Send Cards...Or NOT Send Cards...that is the question.

Ok, so it's Christmas time again; and, once again, I ask myself:
Should I send Christmas cards this year?

I ask myself this question every year. Every year, I have great intentions of doing so. And, somehow, I always end up forgetting. Either I don't get the cards in time (January or February isn't considered a good time to send Christmas cards), can't find cards I like, or I forget to have pictures made in time, or I get the cards all ready to send - and forget to send them.
Plus, I hate spending money. I know, it's odd, but true.

Well, ENTER Shutterfly Christmas Cards!

This year, Shutterfly is offering 50 FREE Christmas cards to Bloggers.

FREE? Did I just hear the word FREE?

Hey, I think I can do this!

Want to see how you can get free Christmas cards from Shutterfly?

Click here! 50 Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly

Or, just want to see what they offer?

You can get:

• Christmas Photo Cards
• Birthday Cards
• Birth Announcements
• And More!

Want to see some cards that I might choose?

I like this one: Family Wall Red Christmas Card

And this one: Pretty Poinsettia Print Christmas 5x7

And this one: With Love Chartreuse Christmas 5x7

(I'd post the pictures, but the computer I'm using right now won't let me)


Check it out! I think I might just do Christmas cards this year!

Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Little people and more:

First of all:


HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Hope you all had a great day, and are very thankful for all the wonderful things you have. :-)

Next,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIANA!

My little girl just turned four!!!! We had a princess party for her last Friday, while her grandparents were here, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Thank you, Beth for making her cakes!

I'm running out of time, so, quickly, here's a couple of pictures of the little monkey - thought you might like to see what he looks like these days! :-) He'll be one year old in just a couple of weeks it's hard to believe! Still, he has no teeth, and isn't overly interested in walking as of yet, so it doesn't seem as if he's trying to grow up too fast on me. He likes to talk to us, chase balls around the house, and push around his tractors and cars while making motor noises!

"Hi, Mom! What's that thing you're holding? Can I have it?"

'Who, me? I'm not doing anything - just sitting here hoilding my train. What makes you think I'm up to something?'

Just thinkin....... (again)

"If you heart takes mare pleasure in reading novel, watching tv, going to the movies, or talking to friends rather than sitting with God, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever in His presence...if you're not ecstatic about Him now?" -Keith Green
(recently posted by my brother - thanks, Sherwood!)

Kinda makes you think, huh?
Reminds me of a verse -

Psalm 37:4, Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of your heart.
How much time do I spend 'delighting' myself in the Lord?
Do I spend time with Him because He's my best friend and I can't wait to be with Him, or because I have list if things that I 'need' to ask Him for?
It's kind of like someone marrying someone they have never met, or met only once or twice - people don't usually do that, because in general, you don't choose to spend the rest of your life with someone you know nothing about.
So why would I choose to spend eternity with Someone I know nothing about?
Just as we took time to get to know our spouse before we married him or her, we need to spend time with God, get to know Him, before we go to spend forever with Him.
Is it wrong to ask Him for things? No, the Bible says to 'make your requests known'. But do we spend more time asking for things, or just stopping to chat - and taking time to listen?
Besides, I think if we spent more time 'delighting' in God, we might begin to see more of our requests coming to pass.

Just my thoughts - you can take 'em or leave 'em!

Conversations with a 3-year-old

Today, we were sitting on the back porch, watching the clouds go by, when Juliana all of a sudden says,
"I can't see God's face."
I explained to her that God lives in Heaven and we won't see His face until we get there.
Awhile later:
Ju: Where does God live?
Me: In Heaven.
Ju: How do we get to Heaven?
Me: Well, you either have to die, or wait until Jesus comes and gets us and takes us there.
Ju: I'm not ready to go to Heaven.
Me: The only way to be ready to go to Heaven is to ask Jesus to come live in your heart and help you to be a good girl.
Ju: But I AM a good girl!
Me: But you have to ask Jesus to live in your heart.
Ju: Ok. I will. (mumbles) heaven...Come live in my heart, Jesus. ok, I did it!
Later:
Ju: Who's that fella that lives in Heaven?
Me: God?
Ju: No, the other one.
Me: Jesus?
Ju: Um, yeah. No, Lord.
Me: The Lord?
Ju: Yeah, now we have wait for the Lord to come and get us!
:) Guess she's ready to go now!


**Update**
Not only was she ready to go, she went and found her favorite barbies, then came and told me it was time to go. I tried to explain to her that we can't take anything with us when we go, but she informed me that she 'just needs her dolls'. She also wated to know if God had a potty she could use when she got there, and where she was going to sleep, and if God had jammies, or did she need to take hers?
These are not questions that are answered in the Bible, folks. :)
Of course, she was very disappointed when I told her that we probably wouldn't go to Heaven today. Tomorrow, then?' she says.
'It might be tomorrow, but then it might not be until you grow up and get old.'
'Oh, then the next day.'
Then she came and informed me:
"I don't want to see my God today."
Why?
"I just want to go to MooMoo's and get my dolls. We'll go see God another day!"

Sounds like she's got it down - Lord, I want to see you, but wait until I do all the things I want to do first, and then you can come back!
Later on she decided that she wanted to go to Heaven today, after all.
How do I explain to her?
I tried to tell her that the only way you can get to Heaven is either to die, or wait until Jesus comes back; she doesn't want to die (she informed that 'boys die, girls don't'!?!), so she said she'd wait for Jesus, but she doesn't understand why He's not here yet!
But wait a minute- isn't that how we're all supposed to feel?

Kid Pics

Here's a few recent-ish pictures of our kiddos for those of you that care. :-) If you are my friend on facebook, I'm putting some on there too.
And just in case you were wondering, yes, we're still alive and kicking. Still no internet service available at our house. When there is, you'll be the first to know about it!
Keep praying!




Jonathan - 8 1/2 months

Wearing big boy clothes to match Daddy. This was the first time he's worn shoes that he knows about - he wasn't sure what to think! (pardon the fuzziness. I think someone put a fingerprint on my camera lens...)

A Song For Today

You know how sometimes you find yourself singing a song only to realize that you don't remember all the words? Or does that only happen to me?
Anyway, tonight I was sitting at the piano, just playing for the fun of it -kids in bed, hubby studying, just me and the piano having a little 'quality time', and I began playing an arrangment of a song that I put together several years ago, and haven't played lately. As I played I was singing along with myself in my head, and started to realize that I always sing the first verse, but could never remember the second. So, me, with my 'must research this subject' brain, I decided to go hunt up the words. What I found was a song that, though it was written quite a few years ago, is still very relevant for today; it made me stop and think. I thought I'd share it:

Every day, they pass me by,
I can see it in their eyes;
Empty peole filled with care -
Headed who knows where.
On they go in private pain,
Living fear to fear;
Laughter hides the silent cries
Only Jesus hears.

People need the Lord,
People need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams,
He's the open door
People need the Lord,
People need the Lord
When will we realize
People need the Lord.

We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right
What could be too great a cost
For sharing life with one who's lost?
Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear;
They MUST hear the words of life
Only we can share.

People need the Lord,
People need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams,
He's the open door.
People need the Lord,
People need the Lord
When will we realize
That we must give our lives?
For, people need the Lord
People need the Lord!

(by Greg Nelson & Phill McHugh, (c) 1983)

What have we done to show them the way?

Just so you know:

I'm not ignoring all of you avid readers of my posts. Really. (lol) It's like this:
We haven't had internet access at our house since January. Therefore, I can't blog. Simple, really. :-) See, we let our internet go (for money-saving ((or money-lacking)) reasons) in January; recently, I tried to get it set back up, and at&t informed me that all of their ports are full in our area, so I CAN'T get service....so until something happens, yo'll just have to be happy with an occasion report. OK? :-)

Oh, where, oh where did Gillian go?

Oh, here I am! Brad got on here the other day and told me I needed to update this thing; I knew that already!

So...what have we been up to lately?

Well, since I last said anything, we've had a visit from the grandparents, Christmas, and new year began, and a month of it passed, a bunch of visits to the doctor, and we made a really long trip on an airplane.

How 'bout I start at the beginning?

On December 23, my parents came to see the baby. Not me, not Brad, maybe Juliana, but mostly just to see the baby. Of course, while they were here, the furnace quit working properly, (during one of the coldest weeks of the year) so Daddy got to work on that for us. They spent a week, and then headed back to Tennessee on the 30th. It was fun having them with us.

We spent part of Christmas day at home with Mom & Dad, then we all packed up and headed to Jennings to eat gumbo with the Sarver side of the family. We had Christmas with all of them at New Years and played games with all the cousins and stuff.

One night while Trent was down, he wanted to grill out, so we went over for that; well, Juju went outside to play with Uncle Tent, and apparently wasn't watching where she was going and wiped out on the concrete. She cut her lip pretty bad, and busted her nose all up - the lip healed up quickly, but she still has a decent-sized scar under her nose from it.

Also, during this time, (actually, from right after he was born) Jonathan developed a rather severe case of jaundice, so I had to take him to the Dr. every few days to have that checked on. Thankfully, they didn't have to put him in the hospital under a light, but we did have to go back every week until it cleared up completely, which took until the middle of January!

Finally got him all better, and Juliana got sick. High fever for several days, throwing up for a couple... I finally decided to take her to the Dr, and that very day, wouldn't you know it, she was miraculously cured - the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her! :-)

Now for the really long trip on the airplane.

Sometime in December, Bro. Bob Barker called and asked us to come sing for their revival. At that point we didn't know if we could do it, because it started the end of January, and the baby wasn't due 'til the 1st, so if he was late at all that would make for a really long trip (22 hours if we drove) with a really small baby. We alsom weren't sure about driving that far in our vehicle, as it isn't in the best of shape, and this time of year in Colorado, it's kinda cold and snowy. We figured if the Lord wanted us there, He'd have to work everything out!

I guess He wanted us here.

Last Thursday we boarded an airplane headed for Grand Junction, Colorado! That sounds simple, right?

Wrong.

Thursday morning, we started for the airport in Houston in plenty of time. We arrived - still with planty of time. We went through security. I set off the metal detector. Apparently, those things don't like hair pins - just a warning for those of you who wear them and intend to fly in the near future. So, they had to pat me and the baby down and run the wand thingy over both of us. Aafter determning that we weren't any threat to National Security, they finally let us go through. Still with plenty of time.

We boarded the airplane. So far so good, right?

Did I mention that there was a big storm moving through the country that day?

Yeah. That.

We were ON THE RUNWAY, engines on full throttle, getting ready to take off.

And they told us we couldn't.

Apparently the storm was headed for Dallas, which is where we were going.

So we sat there for an hour - on the plane - with two small children. Oh, yeah, and the plane was packed - no empty seats. After an hour, pilot came back and said that because the weather had delayed so many flights, they were trying to get everyone rerouted, so we had to wait for another hour.

Finally, after 2 hours on the runway, they let us take off. It was about an hour flight, but boy, was it rough! There were a few times that the plane was bouncing and bucking rather like a roller coaster - if you hadn't had your seatbelt on and been holding on, I believe your head would have hit the top of the plane! Of course, my dear hubby, who gets carsick riding around town was puking after a couple good jounces.
Thankfully, we made it to Dallas safely, and our flight there had been delayed, too, so with the help of a very kind man who took pity on us with our kids and bags and helped up get where we needed to go, we boarded our flight there and had a rather uneventful flight into Grand Junction.
Juliana enjoyed looking out the window - there wasn't much to see since it was so cloudy, but that didn't bother her!
It's been a good week, other than for being sick through part of it - I got what appeared to be strep throat at the beginning of the week, and just as I started getting over that, Brad got sick, but other than that, we've enjoyed it immensely. The Barkers have been very kind to us, and Juju's taken to calling them Grandma & Grandpa.
I'll try to post new pictures of the little guy before too long. I don't have my camera cord with me, so it'll have to wait until we get home, but he's growing like a weed, and has just this week discovered his smile! It's an awful sweet little grin, but them I might be just a teensy, weensy bit prejudiced. Maybe. :-) We're rather fond of him, and I THINK we've decided to keep him. I'll let you know I we decide otherwise! (If nothing else, he'll make a good tax deduction!!!:-)