How! (now you answer with Ugg!)

The MOM
Guess what! Now I have a dog story. Mine is tragic I will warn you. My beagle-doschund mix had puppies on Christmas Eve, seven to be exact. As usual two puppies died pretty quickly but that is normal in a big litter. The runts often die. Emy, I know it is sad. But since Monday we have had 6 die. Dad expects the last on to die tomorrow. I am not sure why they are all dieing. We think it is b/c Violet(their mom) has laid on them. It is winter so we put a blanket in the dog house and puppies get under the blanket and Vi doesn't know they are there and it is all over bad. She usually doesn't lie on this many tho. Maybe something else was wrong with the pups. Yes, Emy, I really am sad. Wow this is actualy a short post. It may grow in length as the night tarries on but for now this is the end. :SMOOCH:Lady

Christmas time is here...er...was

Hi ya'll I hope you have had a wondermous Christmas I most certainly did. Let me seee. The presents that I presented to my siblings were all happily recieved. All but Nopee that is. She has issues with thankfulness. J. Alan loved his puzzle but I think even more he loved Beanie's book. She did as well. I wish I had caught her face with my camera. But right now I have no clue where the charger for it is. Snap dragons! Continuing onward into my post...I do believe that every household should have a child of about two or three with them on Christmas day. I have never before seen such delighted faces. Beans Louise is very expressive. She makes the funniest noises and faces. Mom liked the shirt I got for her and Katy's present was a hit as well. Wounded Soldier loved his present. I got him Risk for the computer. Now, to his delight as well as our own. he needs no one to play the game with him.

This is the day after Christmas and so I will list everything(ok just some of the things) that I recieved. I didn't know what to ask for so people were pretty much on their own as far as what to get me. I got two song books. One is some pretty renditions of hyms the other is from Amazing Grace the movie. It has a bunch of songs that were inspired by (?) the move. It isn't a score book though. I recieved a string of realy pearls. They are beautimous. A Jon Deer hat. I wore that all day yesterday. I have a shot gun in a box. Yes my dear friends, I now have my very own shot gun. It isn't put together but she is pretty in the box. Wood stock and everything. ;l My grandpa gave me his old lappy. It is old but it works and I have some photo softwere as well as some good Bible softwere already on it. Woo hoo! I am liking having it. I did my spelling on it this morning. ;-D Last but not least after everything was opened mom came out with money. Each of us kids got $100 in ones. We are to use it on whatever we wish. I think I may tithe and then put it all in savings. I have spent so much money this Christmas season! Eeek! It was worth it though. Every one liked what they got from me.

After breakfast before presents Daddy read the Christmas story from Luke and then about the wisemen in Matthew. This year we ate cold cereal. I love cold cereal. Frosted shredded wheat is the best. Yumm-o. I think this Christmas went very well. No one is on a let down b/c their attitude was wrong. And I don't think we went too overboard with presents. ;L not too bad any way. God is good. I had my family with me. Grandpa was in from Podunk. The only downside is that my other grandparents didn't come over to watch us open presents like they usually do. :-( We went to their house for dinner after our Christmas frenzie and spent the whole afternoon there. I had a nap that afternoon. That was GREAT! Hmmm. Oh! And the kids got a teeter totter. It is a major teeter-totter. Twas big.

Well it is all over and I am not on some low. I am just as happy, no happier, now than before. What a joy.

I almost forgot. My bell choir rang in the Christmas Eve service. They did a wonderful job. We rang "Little Drummer Boy" they ring it throught twice. The first time was reallly good for them but by the second time around they were at "Oh LOOK! There are people out there!" (Our church was packed. It was a little less than usually but, still VERY full) So they sorta forgot to look at me and it got a little rough but over all it went very well. I am proud of them. Ok I think I am done now.

Christmas Presents

Dad, Beanie and I went shopping this morning. I got another peice to add to mom's present and some stuff for the child whose name I drew. That person was revealed to me this morning. We lost the original list so we had to go by what Katy had figured which was, at least in part, incorrect. She thought she had figured my person but nOo. That threw the whole thing off.

We went to SDC on Thursday and had a wonderful time. The bitties were pretty good but, they sure were ready to go home when we finally did leave. Nope was our only whiner. We went shopping before we went to the park. I got a birthday present for a freind and a Christmas present for a family member at GAP. We looked for bitty shoes at the 3 childrens clothing stores but twas of no avail. None had any for us.
At SDC we watched their version of Dickens ACC. Tis funny. This year they had the much needed change of music for the big Christmas tree to "dance" to. Beanie loved all the lights and she danced to the music throughout the park. She wanted to ride the frogs but when I set her in the seat (after waiting a fair peice with her all excited) she came apart. No froggy, No froggy, NOOOO! So much for that.

The ride home was exciting-ish. Dad VERY tired. We turned on the music and used every other device possible to keep him awake. He hit his face, splashed water on it and his head, then in a finaly attempt danced to Adam Steffy. The latter was quite funny to watch. After a while we stopped and dad got out walked around, ate hot food. I stayed in the car with the sleeping children and was soon pretty much asleep myself. I was of no use the rest of the trip home. My eyes were mad a me for forcing them to stay open for so long so I gave in and let them have their way. We arrived home all in once peice without any intersting manuvers done by the driver that I know of. Did I mention that this was all in fog? The fog was thick and only in patches. We would have to slow down to get through the fog and then come up to speed only to be met by another patch. Daddy's poor eyes were sick of straining.

Today we are off to Grandpa's. We are staying the night and going to church with him tomorrow. I am excited. There are some people there I haven't see since last time I was there in August.

Blow ups

Beanie had a come apart for hmmm, 10-15 minutes. She wanted to go outside with dad and J. Alan. They were blowin' up the blow ups. Thing is, she's scared of the blow ups. Plus it is chilly outside. Beans Louise didn't care. She still wanted to go outside. So she cried and cried and screamed and screamed and called for dad and screamed and cried for a good long time. Finally I was done and, not gently as I should have, stuck her in bed! No more screamin'. When I came to get her the noise had gone down a few decibels and understood no more fit pitchin. Good Night that child!

Tomorrow we (2G and I) have a recital. I found out about it yesterday. After that I am going to my cleaning job then off to church to see my Awana kids. It has been two weeks since I have been there. I am ready to go back.

My family is watching the old cartoon Grinch this evening while mom is at a Sunday School party. Ooo "the" song is on. I can hear it.

I wan't ya'll to read Ephesians 4:29-32 AND 5:1-13. Then comment me about it.

Romans 3:24

..being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus... Romans 3:24
In the first to chapters of Romans the Apostle Paul has laid the foundation to understanding the hope of the Gospel. He has driven home One: every man stands guilty before God with out any hope of gaining goodness and two God demands perfect righteousness from man in order for there to be fellowship between the two. If this is where Paul stopped man would be hopeless. He would be guilty with no hope of clearing his name therefore unable to fellowship with his Creator.

In verses 21-23 the hope is being revealed to us. First, the righteousness of God is made manifest in Christ. Second, that righteousness is given to all who have faith in Christ. Third, again it is iterated "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" we are in a hopeless position.

There are four key words in verse four that should be examined.

Justified - God has declared innocent/just those who have faith in His son Jesus Christ. He has not only forgiven, which is good and what we need, but has also declared righteous/ good.

Remember that we have no righteousness of our own. Never have never will but most often we believe in our "I'm a good person" religion. Think of it this way. I come up to you and ask you how I like my new coat. Truth is I don't have a coat on. You might smile and back away slowly thinking "you've lost your mind" maybe you'll say some polite lie about how much you like it. When we confess our self righteousness it as if we are going to God and saying "Do you like my new coat (righteousness)" and God isn't polite about it He comes right out and says " You don't have one. There is no coat on you body. I can't see any." It isn't there. You see there is no way that we can make our own coat. There is no way that we can come to God via our own works. (Romans 3:20) We are guilty before a holy God and there is NO GOOD IN US. (Romans3:10) But God can give us a coat. When we come to Him broken and understanding our sinfulness and our need for a savior God says " Look I have a coat for you. It is My son's. Take it and put it on by faith" When we do put it on God justifies us. He sees, not our sin, but rather the righteousness of Christ. He imputes to us the righteousness of His son and decrees us innocent.

Freely- a gift, without cost

We have been justified freely. It is a gift. God gives us that coat. When some one hands you a present in a sincerity do you smile and nod with your hands behind you back while you slowly walk a way? I know you talk of how nice the giver was in thinking of you and speak of how beautiful the presents wrapping is or, if you know what the present is, you speak of it's beauty right? What kind of psycho does that? No we reach out and grab the present and thank the giver. We don't just stand there. Nor do we try to give a twenty to the person who is trying to give the gift. To do so is to insult the giver! God has offered the present of His son. He doesn't want you to extol on the beauty of the idea of a savior, for you to tell Him that you believe that everyone should be saved, or that you go to church and believe Jesus. He wants you to take the gift. You also can't try to exchange works for the gift. You can't put so many hours of ministry into a box and try to swap presents with God. We have nothing to offer Him. Remember we need His coat!

Grace- God lavishes His blessings on those who don't deserve it

1) God's Grace is sovereign. He chooses whom He wills to draw and save and so pour out His grace upon.

2) His grace is unconditional. We can't attract God's attention to ourselves or make Him want to bless us. We don't deserve it. It's in the definition. The angels cannot understand the mystery of God's grace. They do not know why God would place such favor on sinful man. Angels understand hell. Were you to ask one about it they would tell you that it was an easy thing to explain. God is holy and just and we are sinners whose sin needs to be punished. God needed someway to punish sin so there is Hell. They just can't understand unconditional Grace.

3) God's grace is costly. Salvation is free to us but it cost Heaven's treasure, Christ. Jesus stripped Himself of His glory to live among sinful man and died a death worse than anything that we can fathom for us. The cost was great.

Redemption- to buy and bring home and embrace

God has bought us with His blood. He forgave us and then instead of leaving us to our own devices took us home and made us His children. Hosea and Gomers story illustrates God's redeeming love. God told Hosea "Get married". Hosea said "ok". God said " I picked a girl out for you. Her name is Gomer" Hosea was skeptical knowing that she wasn't a chaste woman but obeyed and married her. They had three children: Don't think she is mine, Pretty sure she isn't, and Definitely ain't my kid. Gomer ran away and Hosea looked and looked for her then one day in the market place Hosea saw her on the auction block being sold as a slave. She looked hideous. She had lived a hard life and had been with many men as a harlot. But God told Hosea to buy her. The cost was great. Hosea sold everything to get his wife back. God gave up His most precious possession to get us. He gave His son. We looked awful, we smelled, we had been with many other lovers yet God bought us and made us His children. He Redeemed us through Christ.*

God has justified us freely and lavished His grace upon us. He has bought us out of the gates of Sheol and sets us before His throne. Rather God is willing that the former should be Your story but if you have not come to the understanding that you are a sinner and you have no hope outside of Christ and have therefore bowed before the Creator of the universe and asked for His forgiveness and trusted Christ as your savior then all of this is foolishness to you and you need Jesus. Everything that I said about hell. It's true. All that about being guilty. It's true. You need Jesus to rescue you. Only He can.

*This blog post was based on a sermon my Dale Thompson preached Sunday, December 16,2007.

Lizzy Bob

Tonight we took my car to the play. We being mom and I. Well as ya'll know my car is old. A 1978 Ford Futura to be exact. It doesn't start easily. She(the car) needs time to warm up. When we were getting ready to leave mom tried to start the car about half a dozen times and it would keep running. Lou~La~Belle and her guy are cracking up while they are loading the car next to me. (You see being unable to keep the engine going is, apparently, funny.)Finally the car keeps running and we pull out and she dies again. We, the four of us, those inside the car and out, were all laughing so hard. But this story isn't translating to paper, er, blog well. Anyway the car is started and as we head down the road I start jerking all the stuff away from my feet. Mom looked at me like I had gone mad. My feet were getting wet. Yes that is right ladies and gents my car leaks at the passenger side feet. It turns out it doesn't leak that badly and my stuff probably wouldn't have gotten wet but I didn't know that when I was jerking clothes out of the floor! Oh and the windshield wipers are.... they need to be changed and it has an exhaust leak. Tada isn't she a bute! Well once she gets going she does well.

All went beautifully at the play tonight. Sadness at it being our last performance. Jolene made a beautiful video of the whole thing for Joanna and Joseph. We got presents. A lot of people we knew came. I missed my last carol in an attempt to get the stage set up for the Crachets. I have some funny pictures of Joel and me as Ebenezer and Belle. I hate my bonnet when it is on my head. I think it looks tacky. Did I take it off for any of my pictures? No. So yes I look quite tacky in all of them. I laugh when I see myself on video. I think it is funny when I fake cry! Joanna asked if I cried tonight in my scene cause it sounded like it. That made me feel good cause I can't conjure up tears. Sound effects yes, tears, no. I added lines last night and again tonight and they worked great. ;D

Thanks Meaggy T for your work to my blog. I love it. :smooch:

Everyone go say something nice to Emy cause she was crying when I left her tonight.

Pray. My bell choir is practicing for the first time in two weeks tomorrow. We have two practices till Christmas Eve service!

I'm here!

I figure ya'll deserve a real post considering the last one I wrote was accidentally deleted. ;f I know tis a tragedy.

Last night Lady Lana three of her brothers.

OOO that makes a lot of sense. As I was called to join my family, I was unable to finish this post on the day that I started it. Now then,.. Lana and her bros did come on Sunday night to ACC. The dear girl stayed and told us a story. Twas delightful. Mr.M told her to move up stairs so that her followers would change into civilian clothes again. Her poor brothers were left to their own devices downstairs. Sorry guys we just don't ge to see her often.

On to last night! Last night we decorated our Christmas tree. It is beautimous. All we have for ornaments are ones that we have gotten on Christmas's past and some that have been made by various children. Every year on Christmas eve we get jammies and an ornament. I wonder what they look like this year.


Now today's news. This morning we went to the dentist. NO CAVITIES! WOoohooo! Then we were off the the Solid Rock. We saw Joel. He was working. Mom honked at him but it didn't scare him like I hoped. Drat. While we were there we bought a Veggi Tales nativity like the one that the bitties played with at church. They love it but mom and I have just about had enough of Jr Asparagus's "O Little Town of Bethlehem". Some times that song sounds like Beanie cryin' in her bed. This afternoon the monster of J.Alan wouldn't go to bed so in our last attempt to quell his energies I went and laid down by him. It worked but it also sent me in to a delightful, deep slumber. I awoke at four to "Get Beanie". She was awake too apparently.

Yummy there are sweet potatoes in the oven as well as acorn squash. Green beans are on the stove to go with our orange food. Breakfast was yummy today b/c mom made Paula Deen's praline french toast casserole. Talk about tasty(not to mention fattening)! Yummers! Mom was on this really cool website last night when she got the casserole recipe. I don't remember the name of it but it had this thing that would automatically change the ingredient amounts according to how many you needed to feed. You just put in the number of servings and it cuts or adds it all up. Nice it was.

Wow, tired, excited....

Paul Washer

More controversial stuff. Ya I know I should quite but......

http://bloodtippedears.blogspot.com/2007/11/christ-commands-to-make-disciples-not.html

I have only watched the first video but we like Word Pictures. The man speaking is from the show. They(Word Pictures) have some good stuff that even Lana (cuase you like Piper) and Meaggy(cause you like Bro. Dale) won't disagree with. ;D