Only one life....

Only one life will soon be past, only whats done for Christ will last. That thought has run through my brain everyday this past week. We had two events that punctuated this epiphany. Its one of those mantra's that you say all the time but it really doesn't become an epiphany until something happens to concur it in your life. Last Friday a young adult lady in our church was killed in a tragic car accident. She was only 27, she had a husband and three year old daughter. Then Wednesday a 17 year old kid that used to be in our youth group just 2 years ago was arrested for murder. He shot someone seven times. One life gone, one life ruined, both lost. It just accentuates the preciousness of life, the fragility of life. How in in a few seconds everything can change. I thank God for his grace in my life and am thankful for every normal, tragedy free day I have.

Christmas Time

Oh how I love Christmas, what a wonderful time of year. My favorite Christmas verse is John 1:14 and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." What an astounding thought that the God of heaven would humble himself to come to this junk yard of a sin cursed world. I know that we should not leave the Saviour as a babe lying in the manger but nor should we forget what a humbling thing it was for him to put upon the robe of flesh in order to one day walk the Calvary road for us. That is what Christmas means to me. He came to dwell among us, the closest thing I can think in my mind to compare it to would be the President going to sleep under a bridge with homeless people just to identify with them. I know that is pathetic illustration, but you get the point. Merry Christmas!

Black Friday!
I love black Friday, its one of my favorite days of the year. Well actually this whole week was great starting this past weekend when mom kept MaryAnne and Olivia for us while we went to Pensacola. Great weekend, very relaxing and I got some scrap booking done. Then Tuesday was our Thanksgiving meal at church which is always delish. Our anniversary was Thursday and Buddy gave me the Henry Morris Defenders Bible. Pretty Sweet. My kids spent the night with his mom last night so we could get up at 3:00am to go shopping. Yes, we did. It did pay off with a free $15 gift card to Belk and some great deals. Although I didn't make it to Wal-Mart till 6:30am and everything I wanted there was gone. Poo! Needless to say I'm almost completely done with my Christmas shopping, besides a few gift cards. I pray the next few weeks go by fast. We don't leave again until December 27th. :(

Hard Drive Crash....Learning a lesson the heard way, as usual.

Last week on our trek home MaryAnne fell into Olivia's computer as a crazed fan into a mosh pit at a concert and desecrated the hard drive. We lost 6 weeks of Olivia's school work not to mention the 50-11 movies she had on there. How could she have been mosh pit diving in the back seat of the car you might ask? Well that was the lesson I had to learn, the $130 and 3 days of work way. Buddy told me to make sure she sits down when we are driving, her seat belt was malfunctioning so she couldn't be buckled up. I just blew off his admonishment and let her climb and jump and BLAMMO! There went the computer. So after apologizing to Buddy and my daughter and explain to her "even mommy needs to obey daddy." The situation is rectified. I am now humbled into the subjective state I am supposed to be in. Why do we only learn the hard way? Anyway we have been home for a week now and Buddy is working with my dad. He does not enjoy that but at least its work. We are headed to Pensacola to be at Smyrna Baptist Church for 3 days. That should be fun, although I hope MaryAnne's allergies and asthma doesn't flare up as they have been the last few days. Then Tuesday night is our annual eat yourself into a comma night at our home church which is always fun. Looking forward to that one. Then Thursday is our Anniversary and Friday is one of my favorite days of the year. Yes it's BLACK FRIDAY! Can't wait to post all the crazy deals I get.

We are finishing up 7 weeks of being out on the road. We left the 3rd week of September and went to Hot Springs, Va. That was a really beautiful town with a beautiful resort. (which we got to tour!) That was awesome! Then we went to North Carolina for a week to hang out with our friends Paul and Sarah Crow and preach in Newton which is near HIckory. That was a good week because we also got to see our friends Andrea and Chip Hoffer which we haven't seen in 3 years. Then we were on to Jesup GA to preach a Sunday and go to a preachers fellowship. We love the church there in Jesup. Northside Baptist in a great church and one of my best friends in the whole world Lydia Fisher is there and the pastor is great. Then we were back to North Carolina for a meeting in Hendersonville, NC. We stayed with our friends Jake and Jessica DeAndrea at the Smith's house. That was a great week. Then we went to Laurel Indiana and we got to see Paul and Sarah again there. That was a really nice church too. Then we went to Mountain City, TN with Jeff and Janine Wills. That was a good week other than the when MaryAnne had a really bad Asthma attack and had to go to the hospital. It was a terrible hospital. Now we are here in Georgia again about to depart again for home. I wish we didn't have to go back so soon because we'll be stuck there for 6 weeks. We do have one more 3 day meeting next weekend in Pensacola, FL. That's pretty sweet! All in all we have had a great 7 weeks. We'll see how Buddy does living at home with the mother-in-law for 6 weeks. Scary!