Goodness, It's Been a LONG time!

I'm so sorry!  I didn't realize how long it's been since I wrote in here!  We're doing OK, I guess.  Life has been difficult in ways I can't describe, but it's still going OK.  Jesus is watching over me, and I know that He has awesome plans for me!

Not much has really been going on since the camper blew over.  I've been working and helping to make changes to what I do at work.  The changes in my job have been incredible, and I'm so happy to be able to help this company prosper by bringing them into the 21st century when it comes to marketing!  I've been working on their Facebook page a LOT, and it's really helping to boost sales!  I LOVE the fact that I can be on Facebook and get PAID for it!  LOL  Not only that, but I've started a Pinterest board for our company, so I get to spend time on Pinterest and get paid for it, as well!  Again, it's really helping to boost our business, and that's what's so awesome!  My boss (the owner of the company) is quick to recognize that on-line marketing like Facebook and Pinterest are where the future is, and is happy to have me in charge of them!

As I said, not much is going on.  However, it's been a LONG time since I had a chicken story (or two), so how about one now?  Seems like a good time!

A couple weeks ago, I was at a store in our area called "Farm & Fleet" because I needed to pick up some sand for my truck (I need the weight in the bed of my truck during the winter so I can get some traction in the snow.  I usually pick up 400-500 pounds of sand every year and then we put it in the garden in the spring).  This particular store also carries farm supplies, so along with the 450 pounds of sand, I picked up 100 pounds of chicken scratch.   When I was done getting my supplies and was out the door (with a very nice young store employee to help me load everything), I heard a woman ask me if I had chickens.  I turned, and there was an older woman, who told me a story of her father passing away, and they needed to find a home for the chickens, geese and ducks that he had.  She told me that the Holy Spirit "told" her to turn around as she left the store.  When she turned around, she saw my cart with the bags of chicken feed!   Now, mind you, we were down to three chickens, one duck and one goose (Larry -- our female goose -- fell prey to a hungry fox about three weeks ago, so Rufus was now all alone, too.  (African Geese mate for life, so this was a BIG problem for us and I was concerned about Rufus and how he would handle not having his girl around.)  We weren't going to get any more chickens or geese or ducks until spring, but when this woman approached me with her story, well, what could I say?

To make a long story not too long, I made a deal with her to take the pair of geese (African geese, just like Rufus!), five ducks (two Rouan ducks -- which look a LOT like Mallard ducks -- and three Pekin ducks -- really pretty white ducks).  We also took 15 chickens from her!    I was worried about how Rufus and Leo (the duck) would react, so wanted to keep them separate from the new poultry.  Greg used some wire fencing and split the chicken coop in half so that they could get to know each other through the fencing.  

Turns out I had NOTHING to worry about!  The new flock was put into the coop, with Larry and Leo on the other side, and it was VERY quiet!  Larry and Leo were so busy checking out the new folks, they hardly made a sound!  I KNOW they were happy!  After all, Leo had gone a few months with no one around who understood what "quack" meant!  Rufus had been without Larry for just a week or so, and I'm sure was still sad, and there was no one around who understood what "honk" meant!  (Not only that, but these geese mate for life, so I'm sure he was quite sad without Larry.)  We still had the three chickens, and they were on their roosts when the other chickens came in, but they were quite curious, too!

We kept them segregated for two days, and kept the new poultry in the coop for three days, before letting them out.  That way, their new home "imprints" on their little brains and they know where to come back to when they've been let out.  This is pretty much standard in the backyard poultry industry.

So, after three days, Greg opened the coop door to let all the poultry out.  Everyone came out and hung out very close to the chicken coop door. They stayed in a big group, and seemed to kind of follow Rufus and Leo around, even though they didn't go far.  It was good to see them all together and made me feel good, knowing that Rufus and Leo were happy again.  

I'll post some pictures of the new poultry in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, just wanted to let you all know that we're doing OK, and everyone's just fine.   Hope that the same is with all of you! 

Love, Peace and Prayers! 

Julie

WOW! An Ephiphany on the storm today . . .

Since the storm happened, I have been thinking about how God gives and He takes away, and thought that for whatever reason, the camper was taken away from us by God and that He has bigger and better things planned for us.   

On the way home from work today, while listening to my good friend #JoelOsteen (I listen to him often enough that yes, I feel like he's a personal friend of mine) and thinking back on some of the things that Pastor Will has told us, I do not believe this was the work of God at all.

I'm pretty sure most of you have noticed how my faith has changed and grown over the last 1-1/2 years.  It's not just MY faith, but the faith of my entire family that has grown.  The girls are fully involved in a church that I had to practically drag them kicking and screaming to just 1-1/2 years ago, and Greg and I have matured and grown in our faith.  I can't remember a time in my life where I actually WANTED to go to church, until I started attending Abby NRC.   I actually look forward to going to church and singing along with the worship team, and listening to Jen and Pastor Will and learning about Jesus and the Bible and how it relates to my life. 

My point is, the enemy has been fighting us and waging a HUGE war with us for the last year.  There are other things that are going on that I haven't totally discussed, but some of you know some of the other issues we've been having.  

The closer we come to God, the harder the enemy is fighting us.  What better way to achieve his ultimate satisfaction (the devil's), than to take away the one thing I love most (I said thing, not person, nor people).  This was the work of Satan, who, wrongly, thought I would turn from God or "blame" God for the loss of the camper.  The thing is, I HAVEN'T!  I have not once blamed God.  I have prayed harder than ever since yesterday's storm.  I've spoken faith over our circumstances and have told everyone I know that God has bigger and better things in store for us.  

Since I came to the realization that this was the work of the enemy, I am even stronger in my faith and praying even harder to God.  I know His hedge of protection is over us, and He is seeing how we are growing in our faith and He will have us come out of this better and stronger and more prosperous than ever!  God is great and I am PROUD to say that I am a very blessed child of the Most High God and that no enemy can defeat what God has blessed!   

Julie

MAJOR STORM . . . NOT good news!

In a very real way, my heart is breaking as I write this. We had a very brief but MAJOR storm come through our area this morning. I was already at work, and Greg had just recently come out of the camper. Storms were predicted last night, but nothing was supposed to be bad this morning. When I looked at the radar, after a storm warning was issued, the "purple" part of the radar was clearly going north of our house. About 15 minutes later, Erica came to find me in the greenhouse at work to tell me that Greg had called and told her that the camper had been knocked over in the storm. I thought it was a joke. So did Erica, apparently. 

He said that it got VERY dark out, and the winds kicked up REALLY BAD, and it got VERY loud. He figured it was a tornado. A minute or so later, it was over, and when he went outside to open up the chicken coop, he realized something to his left wasn't right, so when he looked, he realized it wasn't right, because the camper was laying on it's SIDE!  The slides had been open, so when it was knocked over, they were quite unceremoniously shoved in.   I'm sure it's a complete loss, especially after seeing it when I got home today.

I know that when God takes something away, He has a reason for it, and He's making room for something even bigger and better. I praise God that Greg was not in the camper when it happened. If he had been in there, I'm fairly certain that he would have been killed.  

The camper was fully insured, but it was my baby. My pride and joy and sometimes during the rough times, it was the only thing that kept me going -- knowing that at the very least we could go camping, even if it was only a few miles away. It's not the camper itself that was so beloved, but even though we're going through difficult times financially, it was the idea behind the camper -- what it represented to me.  I always felt so blessed to have the camper so that we could spend time together as a family. We had heard of other families whose kids didn't want to go with them when they became teenagers.  But even as teenagers and young adults, our kids always wanted to go with us.  It was always knowing that someday we could pack up and just go and see this beautiful country of ours on our terms and on our own schedule.Many of you are campers, so I believe you understand what I'm getting at. I feel like I'm writing a eulogy . . . and I guess I sort of am.  I doubt that anyone that doesn't love camping and traveling the way we do will truly understand.  

Of course, I had a bit of a pity party for myself when I came home.  Truth be told, it wasn't just a "bit" of a pity party.  I totally and completely lost it.  It's one thing to see a picture of it, and it's totally another to actually see it in person and be standing next to it.  I could hardly even breathe because I was crying so hard, and actually ended up hyperventilating -- something which I've never done before!  

 As I said, I know God has great things planned for us, I just don't know what it is and am waiting for Him to show me. I know that great blessings are on the way!  It doesn't make it any easier, at this early stage, that's for sure.  At this point, I just have to cling to my faith even harder.  I didn't have my Bible at work, but I did have a book that gives passages to look to for different trying times in our lives.  I also took a few minutes to re-read parts of the Book of Job, because I'm kinda-sorta starting to feel like Job.  That may sound a little odd, or that I'm trying to compare myself to a Biblical figure, but I know we've all felt like Job at one time or another.  The thing is, I'm NOT going to lose my salvation over this! 


Here's a few pictures . . . .

Our little "monkey girl" had to climb in and see if she could get some pics . . . it wasn't easy for her to get in there, and took two ladders.  Here's the best picture of the inside . . . 

Abby (a/k/a Monkey Girl) had to climb inside -- it only took two ladders!  I rotated this picture to show what it would look like if the camper were "upright."  The white thing in the upper right center is one of the "drawers" from the fridge.  The other one is below the wooden shelf, that I'm pretty sure is from below the stove.  We had one of our nice campfire chairs stored in there -- that's the plaid one that many of you have seen at the campfires.    The door in the back leads to the bunkhouse.  

So, that's my news for today.  Obviously, wishing I didn't have to post this.  It's getting late, and I need to get to bed and pray for this nightmare to soon be over.  God has awesome blessings in store for me and this is all part of His plan.  He knew this was going to happen and is going to shower us with bigger and better blessings.   I'm not going to lose my salvation over this.  I'm not going to lose my salvation over this.  I'm not going to lose my salvation over this . . .   

Julie

Don't Lose Your Salvation Over It . . .

What an awesome way to think about those things that are bugging you!  "Don't lose your salvation over it!"

Remember I mentioned that we had a church golf outing a few weeks ago?  Well, I've been working on the photos and videos I took.  I'm making them into a "production" that we can watch on the video screen at church.  It's been a lot of work, and I've probably put in about 30 hours trying to get it just right.  I had the video part done, and had the girls help me with the music.  The problem we had was that I wanted to use the audio from the videos, so the music would be quiet, and then would be louder when the photos were being shown.  I was using a rather complicated program and things were just not going my way.   I was REALLY trying to have it done for church today, especially since I told Pastor Will last week that it would be ready for viewing this week.

I thought I had it all done last night, and then the music wasn't working the way I wanted it to.  Erica was going to help me, but she bailed, and then I convinced Abby to help.  You know kids are so much better at this stuff than us "old" folks!  LOL

Abby had figured most of it out, but this morning it was still messed up.  The girls had done what they could, and it wasn't because of anything they did.  Every time I tried to save the video in a format that I could put onto a CD and play on another computer, it would hang up at 2:30.  The video was 4:30 long, so it was halfway through that it would hang.  ARGH!

I tried everything I could think of, and finally had to give up.  It was getting late, and we were already going to be late for church.  When we got there, I saw Pastor Will and told him that I didn't have the golf video available today.  He said that it was OK, and I told him "No, it's not.  I had been working on it and working on it and it was VERY frustrating, because it wasn't going the way I wanted it to.  His next words to me shook me to my very core.  He said "well, don't lose your salvation over it."

Think about that for just a moment . . . what did that mean?  Not only was he telling me not to worry about it, but he was telling me it wasn't that big of a deal and it wasn't worth getting so upset about.   And he was also telling me that God loves me, and in the scheme of things it wasn't worth getting so worked up about.  I don't think that Pastor Will realized how profound that statement was for me.  That is something that I will forever remember!    I can't thank Pastor Will for what I'm sure sure he felt was a rather "benign" statement!

So, just remember, when little things start getting to you and you get frustrated "don't lose your salvation over it!"

Godspeed!

Julie

Erica's First Day at Work

Weeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllll, Friday was a LONG day for Erica!   Like most jobs, there are MANY, MANY things involved in her job.  She doesn't just answer the phone, she has invoicing to do, she has to prepare the driver's packets every week, she has returns to record, and all kinds of other things that I have no clue about!  It's a LOT of work, to be sure, but most jobs are!  

Her first job was at McDonald's, and her second one was at Applebees.  She had been in training for a job at a local retail store (smaller than Walmart, but that type of store), when I called her about the opening at my company.  We all know that working in an office is WAY different than working at a fast food restaurant or any restaurant, for that matter!  Still, those jobs taught her about one of the most important aspects of ANY job, and that is CUSTOMER SERVICE!  As she is the first person our customers will speak to, she is the "voice" of our company.   She has experience with that, though, as she worked in our store when it was open and had to answer the phones.   

She had a LONG day, and was feeling quite overwhelmed by the time it was over.  She was there at about 7:30, because that's when I start, and we didn't leave until about 5:45 p.m.  That makes for a long day for anyone, much less a young person who's starting their first job.  She was told, on more than one occasion, to be sure to eat her sandwich, but she hasn't mastered the very special art of eating while still answering phones!  LOL  Now, you have to admit, it IS a special skill to be able to quickly shove your food to the side of your mouth and answer the phone without sounding like you've got a mouth full of food!  I think a big part of that is learning to take smaller bites, but that's just me!  LOL   

Erica is nervous about tomorrow, but I'm sure she will do fine!  In fact, I KNOW she'll do fine!  I've been praying for her since she got the job, and I know that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is watching over her!  It doesn't get any better than that!  

Godspeed to all! 

Julie

God . . . or Job . . . Part 2!

So, remember how I said that Erica had to choose between a new job and going to Church and volunteering at Awana?  And how she decided that she couldn't take the job because they would not give her the time off needed to accomplish those things?  And how I said that she would be rewarded by God for standing up for God by not taking the job?  And how I stated numerous times in the post and in the comments that God would reward her with something bigger and better?  

WELL, it didn't take long!  

Erica got a full-time job today!  The way it turned out tells me that it was only by the gracious hand of God!   You see, the receptionist/administrative assistant at my work quit at about 10:00 this morning!  We had no notice, no idea, no nothing.  She said that she didn't feel appreciated and simply walked out!  EVERYONE was shocked!   Answering the phones is a MAJOR part of her job, along with data entry and other very important duties.  This position is a VERY important part of our business! 

So, what does this have to do with Erica?  Well, when our office manager came in and asked me if I knew anyone, of COURSE, I thought of Erica!  She's not going to be starting school for a while and, as I've said in previous blog entries, she NEEDS to earn some money!  She wasn't making enough at her previous job (like they promised her), and actually was making less money than at the job before that, AND had to drive 24 miles to work!  So, it was not a good thing.   

Erica was able to come in today and interview and GOT THE JOB!  She is going to be starting on Friday and will work a regular work week -- Monday - Friday.   Because I work Tuesday through Saturday, for at least four days a week, Erica and I will be commuting to work together!  How cool is that?!  We've worked out an agreement on how to pay for fuel -- as I don't want to ride in her little Saturn, so we'll continue to take my truck to work, but she will only pay for fuel at half the price of whatever gas is the day we fuel up.  That seems to work out well for both of us, and truth be told, my truck gets almost the same mileage as her car, and she'd rather I drive, anyway.  

Erica is very excited!   She'll be making more money than she's ever made before, and can actually SAVE some money AND get her bills paid!  She will have the money she NEEDS and will be working for a GREAT company!  She will learn a lot about work and business, and will be able to put a lot of her awesome computer skills to work by also helping with our marketing materials!  

So, once again, God's gracious hand is been upon our family and, as I prophesied in an earlier post, God has blessed Erica with something BIGGER and BETTER than the job she turned down!   

YES, God is GREAT!  God has BLESSED my daughter! And that's because she STOOD UP FOR HIM and didn't take that other job, she now has something so much bigger and better in her young life!  

GOD IS GREAT!  I cannot say that enough!  Thank you, Lord Jesus for the abundance you have  generously shown my family!   I LOVE YOU! 

Hope this post makes ya'all as happy as it makes me!  I'm SO doing the happy dance!!!!!  

Julie

Not Feeling Well . . . UGH!

So, what's been happening around here?  Not a lot, that's for sure!  This past week has not been the greatest.  I had been feeling like something was coming on, a cold or whatnot.  You know how you can just "feel" something coming on?  As it turns out, I woke up Thursday morning and my ENTIRE body hurt!  I could hardly move and felt like a wet noodle.  I have so much to do at work every day, that I really don't want to call in sick, but I didn't have a choice on Thursday. I managed to take a shower, wash my hair and started putting my make-up on.  I got as far as putting eyeshadow on when I gave up.  I had to walk down stairs for something, and just walking back up completely wiped me out.  (Mind you, because we have a tri-level, it's only eight stairs.)  That was it.  I thought about the 40 mile drive into work, and the way I was feeling, I didn't think I was even capable of driving that far safely.   So, I set my alarm for 7:30, so I could call in and did that and went back to bed.  

I woke up at 7:30 and called in and went back to bed.  I woke up around 10 a.m. and went to lay down under the blankets on the couch.  I slept there until about 4 p.m., then spent a few minutes on the computer and went to bed.  I woke up Friday morning feeling a little better, so it was off to work I went! 

I thought I was much better, but once I started walking around the greenhouse, I realized that I was still pretty weak.  Fortunately, I didn't have to go from my office to the greenhouse and back and forth too much like I usually do, so I was able to make it through the day.  I got all my salescalls made, but then the main copier/printer took a dump on us.  It kept jamming and wouldn't print, etc.  Of course, that was RIGHT at the time that I needed to print all kinds of reports so that I could do my Saturday work.  ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was NOT a happy camper!  I could have been done and out of there by 4:30 (mind you, I start at 7:30 a.m.), but with all the problems, it was 6 p.m. before I finally left.  I couldn't get the main printer to work, so had to figure out how to switch printers so it would print on an OLD dot matrix green bar printer.  I was quite frustrated and ready to cry.  I didn't feel good and just wanted to be home, in bed.  The problem was the program I use and the fact that it's not easy to tell it to print somewhere else.  It's kind of a DOS program, so it's not like windows where you get to "choose" your printer.  It's hard to explain, but suffice it to say that after an hour of trying to print and going back and forth to the printer to find nothing printing, it finally worked!  YEA!  Praise God!   

The best part about it printing on the big green bar paper was that the print was larger than if it had printed on the original printer on 8-1/2x11 paper.  Normally, I enlarge it to print on 17x22 paper, which is the size of two regular sheets of paper put together.  I thought for sure it was going to print as small as 8-1/2x11, but it printed it MUCH bigger!  Yea!  Again, Praise God!   I was finally able to leave and go home to bed.  

Today, I went in at 6 a.m. like I always do on Saturdays, and discovered that the greenhouse crew had already done a bunch of my work!  How awesome is THAT?!  Thank you, Jesus!  I was still feeling kind of weak and not myself, so it was great to have a lot of my work done for me.  I LOVE our greenhouse crew, as they are really the BEST!  They had some extra time so they did some of my work for me, because they had a preliminary report of what had to be put out for the drivers.  I still had a bunch of work to do today, but not as much as I would have.  That was a good thing, because I was still moving pretty slow and not feeling quite normal yet.  

I managed to get everything done today, with my helper of the day, Patrick.  (Normally, I have Megan helping me, but she was off today.)  He's a GREAT kid (in high school), who has really matured since starting to work with us.  He was kind of a doofus when he first started, but like I said, he has really matured and turned into a GREAT worker!   He was a BIG help to me with the larger plants we had to sleeve, and with the 104 Jerusalem Cherries that had to be sleeved up (one person was off today, so I said I would take care of the Cherries).   

At about 8:00, the phone rang, but I couldn't run to the other side of the greenhouse in time to answer it.  When I went to check the voice mail, after all my greenhouse work was done, it turns out it was a customer wanting 36 of the Jerusalem Cherries!   So, back up to the greenhouse, I went.  I was exhausted by this point, and one of the greenhouse crew offered to take care of them, so I didn't have to sleeve up another 36 cherries.  Thank you Lord!  

Our office manager came in and was having problems connecting to our server, so the computer problems continued.   She WAS able to make some copies, though, so that was a good thing!  We have the copier/printer scheduled for service first thing Monday morning, so by the time I go in on Tuesday, it should be back to normal.  Now, for the other computer problems.  Not only could Sandra not connect to the server, but I discovered I could not, either.  That meant that I couldn't get to the forms I needed to use for my reports from the last week of sales.  Taught me a lesson . . . keep a back-up copy of your forms on your own computer!   So, I already know that Tuesday is going to be messed up.  I can only pray that they have the problems with the server figured out so that we can connect to it again!  I hand-wrote some of the information I need to put on my report, so some of it is done, but still, it's going to screw up  my day.  Oh well.  It is what it is and I'll be happy to have everything working properly again come Tuesday morning!    Makes me glad that I'm off on Mondays and won't have to deal with the problems and they'll all be magically fixed by the time I come in at 7:30 on Tuesday! 

So, that's what's up around here in the last few days.  I'm still feeling icky, and need to get to bed.  I had to go over to my mother's house for her birthday after work and bring her her present, but that is another story!  Trust me, it's a pretty cool story, as her gift was pretty special!  I'll write about that tomorrow, if I'm feeling up to it.  Right now, it's time for bed.  I'm pretty happy right now, that church doesn't start until 10 a.m. tomorrow, so I don't have to get up early.   

Hope you enjoyed the journey through "normal" life here!  LOL 

Peace to all! 

Julie

NEW roof!

I'm guessing you're wondering about the title to this blog post!  Didn't we just get a new roof a couple months ago?  You're absolutely correct.  We just got a new roof in August.  This time, it's our CHURCH that's getting a new roof!   Our church has been working on raising funds to pay for the new roof, and it was finally time!   We were able to save a BOATLOAD of money by doing the tear-off ourselves.  The church had FOUR layers on it, so it was a LOT of work and lots of folks were needed to pitch in and help.  Fortunately, we have a contractor on our Worship Team who was in charge of the tear-off and made sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do and keep everyone safe.

So, Monday dawned bright and beautiful and lots of folks gathered at the church at 7 a.m. to start on the tear off.  We couldn't ask for better weather, as the temps were in the 60's all day.    Seeing as I'm off on Mondays I went to help out, and spent most of my time taking pictures.   I took a total of 152 throughout the day!  WOW!  Who'd have thought you could take that many pictures of a roof being torn off?!  LOL  I must say, even I was surprised at how many I ended up taking.  It sure didn't seem like that many when I was taking them.   Don't worry, I'm not going to post all 152 pictures!  I'll just post the 80 or so that I posted on Facebook . . . Just KIDDING!  I'll just post a few here for everyone to see what an AWESOME church family we have and what an impressive job everyone did!

            Our Church!










The shingles in the corner are ones that were sliding over from the other side where the guys were removing them, but the roof was in really BAD shape.  We had water coming into the church in numerous places, and there was just no way to patch it any more.  A new roof was the only solution.

This is our Pastor!  Pastor Will.  He had a smile on his face all day long and certainly did not mind all the hard work.  I never saw him stop!  We are truly blessed to have such an awesome, inspiring Pastor at our church!  

From this point, behind the church, you can see how high the roof really is.  It's got quite a pitch on it, too, which is evident from the way the guys are using ladders and harnesses while they're up there.  

This is from the front of the church.  

I just think this is a cool picture, of the shingles being tossed off the roof . . . 

I have LOTS more pictures that I will put in an album here for anyone that wants to see them.  I've been waiting on this post and wanting to get it out there, so I'm going to leave it as is and move on, so I can post some other stuff.

Julie

God or job? What a decision!

So, my daughter, Erica, has been looking for another part-time job.  She applied for one in town, at a local restaurant, and was interviewed and GOT the job!  She told the woman interviewing her that she couldn't work until noon on Sundays because of Church, and that she couldn't work Wednesday evenings, because she volunteers at Awana.   The woman interviewing her told her that it would "not be fair" to the other staff to have her not start until noon on Sundays and to not work Wednesday nights, and that the only way she could offer her the job was without those restrictions.

Now, Erica REALLY needs the extra money, so she told the woman "OK."   Later that night, she told me that she made a decision, and she thought I might think wasn't "smart."  She told me about the job offer and how she accepted it, but then it had been bothering her all day.  She said that she has decided that she has to turn down the job because she doesn't want to miss church on Sundays and doesn't want to miss Awana on Wednesdays.  She stood there in the kitchen, with this look on her face, like, OK, tell me how dumb I am . . . when I just HUGGED her!

All I could do was tell her how proud I was of her and her decision!  She basically had to make a choice between God and a job, and she chose God!  I know that this decision will propel her to the awesome things God has planned for her!

What really bothers me about all this is that this restaurant manager wanted my 18 year old daughter to make a choice between God and a job.  That's just WRONG on so many levels!  My daughter made the right choice, and can be proud of STANDING UP FOR JESUS to this employer!  I can guaranty you that we will NEVER eat at that restaurant again.  I'm so awesomely proud of Erica.  My heart swells every time I think of the decision she made.

We've been dealing with some difficult issues right now, and our faith has just gotten stronger because of it.  Every time we move closer to God, the enemy (Satan) is doing everything he can to come between us and God and try to destroy our faith.  That's NOT going to happen!  God is GREAT and is doing GREAT things for our family, even in the midst of these storms!  The issues we've been dealing with have only made us stronger, and we know that they are not a "set-back" but a "set-up" for bigger and better things!   The gracious hand of God is upon us and we will forever be singing His praises!

God Bless You All!

Julie

MY Baptism!

I should have written this a long time ago, but I just haven't felt like writing in my blog, even though this was such an amazing event in my life, so please accept my apologies!    I'm writing this on September 7, 2012, but will write as though it was the same day.

Today dawned bright and beautiful!  It was a little chilly out, but I'm sure it only felt that way because we had gotten so used to 90 degree temperatures.  We had a beautiful church service, with Pastor Will.  I was hoping that the service would be on-line by now, so I could link to it, but it's not there yet.  

We don't have any rivers or lakes nearby, so we have to use what we have available for water baptisms.  In the winter months, we use the pool at one of the local schools.  This time, because it was warm out, we went to the house of one of our church family members who had a pool.   It may seem strange to have a water baptism in a pool, but it wasn't strange, and frankly, you have to do what you have to do, right?  

As it turned out, there were quite a few of us that were baptized that day, including my daughter, Abby!  She had kept it a secret from us, and I was thrilled to discover that she was ready to make that commitment to Jesus Christ.  How AWESOME is that?

We were all given a chance to speak before getting in the pool.  Here, I'm telling my story about my son's buddy who was killed in Afghanistan and how his service affected me and made me want to seek Jesus.  (Most of you know that story from earlier posts.)

So, I realize I look horrible in these pictures, but what can I say?  I'm the one in "color" in the picture.  Abby is standing right behind me, with her hands on her hips.

Did I mention that the water was COLD?  This picture needs NO caption!  This is Pastor Will getting into the pool.  His wife, Jen, is the lovely blonde woman in the background behind him.   I am on the ladder behind him, waiting to get in.  This did NOT give me any warm fuzzies about that water!









My teeth were chattering, and I was literally shaking from the cold water.  When Pastor Will began praying over me, I had such a warmth go through my body that I stopped shivering and just felt this amazing love.  When I went under the water, it was not cold, and I just felt so many burdens I had been carrying drain out of me.  I know that although we all have problems in this early life, Jesus was telling me  that He was holding me and taking those burdens away from me and taking them on His own back, to shoulder the burden of those things that I just cannot handle on my own any longer.  As long as I continue on this journey of knowing and loving Jesus and doing everything I can to honor Him, that He will always be there for me, by my side, holding my hand, showing me the way, comforting me and taking my burdens from me.

Coming back up . . .

It's Abby's turn!  











Brian, from our worship team, brought his guitar so we could have some music.  Quite a few of our church family came to witness the baptism, which really touched me!

It was truly a SPECTACULAR day!!!!

May God Bless and Keep all of You!

Julie

John & Sue's Wedding!

Some of you may remember me writing about my dear friend, Julie, who died of ovarian cancer two years ago.  She was one of my dearest friends and I truly miss her.   Her husband, John, is one of the nicest, sweetest men you would ever meet.  He was truly devastated when she passed away.   I don't want to go into all the details about Julie's death, because this is a HAPPY post!

John found a wonderful woman that he and Julie both knew and their friendship turned to true love and they were married today!  Sue is a wonderful lady and is quite good for John!  They make a lovely couple, and you can just feel the love between the two of them.  I'm so incredibly happy for them both!   John spent quite a few years with rodeos before he was injured in a construction accident.  He was and still is actively involved in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association and High School Rodeo, as well.  From what I know, Sue was also involved in rodeo, but I'm not sure how.  This was Sue's first wedding, which made it even more special in my eyes.  Anyway, as you've probably guessed by now, this was a "cowboy" wedding!

The bride and groom wore jeans and cowboy boots.  Sue wore a beautiful white embroidered western shirt, and her two bridesmaids wore turquoise cowboy shirts.  John and the groomsmen were wearing burgundy cowboy shirts, and of course, cowboy hats.

The minister they had for the ceremony was Sue's family minister for many years, until he retired.  According to Sue, he was quite honored to be able to come out of retirement and perform the wedding service!  His service was AWESOME!  He had an amazing sense of humor and we had quite a few chuckles through the ceremony!

Because the service was at 1:30, and I had to work, I had called John on Thursday and told him that I wasn't sure we'd be able to make it to the service.  I could tell he was saddened at that news, but what was I to do?  I work 40 miles from home, and the wedding was another 40 miles away.  I couldn't afford to take a day off work, and I knew John knew that and understood.   I didn't want him to think that I didn't feel it important enough to be present at the service, as I desperately wanted to be there.

When I finished all my paperwork on Friday, and was able to spend some time in the greenhouse, getting things ready for Saturday, I started to believe that maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to get out of work in time to make it to the ceremony!   Saturday morning rolled around, and I was at work at 6 a.m., and things were going well.  My young helper, Megan, is AWESOME!  She's just a tiny thing, about 5'4" tall or so, and not even 100 pounds!  Like I said, just a little thing!  She's in high school and has been helping me get plants together and out out for the various routes for about five months now.  She's a quick learner, and an amazing helper!  She's learned a lot since we've been working together and we work really well together.  She's learning the plants and where they are and is always willing to run here and there to grab something for me.  So, at about 7 a.m., or so, she was able to get started helping me and we made quick work of everything we had to do.  We saved the 6" crotons ((picture here)for last, and I thought we'd have to sleeve up about 150 of them, but Mandy, who's in charge of 6" plants, asked that we use some other ones that were already sleeved up.  WAHOO!  Didn't have to ask me twice!  LOL  That saved at least 30 minutes of work!  I was actually able to get my paperwork done and leave work at 10:36 a.m.!  (The previous Saturday was atrocious, and I didn't get out of there until 2 p.m., which was why I didn't hold out much hope for today.)

So, at 10:36, I was out of there and heading home!   Yehaw!   I got home, took a record breaking quick shower, and even managed to shave my legs, put on my make-up, got dressed, did my hair and the girls and I were on our way!   We still had a 45 minute drive, but it was looking like we were going to make it! We had to drive to Merrill, WI, a town that I'd never really been to before.  It's a small town, but it's bigger than Abbotsford . . .  I took Highway 29 east to County Road 107 . . . what a TREAT!  It's an awesomely hilly road!  It's one of those county roads where the hills are such that if you speed up a bit and hit them just right, you can make your stomach drop!  I LOVE roads like that!  LOLOL  Erica was in the front seat with me, and was watching and knew what I was doing, as I'd hit the gas when we were coming up on a hill, but Abby wasn't paying attention.  Finally, after about six times of that, I hit a really GOOD one!  It was a short hill, but went down right away, where you couldn't see what was over the the other side.  (I know you know what I'm talking about!)  So, I hit that one at a good clip (I'm not going to tell you how fast I was going!), and when we went over, I know ALL of our stomachs dropped!  Abby even let out a yelp from the back seat!  That just made my day!  LOL

OK, back to the wedding.  Sorry!  This has turned out way longer than I expected!  Thanks if you're still here with me!

Here's a few pictures from the wedding . . .

The happy groom . . .   He was injured in a work accident quite a few years ago, and is disabled because of it.  From what I remember, he is lucky to be able to walk.

His lovely bride!

During the ceremony

The happy couple!

I LOVE this picture!

These are our friends, Chuck and Judy, who drove up from Milwaukee for the wedding!

And finally, a picture of me and my beautiful girls, Erica and Abby!  I LOVE this picture and am going to have it printed professionally!

I know that my dear friend, Julie, was smiling down on all of us and gave her blessings to John.  I know she worried about him being alone when she was gone.   Although I miss her dearly, one day, I will see her in heaven.  For now, on this earth, I am so very happy for John and Sue and pray that they will have a blessed and wonderful life together.  

Just some "stuff" . . . and some GREAT news!

Just wanted to let you all know a couple things.  First of all, I have found some of the most AWESOME Christian Rock Bands!  I had been listening to a Casting Crowns station on Pandora at work, and recently heard some fabulous music by other bands, including Jars of Clay, FFH and Third Day!  Now you need to remember that I am a "rocker" from way back (at least as far back as I go! LOL)  . . . 80's "hair" bands were my favorites (I saw Sammy Hagar -- long before he joined Van Halen -- in concert three times!) and still are!   Now, I like all kinds of music, and can easily go from AC/DC to Johnny Cash to Frank Sinatra to Billy Joel to Garth Brooks.   BUT, my heart belongs to good old fashioned rock and roll!  

The Christian music I've been listening to are all Christian Rock, so they satisfy not only my spiritual need for uplifting music, but also my baser need to just rock out!   I must say, being able to crank up the stereo or my computer speakers with rock and roll praising God and Jesus is FABULOUS!   To that end, I've recently discovered Spotify and have downloaded it to my laptop at home.  I'm not sure if you need to have Facebook for it or not, but I do, so that's neither here nor there for me.  The great thing is that you can create playlists and have them available to you anywhere as long as you have Spotify!  I downloaded Spotify to my computer at work, so now, instead of listening to a local radio station on the internet at work, I can listen to all my favorites on Spotify!    I spent the first night creating playlists with literally hundreds of songs!    There are a few artists that are not on Spotify, like Bob Seger, and I'm not sure why . . . but, as a whole, it's AWESOME!  

My new favorite band is Third Day.  I'm kind of reminded of Nickelback and Creed, which is probably why I like them so much!    For now, my most favorite new song is by FFH.  Here's the video

I don't know if it's the words, the beat, or what . . . but this song just makes my heart sing!

Now, to get to what else is going on . . . well, I'm going to be BAPTIZED on Sunday!  Our church (Abbotsford North Ridge Church) has adult water baptisms, and I've decided that it's time for me!  

So, that's all the news I have for now!  I hope you'll check out some of the music/bands I posted here and that they move you (or someone you love) as much as they do me!

Blessings to all!

Julie

A Hidden Gem of a Park!

The other day, Abby and I went to pick up a half-bushel of green beans that I had ordered from a local Mennonite farmer and I decided to take a drive to a little park that I found a week or so earlier.  I thought it might be a nice place for the kids to go swimming or have a picnic and spend the day, and the best part is that the park is only about 20 minutes away from us!   

Here's some pics I took! 

It's got a great little stream, that also has a deep area for swimming!  

Abby had fun looking for rocks to skip in the river!

The river was very pretty! 

I was trying to get a picture of the rock Abby was skipping, but I only got it after the fact. 

Another view of the river. 

We saw LOTS of frogs and minnows swimming around in the incredibly clear water! 

Not much else to report!  Things are going well, and the new roof is AWESOME!   It is such a relief to not have to worry every time it rains!   If you're in North Central Wisconsin and need any construction-type work done, please contact Central Wisconsin Construction in Colby, WI.  You'll get a GREAT deal and a GREAT family doing the work!  

Speaking of work, my job has been going well.  I really enjoy my job!  The drive to and from work isn't as bad as one would think.  Course, it would be a LOT better if diesel wasn't up to around $4.00/gallon! UGH!  Sure wish I could afford to buy a little car that gets high mileage to drive back and forth to work. I've often thought about how lucky other people are and how beautiful other areas of the country are, and then I take a good look out the window of my truck and realize how beautiful it is right HERE!    

I have gotten in the habit of taking pictures on my way to work.  It helps to make me appreciate where I live, and allows me to share the beauty of North Central Wisconsin with all of you!  

Here's a view of the Wisconsin river, just before I get off the Interstate, about 2 miles from work.  I saw a bald eagle flying overhead here just the other day!  How cool is that?!  

Some really cool storm clouds on my way home from work not too long ago. 

I had to stop at my mom's house a few days ago and snapped this picture on the way home.  This is just before you get to the Eau Pleine Reservoir.  

A view of the lake as I'm crossing the bridge.  The lake is a reservoir formed by the damming of the Wisconsin River.  The river runs through the center of the lake.  In this picture, the river is where you can just see the end of the bridge, which is really the middle of the bridge. 

This picture is from our back yard.  Those clouds were part of a storm that went south of us (sigh), at a time when we really needed the rain.  It was such a pretty sight, with those huge thunderheads that I couldn't resist!  

And just for fun . . . this is our (not spoiled) pooch, Mater!  He LOVES to sleep on his back, and this is how you will find him sleeping at least 70% of the time!  LOL  And yes, he is named after the character from the movie "Cars."  We had to come up with a name that started with "M" and Erica came up with Mater!  (You know, like Ta-Mater, without the Ta!  LOL)  


Blessings to all! 

Julie


PS, I have to share this video with you, too.  Big Bird (a/k/a Joey) my Amazon Parrot was "screaming" the other day.  I can cover him or give him some people food to shut him up, but I was busy working on my laptop, so I just ignored him.  After about 15 minutes, Mater had had enough!  He got up out of his kennel and started HOWLING at Big Bird!  This is just too funny!!!!!

It's a short -- 25 second -- video, so be sure to watch it (and ignore the mess in the living room!)