A Merry 'Mark Lowry' Christmas!

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Merry Christmas to you all! and may God bless your new year!

Home Depot/Dealing With an Atheist


Mary and Jesus


Mary Did You Know

A Merry, Ant-y Christmas! UGH!

Do y’all remember the Great Ant Invasion Saga, at this time last year? (here, here, here, and here)

Well, we had been pretty much free of them for several months, but the last month or so they have returned...especially since it’s been raining much of the last week and a half.

We had started seeing scouts again in mid-November, which is always a sign of gathering forces lurking and waiting to land on our beaches. We had plenty of our secret weapons of mass destruction handy – particularly that lovely air-borne biological weapon known as RAID. Their D-Day was Thanksgiving Day, and they tried several landings throughout the day, culminating with a mass invasion through a breach on the North Bathroom front in the evening (what they wanted there, I have no idea!). They were quickly discouraged through the use of the secret biological weapon, but we knew we had not seen the last of the enemy forces.

The rain last week made perfect conditions for another invasion. As the water poured down steadily nearly all day on Wednesday, we could sense the growing tension among their troops. Scouts were seen and killed in both the North and South Bathrooms (which are only a wall apart, but open off of completely different sections of the house). And then, Thursday morning, H-Hour came and they invaded, unnoticed until a few hours later. We were just about to leave to run an out-of-town errand when the attack was discovered. The front battalion occupied the outside door frame of the North Bathroom, and troops extended as far as the eye could see along the ceiling of the Hallway Sector, disappearing into the Linen Closet area. RAID and a chair (thankfully the Hallway Sector has a low ceiling!) were quickly brought to the invasion site and the troops wiped out within moments.

However, they were but the smoke revealing the fire – the majority of their numbers had already hunkered down under the carpet. You remember the whole Leak Saga, and how the carpet had to be pulled up and the padding removed from the water spill? It was under this still-loose carpet that they had established headquarters and centered their forces. The extermination of this extension of their invasion required several minutes and a lot of the secret biological weapon, but it was accomplished and they were routed from the scene. (As a side note, there are still dead troops littering the floor of the North Bathroom in an effort to discourage another such attempt.)

That was last week’s skirmish, but this week they tried a new tactic – one of the worst atrocities yet in this ongoing War. They invaded...(drumroll please).….…………… THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is true. Our unscrupled opponent has dared to commit this barbaric and horrific crime against the people.

Our Christmas Tree is decorated with lights and a variety of ornaments, ranging from beautiful to the ornate to the unique to the unusual to the homemade...you get the idea. Included among its festive decorations are several candy canes, which usually are not a problem. However, just last Friday my dad had brought home another candy cane from work...one which is less tightly wrapped... You guessed it. Their reconnaissance forces must have discovered this delicacy and led the main attack. They had swarmed down the wall and up the trunk of the tree, out one of the branches, and into the candy cane.

Which is all to explain why, 3 days before Christmas, my mother is at Home Depot purchasing more of the weapons of mass destruction!

Have a very merry ant-free Christmas!!

:)

PS – don’t forget to visit my blog on Wednesday (Christmas Eve) to see my special Christmas post!! :)

12 Days of Christmas

This absolutely one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time -- not because it's done the normal, traditional way (like pretty much all my other Christmas favorites), but because it's done in an amazingly funny, unique, and talented way. These guys are soooooo good at singing, it's not even funny...and when they add some comedy to it, it gets even better.

So ladies and gentlemen, let me present Straight No Chaser, singing The 12 Days of Christmas!!!



PS -- the best part starts at 1:12...don't miss it!!!

EDITED TO ADD: I had previously posted a different video, however, that one was removed from YouTube apparently due to copyright problems...so this is a slightly different version of the same song. Enjoy! :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper usually works best for me

2. Real or fake tree? We love the real trees...just doesn’t really seem like Christmas until you can smell the pine in the living room!

3. When do you put up a tree? Whatever weekend in December that we have time in all our schedules and get around to it! :)

4. When do you take it down? Sometime in early January

5. Do you like eggnog? Don’t think I’ve ever tried it

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I love everything I get

7. Hardest person (people) to buy for? My dad...whatever he wants, he buys, so there’s nothing to get him! LOL

8. Easiest person to buy for? Probably mom, because she likes anything

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yep, it’s ceramic (I think) and it sits on a shelf in our china cabinet during the Christmas season

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Well, when we get around to sending them at all, it’s mail :)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can’t think of any

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I decide what I'm going to get!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? You betcha

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? All our special Christmas goodies – especially the chocolate-dipped marshmallows etc.!

16. Lights on the tree? Of course

17. Favourite Christmas song? Pretty much all carols and hymns, plus some secular songs

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home – there’s not really anywhere to travel to

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Let’s see… You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither – a plaid bow

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? After Christmas, when all anyone wants to talk about is what all they got, and then ask you what you got – it’s not about what you get!!!

23. Favourite Ornament theme or color? Our tree is such a wonderful homey hodgepodge of lovely and cute and handmade and unique and beautiful and unusual...

24. Favourite for Christmas dinner? Either lasagna or manicotti!

25. Favourite Decorations? Christmas lights etc.

26. What do you want for Christmas this year? Whatever my parents etc want to give me...they know me and they know I’ll be happy with whatever

So I tag...

a birthday announcement

Hey --

Today is my friend Morgan's birthday!

Please stop by and wish her a very happy birthday!

:)

A Special Announcement AND Ariana’s First Birthday

Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise the Lord! :)

I’m going to start with the special announcement… drum roll please…

Ariana…

…is going to be a big sister!!!!!

Yes! It’s true! My sweet big sister and brother-in-law are expecting again!!

Here’s the new Piglet:

Isn’t he or she precious??!!!! I can’t wait to have another niece or nephew!


We were debating about that – boy or girl? It would be more convenient for them to have another girl, since they already have all the girl stuff. On the other hand, a boy would be nice too, being different and all. Whether it’s a boy or a girl, only the Lord knows yet, and isn’t it so wonderful to know that He knows all about this new little one, and has known since before He laid the foundations of the earth?! Every time I think about that it boggles my mind. He knows!

I made a post back on Ariana’s birthday in October, but I never posted the photos from her party. She’s ONE!!!

Quite a few people were able to make it, I didn’t get a picture of everybody, but this is some of them:

Her Grandma B (another adopted grandma, an older lady in our church) was able to be there:

And of course CG was there! (and Auntie Bekah too, although since I was taking most of the photos, I’m not in them!) :)

Here’s Ariana (after the party, incidentally) with her daddy, mommy, and auntie Charity:

She opened presents, although most of the time she was more interested in the wrapping! She received stuffed animals…

…outfits…


…a bath toy…

…and, from Auntie B, a pair of rattles (empty plastic spice bottles, one with rice, one with beans inside, both with the lids glued on!)…

…and a book! A book with googly-eyed animals!

We, the adoring fans, friends, and family (*wink*), got cupcakes, but SHE got a whole cake!

She wasn’t too sure about it, and mainly just played in the frosting…

She got that frosting all over herself! And I mean all over! All over the pretty pink dress, too!

So we (her mommy, auntie Charity, and auntie Bekah) had to take her into the bathroom, take off the pink dress, and give her a mini-bath. She re-entered the stage dressed in her diaper-cover and birthday hat.
Meanwhile we played a great game of…well, I don’t remember exactly what it was called! Pastor Daniel displayed (they have a ceiling-mounted projector) on the wall a combination of letters which, when said fast enough, would usually phonetically reveal a totally different word or words. Here’s nearly everybody, deep in thought…
Here’s one of the words/phrases. Can you figure it out? Leave me a comment if you know what it is! :)

And now for a word from the birthday girl herself:
"Mmmfff fthmf mmmmmth fffmmth."

Translation: either "Thanks for coming" or "This ring tastes good" – I can’t tell which! :)

Happy Birthday, Ariana! Auntie B loves you!

Please Pray

By the way, just wanted to ask for y'all's prayers for my friends, the M family. My aunt, uncle, and 'sisters' in Idaho, remember Danny and Dianne?? They had a house fire on Wednesday night, damaging their living room pretty bad and blackening the kitchen as well. They lost two of their three Chihuahuas to the fire, and they aren't sure yet whether the third is going to make it. Please pray for them, they are hurting right now. They're staying with their aunt, and Danny says that God has really given them a peace, they are doing much better, and they can still find things to be grateful for -- like that none of them were hurt, including my uncle who ran into the house trying to put the fire out and save the dogs. Again, please just lift them up, as they're hurting and grieving for their dogs. God is still good, He is still in control!

EDITED TO ADD: The third Chihuahua died this morning. They are really hurting... Please keep them in prayer!

Thanksgiving Musings -- Yahweh's Gift

The other day I was watching the Gaither Israel Homecoming video, and one verse of one song really struck me. The song was "I Have Returned To the Faith of My Father," and the verse is the one which Mike Allen sings so beautifully:

"I have returned to the Yahweh of Judah
On my knees I did fall where the wall now stands
This lesson I’ve learned as I’ve worked my way homeward
The Savior of All is a Comfort to Man."

The rest of the song is excellent also, but this one verse stuck in my mind, repeating over and over like a broken record. I couldn’t remember the words to any of the other verses or even the chorus, but this one verse stayed in my mind all day until finally in the evening I began to think about the meaning of these words…and only then did it truly hit me what a marvelous gift Jehovah has given us.

Have you ever really thought about the fact that we are now adopted sons and daughters of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? The same God that Adam walked with, Joseph served, Moses talked with, David obeyed… The One whom Daniel stayed true to, Ruth converted to, Esther believed… The One whom Anna and Simeon recognized, John the Baptist preached, the disciples followed… The One whom the people saw crucified, then risen to life! The One whom Stephen saw as he was being stoned; the One whom Paul saw on the road to Damascus; the One whom John saw as Lord and King of the new heaven and new earth. This is the One – this is the Yahweh – that has taken us, dogs of Gentiles, the wild olive branches, and grafted us into the cultivated tree of His chosen people.

Of course I’ve always read verses like Romans 11:13-28, but I never really stopped to ponder it much. This is an amazing – and, I might add, completely and totally undeserved – gift of our Father. Do you realize that as adopted children, we now share the same Father as our Jewish brothers and sisters? They are the biological children, as His originally chosen people, but when they rejected Christ, salvation was opened up to us in this truly miraculous and amazing way.

Which brings me to something else I’ve been meaning to say. I mentioned this in one of the first posts I ever made, but I haven’t discussed it in quite a while now.

The title of my blog is Daddy’s Girl, and the description is I’m a child of my loving earthly father, and of my loving Heavenly Father. Now I know this isn’t exactly original with me, but I really appreciate a constant reminder that God is my Father. Matter of fact, He isn’t just my Father, He’s my Daddy – the literal meaning of Abba! That means I can go to Him anytime with anything, He’s always willing to listen, He’s always loving, never too busy. Think about that – the Yahweh Jehovah, whose Name is so holy that no Hebrew would ever pronounce It, that every scribe would have to perform ritual purification washings before writing It, He is now our Daddy, who wants us to talk with Him, walk with Him, trust in Him, be guided by Him, and spend all of eternity with Him.

’El ‘Elyon (Most High God)
’El Shaddai (God of Might)
’El ‘Olam (Yahweh, I AM, the Eternal God)
Yahweh-jireh (the LORD who provides)
Yahweh-rohi (the LORD Our Shepherd )
’El-Roi (the God Who Sees)
Yawheh-rapha (the LORD is our Healer )
Yahweh-Shammah (The LORD is Here)
Yahweh-Shalom (The LORD is Peace)

Now if you ask me, that’s something to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

I'm Back!! :)

Hey everybody -- I'm back on WOOOHOOOO!!! Our modem seems to be doing fine, we've got the router hooked back up and everything. Best we can figure out, Skeeter-cat had been chewing on the internet cable, which basically disconnected it (it was chewed through in several spots -- we had to splice it in a couple places), and confused our modem. Needless to say, the cable is now stapled to the wall high above her!! :D

So anyway, now that I'm back, I get to do the usual fun catching-up. Problem is, I'm going out of town in a day or two, so I won't be able to do my usual catch-up post until next week. By then I'll have some other news too, so stay tune -- you don't want to miss it! :)

Hope all of you are well. Thanks so much for all the kind comments while I was gone!!!

I'm thankful for:

1. My dad who knows how to do things with computers and cables! :)

2. All my bloggie friends who missed me and left kind comments to tell me! :)

Still Having Problems

Thanks Morgan, our modem was having issues, I don't know when I'll be connected again, so sorry everybody... I probably won't be on for another week or so... We think we may have found and fixed the problem, so I should be able to connect pretty soon... Meantime, we'll all be praying for God's will for the elections!

I'm grateful for:

1. That the Lord is in control of everything, including the elections
2. That I have friends like Morgan who are willing to do that for me! :)

Talk to everybody soon! :)

Modem Down

Hey everyone this is Morgan, a blog friend of Rebekah's and she wanted me to let everyone know that she will not be on for probably a couple of weeks because her modem is down...

The Leak Saga Part 3, and A Challenge

The Leak Saga is finally pretty much over. All that's left is the repair! :)

The blowers were removed Thursday morning, and about the same time, we had water! PTL!! :)

The third plumber (don't ask...it's a long story) had to knock a hole in one wall to try to find the leak...

...and another hole in the wall behind the stove, but I don't have a photo of that. He found the pipe with the leak when he made the hole behind the stove. But he still didn't know where this pipe went to. You want to know where that pipe went? Think about refrigerators...how there's a little water pipe behind the fridge so that you can hook up most fridges to run water and make ice cubes? Well, it was actually that pipe, which we don't use anyway! Another praise! So he was able to just cap that pipe off, instead of having to reroute it. If it had been a very necessary line, like the one to a toilet or something, he would have had to jackhammer down into the foundation to find the pipe, then reroute the whole thing...which would have cost our landlord big bucks... But this way, he just capped it off and it's done! Without as much cost to our landlord, either! PTL again!!

Here's something else. Remember in the last post, I mentioned that I thought that maybe this happened to prevent an accident or something? Well, I now see two reasons why the Lord might have had things happen this way. For one, my grandfather is now complaining of a back pain, which may possibly be another kidney stone. I'm thankful that he isn't far away from home, dealing with that.

For the other, I have come down with my semiannual sinus infection. Yep, about twice a year I come down with the whole runny nose, stuffed sinuses, sore throat stuff. Lots of fun. But this is a pretty usual thing for me, and it's running its usual course, so I'm doing OK...I'm just thankful that I'm not in Phoenix with my mom and grandfather dealing with this.

And finally, we knew it would happen sooner or later. I mean, we were working against time with the first plumber and the second semi-plumber (he was really a handyman, not a plumber), and we knew the pipe was going to go within a short amount of time...we just didn't know when. I'm thankful that the pipe didn't bust when Papa was out here, with the water being off, the blowers on, all that stuff. That would've just been harder to deal with, with him here.

All this mentioning of being thankful for things has my mind going on a different track now. My Aunt Moira, whose blog is The Quilted Snail, had a good idea recently. She wrote a post in which she shared a conviction she'd had about being grateful for things. She decided that from then on, she would end all her posts with at least two things for which she was grateful.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I heard that idea, a little light bulb went off in my head. If she was convicted by this other blog to be more grateful, and decided to list her gratitudes with every post, why shouldn't I do that? And...why shouldn't other people do that too? Maybe... Maybe I can start a trend, a challenge!

So, here's my challenge to you. November is the month of Thanksgiving -- or at least it was until folks took the emphasis off gratitude and onto shoving our mouths full of turkey and gossip. How about we, our little bloggie community, decide to take November and make it our own personal Month of Thanksgiving?

I challenge you, everyone who reads this post, to end every post that you make in November with at least two things for which you are grateful. This doesn't have to be real fancy or anything, just a heartfelt giving of thanks to the God who has given us so much. And who knows? maybe you'll like it so much that you'll decide to do it from now on, like my Aunt Moira did!

You can start now if you want, or wait until November starts. Just make sure, if you take me up on the challenge, to really do it, not just do it for a few posts and then stop. This is between you and the Lord, so whatever you're grateful for, stop and thank Him for it!

I'm going to start now. I've already listed several things above for which I'm grateful, but I'm going to add one more.

Lord, thank You for my bloggie friends, who have cheered me up on many an occasion, and have often reassured me that I am not alone in the things that I struggle with. They're also people, Lord, and we all struggle with temptations and such. Thank You for these friends.

The Leak Saga Continues...

First of all, thanks for all your kind comments, hoping that this mess can be cleaned up soon, and commiserating...

We've been doing well... We go over to the neighbors' houses to fill buckets, pots, and pitchers with water so that we can wash our hands, flush toilets, wash dishes...all that good stuff...

It's really pretty interesting, doing things the old fashioned way. I can almost imagine that I'm hauling this pot full of water from the well out back, instead of the neighbor's hose... When I put a pot of water on the stove to heat up so that I can wash dishes, I can almost imagine I am back in the days when there weren't faucets and taps on sinks... As for going to the bathroom...well....let's not discuss that.... ;)

Do you know what these are??

Well, if you've ever had a leak in your house, you know exactly what they are... The blue thing is a blower, and the red thing is a dehumidifyer. We have three of these blowers, two in the living room...





And one in my bathroom. Do you know how hard it is to, you know, take care of business when there's a hurricane wind blowing??! I've started using my parents' bathroom instead, it's quieter!


Casey-dog isn't too bothered by it, but Skeet is terrified. She wouldn't venture out of my bedroom until about 7:00 this morning, poor kitty. The noise and the windstorm must be pretty scary to such a small critter...

As for our trip, we have rescheduled everything again...we're not going until mid-November. You see, my grandfather's sister is going to be in Arizona for Thanksgiving, and we wanted them to be able to see each other again one more time... And, because of time scheduling, that means we get to have Papa with us here for Thanksgiving! I am very excited about that -- I don't know when the last time I was able to share Thanksgiving with my grandfather. So, Lord willing, everything is worked out that way. Maybe that's why the pipes busted now -- so that we could work things out this way.

One last thing.... Did y'all notice the new look? It's a Cutest Blog On the Block background! Now, ordinarily I'm not too big on the CBOTB stuff, but I was tired of the background that I made myself, and I really liked this one, so here it is... Do you like it?

Well, I have other things to do, so I will sign off for now. I hope everybody has a great day!

OK, so cancel that....

We've had a little change of plans here....

Do you know what this is??


If you guessed 'wet carpet', you would be right!

No, nobody had an accident...just the pipes coming from the water heater... Yeah, I know -- ugly, isn't it?!!!!

My mom trying to soak up some of the water with towels (and Skeeter helping)

We've known for quite awhile that we had a problem, but only for the last week or so that we truly had leaks -- you read that right, leaks -- a slab leak and an in-house leak, and an blown regulator. We also knew that these leaks would keep getting bigger and bigger until they blew through the pipes and made a mess (or a tidal wave, depending on how soon we caught it! LOL -- OK it isn't really funny)... What we didn't know is how soon this would happen (nobody knew but God, of course)...and when it happened was probably about 1:30 this afternoon!

The row of towels, trying to soak up the water...

We had run a few loads of laundry this morning, which is probably what was the last straw for the pipes. And while those loads of laundry were running, I had heard a strange, heretofore-unheard noise in the bathroom, a sort of sqealing noise... In hindsight, I can say, "Hmmm....wonder what that was??!!!!"

So apparently, Lord, You didn't want us to go to Arizona tomorrow...

Yeah, it does get better. Tomorrow my mom and I were scheduled to take off for Arizona, to see friends and pick my grandfather up from the airport...but now all that has been neatly and successfully moved to next week. I mean, really neatly and successfully -- no problem switching flights, times with various friends, etc.

So maybe the Lord was saving us from a car accident, or something... I don't claim to know why He does things, but it sure is an interesting "coincedence"...wouldn't you say??

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ARIANA!!!! :)

My precious niece is a year old today!! Woohoo! Yay for Ariana!! :)

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you might recognize most of these photos, but in honor of her first birthday, I'm going to post them again... (sorry the spacing got a little messed up)

Remember this?

She was 8 hours old...and I lost my heart. That's when I became Auntie Bekah :)

So did my mom, who was promptly christened 'CG', for California Grandma. See that smile?!

Ain't she precious?!!!

Since she was born on a Friday, she was three days old on her first Sunday in church.

The happy new daddy and mommy...

This jumper really went well with the quilt that Mom and I made for her.

Piggyback ride!

Such a happy baby...

Chillin' in her duckie bath...she still likes that thing...

This photo really represents her personality at that time...

You just gotta love that face...

Her first Christmas (and her first Christmas dress...the Sunday before Christmas, I was holding her, and, eh, well, she sorta had it coming out both ends, if you know what I mean. It was the first time I ever got to clean up a baby and change the diaper and clothes completely by myself...)

...Train up a child in the way [she] should go...

I just love this photo of her! This was her first actual portrait...

Did I mention that my mom loves being her CG??

This was last 4th of July, right before Ariana's first fireworks...she was sooooo tired but there was so much going on that she couldn't go to sleep...she started crying when the fireworks started going off...but when they were over, she fell sound asleep...

The happy family, just last July...

That was an Auntie B outfit...

...such an Ariana face...

Did you know that leaves are fascinating? They're also tasty...

That was at Grandpa Mike, CG, and Auntie B's house...feel free to come visit anytime, sweetheart... :)

Auntie B loves you...

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. (Num. 6:24-26)

Happy first birthday, sweetheart.