~ ~ ~ IMMEDIATE PRAYERS NEEDED ~ ~ ~

If I come to you anytime for prayers, it is now!
Michael's first cousin Chris has a daughter named Brittany. She is in 7th grade and lives here in Richmond, KY. On Sat. her and her friend were at the local Walmart, and they have not been seen or heard from since. Upon review of the security cameras, it shows them getting into the car with 2 hispanic men.
I pray that God would bring them home safely. That he would ease their fear and keep them unharmed. Give them the wisdom to know what to do in that situation. Provide a way out, a phone, a stranger to come along who can help, a gas station to be able to flee to, ANYTHING!
I cannot imagine!
Thanks so much for your prayers.

Lots and Lots of $$$

Well, it's official~ our Yard and Bake Sale was a HUGE success!!!
We managed to make $1200!!
We made $350 in the first 30 minutes!
These people out here are yard sale fools!
We had so much help and I couldn't have done it without everyone!!
Thanks Cindy for baking all that you baked and driving all the way from the Ville to help us! (And for the Krispy Kreme's)

I am very excited, as my goal was $1000 and I even exceeded that. We had a lot of fun in the process and I got to really meet and fellowship with ladies from our new church. I didn't realize when I started this process how much of a blessing it was going to be on me as well, but it truly ministered to me too.

I KNOW IT'S IN HERE SOMEWHERE...

Toy Box: $38
Catching him in this pose: PRICELESS

Don't you just love him!

Hot ~Tired ~ Worn Out ~

Ok folks here was my night:

Loaded 1 truck load full of stuff for the yard sale.
Went over to my mother in laws and added to it! It was piled up!!!
Went up to the church and mind you I had been praying that we would have stuff for our sale....boy do we have stuff!!!

People started to come as soon as the doors opened! And they just kept coming. One guy dropped off one truck load and then went home and got another. We have truck loads galore! 2 huge racks of clothes and about 8 tables stacked 2-3 feet high with clothes!
Books, toys, housewares, baby stuff, furniture anything and everything you can imagine.
We worked for 5 hours with only a 30 minute break.

Then we thought that we were done- my neigbor said that she had some stuff and I told her that I would get it when we got back, so we pulled in at 11:15 pm and loaded another truck load! It is now 12:03 am and we have to get up at 6:00 am to be at the church at 7:00!
WOW what a day!!! I am so blessed and thankful! We had 3 ladies in particular and mom and I that stayed and worked!
I am sooooooooooo excited to see what tomorrow brings! This experience has been so rewarding!
MY GOAL IS TO RAISE $1000 AT OUR SALE TOMORROW! I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED!

KATRINA YARD SALE HAS TAKEN OVER

Our house has become a dumping ground for the Yard sale we are having tomorrow! We have a ton of stuff that has been donated to us, and we got all of our signs out! We put 2 up at the new Walmart and saturated the city! I bet people are going to come, just to see what all the hoopla is about. I have never seen so much flouresant poster board in my life!
Mom is busy baking little pumpkin loaves and her famous Buttermilk cake for the bake sale too!
I pray that a lot of folks come and buy all of our stuff! Please pray for that!

THE DUKE BOYS

Aren't Beau Beau and Lukey Cutie Pies!

LOTS OF UPDATED NEWS!!!

I just found out from our GM at work that we have 600 G&K employees that we have not heard from that lived and worked in New Orleans. I pray for them.

Angela and Mike sold their house for sure! Praise God. Pray that Mike finds a new job and that they find an apt. to live in for the next 6 months.

James is still waiting to hear from the Thunderbirds to decide if he is going to take the job, but in the meantime he was given a promotion and assigned to be over 250+ people and $16million dollars worth of aircraft engines for 7 different kinds of planes. In military terms-that is a huge deal.

Hmmm... lets see what else.... I got all of the signs made for my yard sale on Sat. I just have to put them around town. My Tex gone KY friend Cindy offered to help.. THANKS Cindy... and I am praying that it is going to be a huge sale!

Gas prices are lowering $2.85 a gallon. Only cost me $42 to fill up today.. ha ha

New Prayer Requests: our niece Alexis has a friend Chase who is 4 and he has a sister who has a brain tumor that they just found. She is only 10 mths. old. Please pray for them
A lady I work with, her daughter just had a baby and she has preclampsia so they had to take the baby early and it only weighed 2 lbs 12 ozs. The mom was released, but the baby has to stay in the hospital. The drive one way is an hour for them to get to the hospital. Logan did gain an ounce yesterday, so that was good. Pray for that situation.

I think that is about it for now! Sorry Amber it took me so long to update... ha ha!

SILLY AND SLEEPY IN KENTUCKY


WHAT A LAZY DAY! WE HAVE BEEN NAPPING AND JUST BEING SILLY! HERE ARE A FEW PICS. THAT WILL SHOW YA!

IT'S GREAT TO BE OFF WORK!

It is another great day in KY! Although the UK Wildcats lost to Louisville yesterday!
Mom is here visiting for the week. We always have a special time visiting together.

Today we are going to put out signs that we made for our Benefit yard sale and bake sale.
I am praying daily that we have a lot of folks that show up to buy stuff. I would love to raise a good amount to give to the Red Cross. Yesterday at church our pastor announced that we are going to offer our church to take in some of the refugees. We are so very excited about that!
Several families opened there homes to house more of them too!

Not much else to blog today. Hope my Texas family and friends have a great Labor Day. Spend time together and love each other!

THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE
LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD


I went to let Mandie (our lab) out this morning and was greated by such a beautiful morning. Kentucky is so wonderful this time of year. It is trying to become fall, but still holding on to a few last summer days. Everything is so green and fragrant and the nights and mornings are cool.
I am so thankful to live in such a wonderful place.

Hurricane Katrina is still on my mind heavily. I am speaking in church this morning about our Bake and Yard sale that I am coordinating (we are donating ALL the procceeds to the Red Cross). I am going to read part of what my sister wrote- by the way Heather, you should think of using your talent!!! I pray that we have lots of volunteers and that God brings an overabundance of things for the sale. I pray that people will come from all over to check it out, and in return will find the Love of God! I am so thankful to live in a country where we can freely have sales like these to help others and don't have to get our governments permission.
Praise God for the country that we live in!

This picture leaves me speechless!

KENTUCKY IS RUNNING OUT OF GAS!!


We have a family friend who recently sold his Oil company here in Michael's home town. He was talking to my mother in law today and told her to go fill up her tank with gas and keep it full. He told her to pass it on to us as well. For you see, Kentucky is running out of gas. It takes 8 loads of gas to fill up all the gas stations in KY. This morning, they only received 1 ! One of the main pipe lines has been closed from Tuscaloosa, AL to here that supplied us. So within a week, we will have no gas. We already have 1 city here who has 2 stations that have run out of gas.

Maybe this is for a reason.
Maybe this is so that we are forced as a society to stay home and spend time with our families. Maybe it is forcing the workaholics to catch just a tiny glimpse of what it is like to stay home and just hang out with your kids.
Maybe it is forcing those who are having difficult marriages to have to spend time together and work things out.
Maybe it is forcing moms and dads with troubled teens to have to be in the same house to talk about what is going on in their lives. Maybe it is so that people can come up with a plan on how to help the Katrina victims.
Or possibly it is to help a family who has a loved one who is sick , spend time with them before it is their time to go. Maybe it will force neighbors to come together and help out one another. Communities may become united. Anger may subside and hurts may fall to the wayside.
People will have to become creative and find other things to do besides go out to eat or to a movie or the mall.
My hope and prayer is that GOD will be seen thru this. That his words, that he will never leave nor forsake us, and the he has a plan for us and knows the future will ring out and be heard throughout. That is my prayer!

I took this from someone elses Blog, but I think that it is the saddest thing that I have ever heard! Let's all pray for these people. I can't imagine loosing Michael! This sure makes you realize that all the material possesions that one can buy: Nice house, expensive car, purses, shoes, clothes etc. in the end do not bring us happiness and can be gone in the blink of an eye! Cherish everyday! Thank God everyday for another day of life with your family!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/30/katrina.people/index.html

Click or paste the link above and listen to the first video of the man who lost his wife!
Oh God how these people need help. I pray that God's glory will come from all this and he will be more evident than ever!
This is the day the Lord has made-Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Tank of gas=$41.00
Tissues to catch tears from crying over it=$1.39
Getting 30 miles to the gallon= PRICELESS

I am so blessed to have a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon! As I pulled up to the pump today to fill up my car as it was on Empty and I didn't figure that I could go on E for every much longer, I said to the lady pumping gas next to me" Doesn't it just make you want to cry! As I walked in to get a soda, I was talking to the lady behind the counter about it and a mid 20 something guy walks in and decideds to put his 2 cents into the conversation and spouts off that as long as Bush is Pres. that we would never see any relief and he proceeded to walk out the door.
What are we going to do! Gas has jumped from the picture above when I filled up at 3 pm to $3.09 a gallon in just a few hours. I drive an average of 110 miles a day, so you do the math! I will be broke by the end of all of this! Ok, I am done griping!

SOMETHINGS GOTTA GIVE!!!!!
COME ON BUSH HELP US OUT!

I just did our finances for the month and added up how much we spent on gas, food etc... Are you ready.............. GAS : $535.08 just this month!!!!Somethings gotta give... I pray that Bush does go ahead and decides to release some of the oil reserve! Help us out! We can't go on like this for much longer! HELP, HELP, HELP!!!!!

How we spent our day!

Not sure you can tell from the pictures, but here is the result from Tropical Storm Katrina on our basement. There was about 2 inches in some places maybe more. I think that we went thru every towel in the house to soak up the mess!!
But you know it is funny how God uses circumstances like these to work in other ways. Michael and I have been so crazy busy lately that we have barely had time to just sit and enjoy each others company. So today, despite our mess, we were both home today and got to crawl back into bed (after trying to clean our mess and between us re-washing all the laundry), and just rest and watch t.v. and spend the day together. God has a plan and sometimes it is not our own, but I am thankful he knows and is in control.
My prayers are with the people who lost their homes and loved ones, for my water was not even anything compared to theirs!!!
Please pray that our basement doesn't flood again tonight, as we are supposed to get more rain!

RAVIOLIS!!!!!

Oh how much fun it is to be a kid!

Katrina comes to Kentucky


Well, we are seeing Katrina in the form of a tropical storm. We woke up this morning to a flooded basement, which is not good, because Michael has all his photography equipment set up down there. The water came in during the night under the door that leads to the outside... Lovely huh! But, as I type this, my prayers go to all the folks in New Orleans and Mississippi who have lost their homes completely. When you think of it that way, a little water isn't so bad. For those of us who don't live on the water, we should thank God everyday! Well, off to figure out how to get all this water OUT!

Today was such a good day! We are sure enjoying our new church. Our pastor Vola Brown is so simplistic in his preaching and is so wonderful. The people are so very friendly and are a big group of "huggers". Tonight we had a baptism service and it was wonderful!!
We are so thankful that God has lead us to this church!
God is faithful!

What would you do? You are a "shoe in" for the job of your life that you have wanted every since you were a child. You have been given the opportunity right at your finger tips, but it would mean that you would be away from your family quite a bit...but only for a 2 year commitment!
James has the opportunity to work with the USAF Thunderbirds! He was even approached as to why he still hasn't turned in his application (hello, he was fighting a WAR).
So, that is the latest thing on my prayer list, that God would lead him to take it or not take it and for him to feel 100% peace about it. Him and Clarissa and Jake and Cambrie are still in Vegas, and it would keep them there for at least 2 more years. Clarissa doesnt care for the smut that is associated with Vegas (cant say I blame her at all), but she has made some great friends there too. I envy her strength, and she is one of the women on my list of people that I admire!
Won't you join me in praying for the Ellison's, and please post a comment of your opinion as to what you would do if it were your family!!!!