The Firsts

Well, we made it through Christmas! It was hard! All the "firsts" after loosing someone are always hard but God has certainly blessed us in these hard times. My brother preached on Sun. and his sermon was "God's Grace is Enough for Me" and I have to agree. This tragedy in our life has brought back so many old feelings that I experienced when my mother was killed and you know I didn't understand anything when my mom passed but now as I look back on all the chaos
and confusion I was experiencing then and now having to walk thru it again I can see that God has been there carrying me thru all of it. Even though it may hurt like everything sometimes, I have to say God's Grace is Enough for Me!!!!!!!

Truth!

Well, all I have to say is we sometimes have to walk through difficult times and we don't understand why we have to go through them, but God says he will never put more on us than we can handle and although we might feel like dying God is there to comfort and guide us through. This last week we lost my husbands mom of 42 yrs of age. It has been an incredibly devastating time. A loss of a wife, mom, sister, aunt, and Nana. Although we are grateful for the time we were able to share with her we will miss her SO much. If it has taught me anything it's that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. I have lost my mother and now my mother in-law and it has taken loosing to very special people in my life for me to realize the full extent of this. I recommend that you live your life like it will be your last. Love those who are close to you like you will never have the chance to again, do the work God has called you to do like you will never have another opportunity, and be ready at any minute to meet the who gave you life (ALMIGHTY AWESOME GOD)!

New Baby!

I'm Sooooooo excited! My friend had her baby! Kelly lived with us for a short while when she met my husbands cousin Lark. I kept warning her "stay away from that boy, he is trouble." But he fell head over heels for her and well we all know how that goes. They got married like 3 or 4 months later, and then like a month after they were married they got pregnant. Well here we are 9 months later, with a beautiful baby girl. Lark was so incredible during the whole process. He wanted to do everything for Kelly, so attentive to her every need. She went in on Sunday at 3:30. She made progress real fast and then started to slow down, so they gave her some medicine to help her sleep and they waited to turn up her induction medicine until the morning. Everyone was there, in and out of the room checking on Kelly and anticipating the moment baby Alyssa would be here. Finally, Kelly is at the last moments. I am sitting in the waiting room while everyone is finishing their goodbyes and good lucks when Lark comes down and says "Katie come here." I went out into the hall and he says "I cant do this by myself, will you please go in with me?" I told him if he was for sure that's what he wanted to do then I would; he replied again, "I'm gonna need help I just don't think I can do it," but let me tell you HE DONE AWESOME! I wanted to cry my eyes out. I stood behind Lark the whole time and prayed through every push. Let me tell you they will make very good parents. Congratulation Lark and Kelly! Michael the Girls and I Love You Very Much!

sickness and sorrow

Well I'm glad yesterday is over! I was sooooo sick. Thank God for good friends. I was throwing up, Body aches, chills, tonsils are swollen, and my head felt like it could explode at any time. I haven't been that sick in 3 yrs. Anna was sick a couple of days ago, and now I think Hali is staring to get it.
Well besides all that Michael and I were going to go to Kentucky this weekend for my birthday. In Kentucky this weekend they have what they call "Ham Fest" its really fun, kinda like a fair but they have a parade an all kinds of neat things I haven't been since I was 15 yrs old I will be 26 this weekend. My mom's family lives there, an I was looking forward to seeing them, but Micheal and I have things we HAVE to get done on our house for winter, so well we had to make a decision that I personally didn't want to make but it had to be done. My cousin Faith Ann cried when I told her we weren't coming which in turn made me cry. It's nice to know my family cares soo deeply for me and I for them. Well Faith Ann if you read this I luv you and I will try an come sometime soon. For now to my Uncle's, Aunts,Cousin's, and Mama I love you all and hate I can't be there. Take Care. Love Katie Jo

Gods Will

Today I want to talk about Gods will and not ours. People that call themselves christians but refuse to walk in obedience to Gods word. Living the way the bible tells us to is Gods will. I know we are human and we make mistakes but the thing I'm talking about is when you deliberately choose to say "God I don't care what you say, I'm doing what I want to do and there is nothing you can do about it because I have my free will," well what I have to say about that is "good luck, because we are nothing without God. He gives you free will, but will also judge you for your choices on the day of judgement so I think we need to take in consideration our choices that don't line up with the word of God. This a hard thing to do because our human will often gets in the way of our walk with God. Let us check every aspect of our lives and ask ourselves does this line up with the word of God. Ok that's the end of my rant, just needed to get some thing off my chest.

Dead Cars!

Well I took my car back into the shop today. Pastor Trudy was headed to Miami so I asked her to follow me (my dad forgot he was supposed to.) So I headed on my way, made it to the stop sign where you turn right to go into Miami, and my car died, it would not start again so I called ahead to the mechanic and had them come and tow it the rest of the way. When Michael called I told him what happened and he was not very happy that I had it towed I responded to him "what did you want me to do? Push it!" if it were up to me I would have left it in the middle of the road until the tow truck got there, but there was a nice older man that pushed it out of the way for me. I was already irritated because I broke 2 nails while on my little endeavor. Maybe tomorrow will be better

Kids I love em!

Today I was sitting at my computer in the church and I could hear my daughter, Anna, playing in the daycare. All of a sudden I hear her yell "I love you Boyfriend," and then I hear the other little boy yell back "I love you!," so I stuck my head out the door just to make for sure that it was my daughter and sure enough it was. She was so embarrassed she kept saying "No mom, you didn't hear me," kids are so funny. The little boy she was talking to has been at the daycare since she was 8 months old and they are both 3 now. We have periodically caught them causing mischief together in the daycare. Next year they will start school together. His mother and I have decided to keep our cell phones off during the day to avoid the phone calls from the principle. My daughter acts just like me. Boy am I in for it!

Direction

Well I love it when God gives me direction. I get so excited because it usually means growth. Even when its dealing with me. Can I just tell you a little of what I've been seeing and hearing. God doesn't like it when we criticize others. As a matter of fact let me tell you what he says about criticizing in James 4:11. It says "Don't speak evil against each other, my dear brothers and sisters.[fn3] If you criticize each other and condemn each other, then you are criticizing and condemning God's law. But you are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong. Your job is to obey it. " Sometimes when we start to focus in on trying to witness to other people we tend to talk about their issues. So when we think about being negative and talking about other peoples problems in, what we think is an innocent way we nees to look and see what our motives really are. So when you find yourself in this type of situation let us reflect on what it says in James. Have a very Blessed Day!

Stressful

I really hate fundraisers! They require so much work! Why can't we just be lazy? Well I guess we could but we would never have any money to do anything. So have I mentioned that I hate fundraisers hehe! Well I guess God requires us to do our part to. Sometimes that stinks! Well got to get back to work on this wonderful fundraiser. C-ya!

God is Good!

OK! Yesterday God gave me a back bone. I was able to stand strong in a situation where normally I wud cave and enable people but God gave me words to speak that were non offensive an He kept the door open for me to still be able to minister to these people. Then later on in the day I faced another situation where someone needed some truth brought to the forefront and once again God gave me the boldness to speak his truth to this person and once again it was non offensive. Its amazing how things work when you rely totally on Gods Spirit to direct you in every situation in your life even the small ones. Challenge for today, keep your ears tuned in to that still small voice directing every little decision you make.

Work and More Work

Last night I had some girls, from the youth group and 2 of Annas friends, stay the night at my house. The girls from the youth group are going to help me do some work in my house. We are trying to finish up the remodeling that I started and Anna and her friends are going to swim and play outside. Well, we will see just how much work we get done today! Have a very blessed!

What to talk abou?

Really i don't have much to say today! Oh yeah today wuz Macy's first day to sit in an excersaucer she liked it a lot, she laughed and wore herself out real quick. Here's something else, have I said here lately how much I like our youth group? They are all sooooo cool and so much fun to be around. I try real hard to hold a serious conversation with them but then they do something totally off the wall and we are off on a long rabbit trail and I am usually right along with them and then I catch myself and we bring it back to the main topic and then, OOOPS, here we go again. It really is quite funny! Anyway they are all maturing so much in their walk with God and to be honest they still have their times but are probably the most respectful youth you could find and did I mention they have such wonderful servant hearts. I am so blessed to have such neat people in my life!

Well we took a trip with the uth to Branson this weekend it was a lot of fun. We went to Silver Dollar City. Michael rode all the roller coasters some of them he rode 4 times in a row and he has never had the nerve to get on anything that he doesn't have control over.

We (the girls) stayed up til 3 o'clock in the morning just having fun and visiting. We are going to take another trip to Branson in December and go to some shows and have some more fun. We all had great bonding time! I left my girls in great hands. I came home from Branson and my girls were still breathing (hehe), and my house was almost spotless. So I returned the favor with cash it meant so much to come home and my house be clean and I went without my children (an

d if you know me, you know that it wasn't easy for me to leave my

kids.) I appreciate Holly Rarick so much. S

o special THANKS.

Remodeling!

Well I have started remodeling my living room and kitchen. Nothing real big just painting, putting up trim, changing light fixtures, and replacing our sliding glass doors with French doors. Here's the kicker, I had decided to scrape the popcorn texture off the ceiling and paint it. Well I started painting and guess what?! The paint peeled right off! Got any suggestions? I talked to several people that have accomplished this task, and none of them have dealt with this issue. I'm not stressed out about it but I could certainly use some advice, and PT or PJ I don't want to hear your sarcasm he he.

God is more than words can express!

We are finished with revival and it was definitely and eye opener for me on allot of circumstances in my life, and confirmation on other things. I'm so glad for the time we had this week to come into his presence, and worship him. We are truly privileged people to have the freedom to praise God!

Revival

Well I have a few things on my mind this morning. We have been in revival now going on 4 days. We have had some wonderful services, really, there are no words to describe the presence, and the work that is taking place. The one thing that baffles me is when God reveals himself and he is still rejected, people only wanting to accept the things that they want and refuse with every part of their being to submit everything in their lives over to God. They want to encounter God but wont give up the deep dark issues, they just want to shove them under the bed and say "Oh, it's all good!", but the thing is, is that God requires every part of our life not just what we want to give him, he is a jealous God, he wants it all. I feel this way because God started showing me the things in my life that needed to be turned over and I guess I should say that it's not always easy. I even have said to God "I don't think I know how to turn this over to you," but I have come to realize that it requires constant prayer of saying "Ok Father I lift this up to you right now, please take this from me." One thing we need to know is that God cant work in is full glory in our lives until everything is submitted to him.

yea!

Hali is feeling much better just pulling the middle child syndrome right now. I feel better too, my hair is starting to grow back. Talk to you later have a very blessed day.

"patience" its wonderful

My middle child is not feeling well she has been running fever going on three days now. When one of your children is sick you stay at home with them, try to comfort them, and hope they get to feeling better real soon because if they don't their whining is going to drive you absolutely crazy. So please pray that Hali will feel better real soon or she might get traded in for a new one, just joking, as much as she is driving me crazy right now i would miss those car sized dimples when she smiles. Please pray for her I'm pretty for sure she is just teething. Pray for me to I only have one hair left on my head to pull out!

busy times

Well life seems to be getting busier and busier. Sometimes we often forget the important things in life, like spending time with one who gave us life. I often have to be reminded that when you are putting God first in every aspect of your life and turning everything completely over to him and not holding onto even just a little bit but completely letting go and trusting and having faith in God everything else seems to fall right in place. To anyone who reads this remember it takes completely relying on God and giving everything to him. Have a great and very blessed day!

bad day

Yesterday my husband had a horrible day at work! First of all when he got to the Frito ben, where he loads his chips, his window on the front of the truck was broke out so he could not deliver the chips to his stores. Needless to say the managers at the stores were furious at him of course. He did what he could, he went in and pulled the chips from the back of the stores and filled the shelves to the best of his ability.
Then on his way home he stopped at a gas station to get a drink, and on his way out of the store some guy, that my husband did not know, approached him and proceeded to tell him how worthless his he and his dads family are. My husband said "ok", sarcastically, and continued to walk off and the guy threw a punch at him, he leaned back and the mans hand cought him across the nose. My husband then proceeded to hit this person until he backed off.
I have slight problems with this situation. I don't feel that he should be fighting but i don't feel that he should let the poo kicked out of him either. Yet he has a higher standard to uphold, so Im not for sure how to feel. I guess its not that big of a deal considering that was yesterday and today is a new day.

OK!OK!OK!

Well I obviously have not been blogging very well and Pastor Pat your thought process of my phone and blogging while I'm.......you know: is well...... you know....... gross, but made me laugh really hard. I started back to work yesterday and had a great time. We, the workers at Shear Magic, had a benefit to help the tornado victims in Pitcher. Yesterday from 9-2 we done $5 haircuts and accepted donations of money, food, and clothing. We raised over $400 and had 3 bags of clothing, and a bag of canned foods. I would say for the most part it was pretty successful. When you look at all the damage and all the things that people lost $400 might not look like very much, but every little bit counts. It was great to watch how my co-workers were so excited they could do something to help.
My little bundle of joy is 2 weeks old now and her big sisters are so excited she is here. We are all still adjusting to having a new family member. I always forget how much one tiny little person can change your life so much. Any way got to go.

my time is over!

Well now I have had the baby!!!!!!!! We came home today, or to the church, and behold the first thing I hear is sassy chic griping about me not having my blog up to date with stuff (ok, links.) Well all I have to say is she might be right so my time of using "I can't do it right now, I'm pregnant," is over. So here you go sassy chic I hope you sleep well at night knowing this is the first thing I took care of while my new poor baby is being completely mistreated by Ms. Stacy. Just kidding I didn't feel like going home yet. I love you Sassy Chic.

Busy Bee

I have been trying to get all my stuff done before the baby gets here my grandma has been helping with EVERYTHING she's a great woman. It doesn't matter how tired the woman is she just keeps going. My grandparents have not always lived here. All my life they lived in Alaska so I was not used to having grandparents around. After my mom passed away they moved down here and I am so grateful I have now had the opportunity to get to know my grandparents in a whole different way and what Godly, wonderful, giving people they are. God has richly blessed my life with people who care and are always there. My pastors wife, as well as my closest friend, has often taken me to the hospital at odd hours of the evening not to mention how she's put up with my hormonal cry sessions. Then there's is my brother who never lets me procrastinate. He has helped me fix my car, plumbing in my house, loaned me his car to drive while mine is being fixed which has been more than once, not to mention he just never leaves me alone. And then there's our youth group. I love them more than words can express they bless my heart every time I see them, they are wonderful with my children and accept them all the time with open arms. So I would like to say Thank You for all the help from everyone.

frustrated

Today I drank mineral oil to try and send myself into labor. Guess what? It did not work. As a matter of fact you could not pay me enough money to do it again. Although everyone found it quite funny, I gagged the whole time. I have decided that God is the one that is always in control and I just decided to punish myself with worldly techniques!