Wednesday PINK

I started a Bible study last week on Wednesday called "Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed - A Study of David". It is a video study with Pricilla Shirer, Beth Moore, and Kay Arthur. It really is intense. I am having a nice time with it. I get up at 5 am, get my book and Bible out and get to work. I feel like I am coming to myself again for the first time in a long time.

This is my nephews, Bryan and Jeremy Bates. They work at Sonitrol of Lexington. In the picture, Bryan is holding his National Award as Salesman of the Year for Sonitrol International. I am so proud of both of them.

Regina, Pat, Mother, and ?

They both work for my brother, Sonny, pictured with his wife Pat. Jeremy is the General Manager and Bryan is the Sales Manager.They really work hard and do a really good job. Pat and Sonny really are proud parents, as they should be. Sometimes kids who work for their parents, think they can skate by but Sonny would never let that happen. He has always been a strict but fair dad.

Breast Cancer is awful. Just the words instill anxiety in my heart, even though the doctor has told me that I shouldn't worry anymore because it is gone. So why do I have to take a little pill every day to ensure that it doesn't come back? Now, one of the ladies that is on my deacon list has found out that she has breast cancer. They will be doing a mastectomy soon. I don't know what to say to her. I know what she is going through, but it is so intense at this point, I am not sure she would even hear me now. I am praying for her and will be there whenever she needs me. 

We had our business meeting at church and it went very well. I was the Clerk tonight and took the minutes. I also crocheted a dishcloth and gave it to Mary Susan, the pastor's wife. I find that crocheting helps keep my hands limber and keeps the pain down. It was so cold today and damp that it was difficult to keep things together. I may go to Judy's and quilt with her tomorrow. I think it would be good for her to have some company and probably for me too.

I love being on Twitter, Blogging, and Facebook, but I think that I need something else. I thought maybe it was a job, but I just get too stressed in situations where I actually have to be accountable for something.

So I may take the day and go play at Judy's. Spring needs to come soon. I am getting tired of staying in the house. Time to garden.

I love you all, GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.

Chris Tomlin -- How Great is Our God

DANCE PINK

"I don’t know if you have seen the Resurrection Sunday Dance from Budapest, Hungary but it is powerful. So much so, that it has gone global. This coming Easter it will be performed around the world and it will be happening on the Peninsula on the mall area in front of the Ferguson Center (CNU), Sunday, April 24th at 5:00pm.
"I have attached a promo about the upcoming event, which you are free to use to help promote the event. The promo has 2 websites. The first is the actual video of the dance in Budapest last Easter. Watch this and you’ll catch the vision. This is what you need to show for others to catch the vision. This is the dance we will be doing at CNU. Can you see hundreds across denominational lines joining together to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ?  "What a way to finish out Easter! The second is an instructional video. You will notice is has one person who is very accomplished and the other two who are still learning. It was designed this way so ALL levels of movement can feel comfortable and be a part. Because it is electronic it can be accessed at all times by anyone, making it easy for anyone to participate.
You will notice that no church name is attached to the promo sheet because it is for the entire Body of Christ to come together to celebrate His resurrection.  When we come together we will only perform the dance, we may do it twice, but nothing else will be done.
"Why should my church, my ministry (Youth, Interpretive Dance, Drama, etc.) organization or I be a part of this?  It is one of those rare times where we can globally join together to celebrate, but double so, because of its unique creative art form. Secondly, It will be videoed from multiple viewpoints much like the one in Budapest.  Even though it will be done in a public setting the real outreach will occur electronically as people tell there friends of the event they participated in, which can be viewed through various means of social networking. It will take on a life of its own! That is exactly what we hope happens." I was sent this in an email by my pastor this morning about an new Christian Dance that will be happening around the world on Resurrection Sunday. You have got to see this. It is awesome. I may even get out there with the young people and do it. I encourage you to bring this to your church and have a community dance for the Lord on Easter. What a wonderful way to worship. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymvsnAOnL0&feature=related

There are training videos on YouTube also. 

I am excited about this. I guess because I used to teach line dancing. I am going to see if I can get it together and teach it too. Praise the Lord for his blessings. This may even get me off the computer chair. LOL

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

2011 PINK

How is the new year treating you? I am doing alright. The cold weather is not treating me so well though. The RA is acting up. It is difficult to type so usually I tweet because a lot of that is copy and paste unless I am interacting with someone personally. Well, I am back to my New Year's Favorite Resolution. I am dieting again. LOL!

New Year's Eve was great. We did our usual thing by going to a friend's for a party. We all brought covered dishes and drank sodas. We played games with Monopoly money and had an auction for gifts at the end. We had some wonderful people this year. Some were missing that were at another party, but there some new people who made up the difference. Plus, the three granddaughters were there. They were so sweet. They helped their grands with the games and were very intelligent young girls. I enjoyed talking with them all evening. The upshot of all this is that I broke the diet before the ball dropped all the way down in New York.

I have a WBV machine. It is a whole body vibration machine. A friend of mine who had MS passed away last year and his wife sold it to me. Marty didn't get much use out of it, but I am. You can just stand on it and get benefit, but it does even better if you exercise on it. I even saw one similar to it on "The Doctors". It is supposed to help with belly fat. I am going to get back on the program again. I am also going to do the @ZnaTrainer O2 Breakthrough. It is a wonderful program. So wish me luck if you want. Personally, I don't believe in luck. Prayer would be better. I need all the prayer I can get. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011 PINK



Garrett & Taylor-2010



Happy New Year! December was a rush time for us. We went to Branson MO on a road trip. We ended up stranded in Lexington KY because of snow, but only for a couple of days. We were at my mothers and it was nice to be there an extra day or two. She is busy looking for things to give away or sell. Her house is so large and she has been saving stuff for so  long. She doesn't want us to have to go in and clean things out after she is gone. Her health is pretty good. She turns 81 this year and is still involved. She is an artist and she draws and paints, Watercolor, Acrylic, and Oil. She has a huge Barbie Doll collection and wants to sell it, but no one wants them right now. I told her to hold off and see what happens when the economy picks up.

After we got home, it was a bevy of Christmas Parties and then I went to NC for the week before Christmas to decorate the Beach House. During all this, my computer was acting up. The USB plugins were not working so I couldn't use my mouse. Darn, I hate the little mouse pad on the computer itself. It is difficult for me. I sat on the phone with Sony help for hours. I cleaned up and backed all my data on CDs. I could still use the computer so I took it with me to NC Verizon Wireless Purgatory. I was actually able to get on occasionally while I was there. They must have updated some of the towers. I didn't even turn it on for 5 days, it stayed in the bag and I just got so much done.

I love to decorate the packages with Wire Ribbon Bows and it was something I could make when I was resting in between more strenuous tasks. I made two aprons for Rhonda to give away and she brought me another one to decorate. I put buttons, findings, and wrote with acrylic paint on them. They were for some of her teacher friends and Rhonda said they really loved them. Then I got busy making crochet dishcloths for her to give to other friends. I don't even remember how many I made, but I do know that it was very theraputic for my hands.

The grands, Garrett and Taylor stayed with me some and we made cookies. Taylor even stayed overnight. She is so scared of so many things. She has always been frightened of so much, even as a baby. Her staying overnight with just me and without Garrett was a big deal. Something was working on me that night and I couldn't stay awake. I sat down in Ray's recliner about 6 p.m. and dozed off. I knew when she tried to wake me up, but I just couldn't stay awake. I woke up at 1 a.m. and wrapped gifts until 5 and sat back down in the recliner with my coffee and fell asleep again. She had fallen asleep on the sofa, so I didn't want to go to bed and leave her alone incase she woke up before it got light outside. Anyway, she wants to stay with me again.

I went to visit Hazel, my first husband's mother. I have always told her that I didn't divorce her, only her son. She it very nice and helps Rhonda with the twins a lot. She always spends Christmas Eve with us and we look forward to time with her. She turned 83 this past year and is still active. She loves sports and never misses a basketball game or a golf match on TV. She has always been supportive of me, even when I was going through the divorce. The children went to live with her when Rhonda was 16 and was sneaking out the window at night. We lived in Dallas and I was so scared she would get pregnant or get into drugs. It was supposed to be for a year, but they were doing so well in school and had lots of friends they didn't want to leave, that I let them make the decision to stay. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I couldn't get child support because my former husband went on disability and wouldn't sign the papers for me to receive payments for the children and I just didn't make enough to support us all, even though I was working 60 hours a week. Being a woman without a degree is very difficult if you are the only bread-winner. Of course, he signed for his mother to get the SS for the children and probably back pay for the time that I was trying to support them without help. Anyway, he passed away a few years ago and I have forgiven him now that I have my family back. God took care of retribution.

Off track again, LOL! I embroidered little sock monkey ornaments for the grandchildren. I put their initials on them in red. I purchased them at Cracker Barrell. They were so cute and something they can see every Christmas to remember me down through the years. I want them to remember me and tell people how much I loved Christmas and loved the giving part much more than the receiving part. I cannot explain the joy that I feel when people open gifts that I have chosen for them. Not to mention, this year I had a new grandson, Dillon. His mother, Sharon, is my new daughter-in-law. She is so sweet, my son really picked a winner when he proposed to her. I am so proud of them both. They have been taking a class at church, Dave Ramsey's Financial Plan. Since they got married last summer, they have been able to pay off all their credit card debt and cut them up. Jeff says that if you pay cash for everything, you don't have to worry about your credit score. They are going to take each of the vehicles and make double payments or triple and get them paid off as soon as they can. They have savings and are not doing things unless they save up for it specifically. I think this is wonderful. Both of them are so grounded.



Here is to your good health and wealth in 2011! Just remember, God is Good, All the time.

Christ Fellowship Pink - Merry Christmas

Enjoy! This is my favorite Rap and favorite YouTube Video. I hope you enjoy this and pass it to as many people as you will. It definately has a message that we all  could abide by.

I am on my way to NC Verizon Wireless Purgatory this morning. The beach house seems to be in the Twilight Zone where cell service is concerned. NC may be be God's Country, but it is yet to be cell country. LOL. Love to you all and if I don't tweet, do facebook, or blog for a few days, it is because I cannot.

Take care and have a wonderful Christmas.

Love, Barbara

Driving to Louisville PINK

We stopped at Cracker Barrel in Mt Vernon IL. Another great dinner. Ray had chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes, okra, and biscuits. I had barbecue pork, with macaroni and cheese, cole slaw and cornbread muffin. My barbecue and macaroni was cold but the waitress was sweet and brought me another plate with HOT food on it. It was wonderful. I bought some more sock monkeys. I am buying a bunch of them and the only place I have seen them is Cracker Barrel. I am buying the 5 inch ones and I am going to embroider the initials of the grandchildren  on them for part of their Christmas presents. I always like to give a keepsake to them each year.

When I started writing on the blog, I remembered that I forgot the picture that we had made at The Legends Concert. I called the Hilton Landing in Branson and left a message for housekeeping to see if they could mail it to me. I will put it on the blog if they do. We are in the car driving toward Louisville now. It is after 7 p.m. and it is very dark. Not much on I-64 in this part of the world. We are listening to a sermon on the radio and I am happily blogging. I bought a new Verizon Samsung Fascinate cell phone. I love it. I am paying an extra $20 a month to have a mobile hotspot. That is so much nicer than the air card I had before. Seems to work very well. Still have a little trouble when we go to Verizon Wireless Purgatory in NC.

I decided to wear my wig today instead of a hat. The wig is warm and looks much better than me with a hat. LOL. It sure is keeping my head warm. I may wear more wigs this winter.

Did you know that God is Good, All the Time? Actually, Good cannot exist without God. Did you know that there is no temptation that God cannot deliver you from. If God has delivered you from a sin, you no longer need to tell everyone that you are a sinner, i.e., alcoholic, thief, etc. If you have been delivered from sin by Christ, you no longer have that label. In your mind, you realize that you need to stay away from that sin, but you don't have to broadcast it to everyone once you have been delivered. Live for God, regardless of the inconvenience you face. Always, let people know who you are. For myself, I bought a large silver cross in California when I was on a business trip. I used the per diem that the government provides for travel for the purchase of the cross instead of lots of expensive meals. I wear the cross most of the time and if not that one, I wear a small one. You would be amazed how it calms down a heated conversation. People who spew profanity usually take one look start talking without the swear words.

I love the quotation 'Profanity is the effort of a feeble mind to express itself forcefully.' I was told it was a quote from President George Washington. English is changing day by day and more people would be more cognizant of their language if they knew that intelligent people thought them ignorant because of their profanity. There are occasions where I have heard someone use a word for emphasis that wasn't very nice, but in the group there wasn't anyone who swore, so it was a very effective use of the word. Using profanity habitually does show ignorance and it also shows that that person does not care about anyone but themselves. Here I go on my soapbox again.

I am so thankful to my Twitter friends who follow me so faithfully. I actually went over 35,000 people this week. Isn't that cool? I know so many of them now, and miss them if I don't see them for a few days. It is amazing how many send me direct messages asking for prayer. I have spoken with them on the phone. I love to give council. I don't have a degree, but I have taken some psychology classes and some pastoral counseling classes as well.  I don't mind retweeting things for people that have to do with charity, and I do retweet a few friends who are doing business, but I choose them carefully.

I am praying for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for all my followers and friends. I wish you well. Lots of Love, Barbara