now collecting extras to cover any possible errors there might have been in getting the signatures. The signatures will have to be verified and any signatures that can't be verified will not count. So it is important to go beyond 500.


Today we sent one final request for Mr. McCord's resignation. Down deep in my heart, I don't think he'll do it, but I wanted to provide every opportunity for him before we finalize the petition to request the grand jury. The deadline for the resignation is Wednesday, July 23rd at 4:00. If it's not in at that point, we will file the petition. The course will be set and there will be no turning back.


If only he would choose to step down on his own....

Sunday, July 20

@ the Lake




We had lots of fun. Lowell joined us; we haven't seen him in ages. It was good to have him around.

Saturday, July 19

Update on Politics

I haven't blogged about this in weeks. It's because the we are in a phase of gathering signatures. We had 45 days to get 500 signatures. Our 45 days will be up toward the end of next week. Today I will be meeting with a small group of people and we are going door to door. Once again, this will be a new experience for me, I have never done anything like this before. I will admit it's making me feel rather uncomfortable. Although I have decided my unrest is coming from the fear of the unknown rather than anything else. We only need a few more signatures and we'll be able to wrap this thing up, therefore I am looking forward to a great day with huge success!

Friday, July 18

Have I ever mentioned....







I........HATE.........WAITING?








But regardless of that I do have good news! My blood work came back and I am almost to the "Low" levels!! Woooo hooooo! I have almost reached low!! Funny isn't it? :-)

One of my numbers is 11.3 and 12 is where low normal starts. The other number is 32. That one is for my iron and low normal starts at 40 for iron. So I am way excited. I have almost reached low!! Yea for me. Let's have a party!

Thursday, July 17

My Friend Flinging Dust, Part 2

Today I have said good-bye to my newly found atheist friend. I have been swamped this week and didn't hardly have time to post much less comment on anyone elses! Today I went back to her site to comment on a question she had asked. After reading the other comments from the other atheists that visit her site, I decided that my time would be spent better elsewhere. (I'm pretty sure if you had foul language dictionary they must have used everyword in it, and that doesn't even include the incredibly crude statements they were making.) I'm sure I made her angry with my farewell statement, but on the other hand I would imagine that she'll be thrilled I'm not intruding on her world anymore.

I'm still a little sad, I truly was wanting to have an educated conversation/discussion with this woman, but I can clearly see that was never going to happen.


Good-bye Flinging Dust. Have a nice life....

Tuesday, July 15

Awesome Services

Martha has taken a liking to our Youth Pastor, Katie. The big joke is that if Martha doesn't show up then just have Katie start and Martha will tag team with her!! Of course Katie is horrified by the whole thing and glares at me while shaking her head in disbelief. It was great! I told the whole congregation about it yesterday from behind the pulpit. Martha was in the back enjoying every bit of it with us.

Martha is quite the lady. Without going into any details, Martha, of course, has our respect because of her reputation and because we have listened to her preaching on several occasions, but at the Sunday evening service she gave us reason to respect her even more. I know if Martha ever read this post she would be laughing because of the details I cannot publicly share, but she a woman worthy of respect and we thank her for that!

She has really ministered and we only have two more services to go. It's going to end too soon, but we must move on, we cannot stay in a stage of celebration at all times. Life must go on. Revival services must come to a close.

(For all you nit pickers, please note I said revival services, not revival itself. Each of us have a personal responsibility to maintain "revival" in our own spirit. For a debate about this go to my other blog Hindsight's 20/20)

Sunday, July 13

Martha Tennison

She is such a hoot!! As can be expected from Martha Tennison, we were in tears this morning, sometimes out of sheer laughter and sometimes because she was stomping on toes! It was a great way to start out the next 5 services. Can't wait to see what's in store for tonight!

Saturday, July 12

Excited!!

Tomorrow we start revival services with Martha Tennison. We have had her booked for over a year now. I can't wait to see what kind of exciting things are going to happen!!

Friday, July 11

sugar coating a spicy world...


I've been told that when you eat something that's too spicy for you just put some sugar on your tongue and that will take care of it.


I've never tried it in real life, but it apparently does wonders in a world we don't actually live in...

Thursday, July 10

My friend Flinging Dust

She has a blog and she banned me from it, but today I was allowed to return. I honored her decision and did not even visit her site after I found out she banned me, but a friend took up my cause (through a different blog that flinging dust visits) and the end result was the ban was lifted. I'm actually very pleased with this. I do have a desire to get to know her. I can see she is an educated woman and from what I have read she's had some pretty hard knocks in life.

I don't know how this will end, but for now I am happy to be back in her world! She has deemed me not capable of a logical thought process, (which could be true), and I believe she said I had a bag of rocks for a brain, or something like that. She also accused me of doing some kind of martyr christian thing, but no thanks, I'd rather not be crucified or tortured or have my head chopped off, etc.... I get that enough from "Christians", I certainly don't need it coming from other sources as well!

Tuesday, July 8

It wasn't exactly a vacation!!

What I thought was going to be a few days off, didn't turn out that way!! I didn't get to sleep in, and ended up busy almost the entire time (I did slip in a couple of naps though!). I even brought a book along for some reading by the pool, but didn't even get to crack the book, much less see the water!!

I think we're going to try to take some family time next week, bring all the kids and head off for a few days (a week). I plan to take my book again, let's hope I can at least get it opened this time. I mean, hey if your going to dream, dream big. Right??

Sunday, July 6

Taking a couple days off!

My husband has decided I need some time away, so off we go for a few days of R&R. I'm even taking a break from the computer. I won't be checking e-mail or posting blogs. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back!

btw...I got to see my friend Micheal. He came home from Teen Challenge for a few days over the 4th. He's already changed so much (on the inside) and it's only been three months. I cried when I saw him, it's a good thing I didn't have to say good-bye. I'm sure there would have been floods!

Saturday, July 5

Fireworks Closed

One more year completed. If you've been reading my blog, you know that the fireworks stand was not without it's issues again this year, but putting that aside, we had another good year.

We once again provided a great service to our community, made friends, and made a few bucks while doing it! Fundraising isn't our main priority, but it is a benefit of running a fireworks stand. All in all, our church was blessed by the opportunity to serve. For that we are thankful.

Goodbye for now fireworks...we'll see you again next year....

Friday, July 4

Blood Drive



Yesterday, in conjunction with the fireworks stand, we had a blood drive with the American Red Cross. They had set a goal of getting 15 units, we ended up with 24. I was really pleased with the turnout. We even had several first time donors. The big joke was that everyone who was B+ got their blood put in a separate pile to save for me to use later! (I'm still still low on blood, just not a critical low.) Thanks to everyone who showed up and made (or attempted to make) a donation, after having to get a blood transfusion I now have a new appreciation for those who donate blood! :-)



Thursday, July 3

The fireworks tent continues...

Today and tomorrow will be our biggest days. Yesterday wasn't as big as I had hoped for, so I'm hoping we are going to be swamped today and tomorrow. We are well stocked and still have a huge selection to choose from. We would have to do some serious sales to sell out! I am looking forward to being busy and not just babysitting the tent. As I have mentioned numerous times before, I would much rather be slammed than sitting around doing nothing!
This is a picture of our best artillery package. IT'S AN INCREDIBLE SHOW! We've already sold the two we had in stock so I ordered 6 more. We supposedly already have 2 of those sold and possibly one other. Hopefully they will return and follow through with their purchase!

Wednesday, July 2

Fireworks Galore

Today will start the big push on fireworks. We are actually a small tent and we don't do a lot of sales simply because we are located in a small town. But, with that in mind, yesterday was a good day for us and I am anticipating sales to start picking up today. For the most part all we have done is babysit the tent up to today. Apparently the statistics show 80% of your sales happening on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. So we will see what happens!!

Tuesday, July 1

Back to the Family Reunion

It's actually over now, but with all the excitement with the Fireworks Stand, I didn't take the time to blog about the reunion.

My sister's husband, her son and his wife left Sunday morning to return home. Saturday night we had Chicken Curry. That is our family tradition, when we get together we always have Chicken Curry. It was really good too. It's been a while since I've had it.

Mom never did get her house ready. My brother actually went on Sunday afternoon to pick up the furniture for her 2nd living area. I think that's actually comical since every one had left before then!! :-) Not that she shouldn't get the furniture, it's just funny that she didn't get it until after the family left!

It good to see everyone. My girls had a really good time with their cousin and his wife. I'm glad they got to spend time together. Maybe we'll do it again sometime, but hopefully not any where near the 4th of July !