Listen up & VOTE!!!

This is a fabulous interview with Sarah Palin & Dr. James Dobson. Once I started listening I didn't move until it was over, it was so good.

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, or early if you can!

Faithful Night

We are looking forward to Faithful Night tomorrow night at church. What a great opportunity it is to provide a safe & positive Halloween alternative.

The kids got to dress up for school today, but not until the costume parade at the end of the day. Hunter-Nebraska Football Player, Parker-clown with a huge bulging belly, Kamrie-USA cheerleader, Chloe-Pretty Pink Princess, Cooper-Spiderman.

I don't have pictures--yet. I'm going to make them all dress up tomorrow too, so I can snap some photos.

snow day

the kids didn't have school last wednesday because of the snow. they had a great time outside.

Go Big Red!

We had a fabulous time watching the Huskers win against Baylor. We had excellent seats--a big thanks to Dale--and made some super memories. Thanks so much to Grandpa & Grandma Bond for keeping Kam, Chloe & Cooper for the day.

Sugar(beet) Daddy

Here's my sugarbeet truck driving hubby. We got to spend a couple hours with him this afternoon in the truck.

Parker's Testimony & Baptism

Pumpkin Fairy

Thank you to the Pumpkin Fairy for the load of pumpkins on our doorstep! The kids were thrilled. We may not know who you are, but we say thank you for this orange blessing.

Parker's Baptism

What a precious time to see your child get baptized!

Wynand was the 100th person to be baptized by Pastor Todd since moving to Imperial 11 years ago. God is at work in the lives of his people.

Children's Evangelist

We were privileged to have Mel Lamar, a Children's Evangelist, at church on Sunday. What an amazing & fun-filled morning. At the end of his show he invites the audience to ask Jesus into their hearts & asked if anyone under age 12 prayed the prayer. Five kids went up front to meet with him! Mel does tricks & illusions while teaching the message of Jesus Christ. He'd be a great person to invite to your church, organization or event!

Baptized

My 8 year old decided to be baptized this weekend. Yep, Parker & 3 others from our church. Come on over & you can see Mel Lamar, a child evangelist & magician (he's really good), then see the baptism.

It's so neat to see our children make decisions for Christ. I pray that God reveals himself to them at an early age, that they will desire a real & personal relationship with him & that they will have a clear conviction of what is right & wrong.

I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME
PHILIPPIANS 4:13

attack

our suburban is waiting at the auto shop for a new starter. erica's yukon was also in the shop today. kathy's suburban hasn't been starting this week.

coincidence? i think not.

kathy, erica & i are all leading the daniel small groups. the first day i had trouble with my vehicle was the first day of the study.

we're rebuking this attack in the name of Jesus. we're ready with the armor of God.

The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:10-18

Parker's Class

Parker changing the class calendar.

Getting ready for P.E.

Listening to the Guidance Counselor.

kindergarten life

we are so fortunate to have miss vikki helping in kamrie & parker's classes. several times a week she sends me photos of activities the kids have done. it is great to feel like i know what they are doing! i appreciate you so much vikki! you are a blessing to those kids! thank you for loving on them each day.


kamrie & charlotte, mrs. cupp's spider.
(dad what would you do to this spider? :))
in dad's defense, he was bitten by a brown recluse spider a few years ago...he doesn't have compassion for any type of spiders now. can't say i blame him.

kamrie, brit & sadie in p.e.

kam at lunch

kam making a sunflower

kam's class wearing their johnny appleseed hats & t-shirts

kam's painted feet. they got to go outside & walk across this poster they'd made for homecoming week. it said, "watch out for the stampede!"

thrilled

i am so excited. i have the privilege to take part in the daniel bible study with my imperial friends. we have 40 women from here in 3 small groups. it is so awesome!

i guess i didn't have enough faith to begin with, we only ordered 15 workbooks. then after the first official sign-up at church we ordered 10 more. a few days later we grew & added another small group, so we ordered 10 more. after the first meetings, we had newcomers & are awaiting our 4th shipment of books!

what have i learned?

order MORE books the first time! i should have known that God would use this study in a huge way in our little town. when i had the opportunity to do this study last winter in kearney with my sonrise friends, it really impacted me. it's no surprise that God wants to use it to impact other women as well.

the best part? we have nearly every church in town represented in our 3 groups. it is so exciting to think about all of us coming together even though we may worship in different buildings on sunday mornings.

chore: raking & photo session

i stood at the window watching kam rake leaves on monday. she was out there singing & raking & throwing the leaves up into the air.

when i wanted to take her pictures doing it she was cooperative only for a few shots. then all of the sudden she said, "no more pictures."

um. ok, then. guess the photo shoot is over. she continued raking.

the real chore, evidently, was the photo shoot. she asked me to put raking on her chore list. but then later informed me she wasn't going to rake again until it was on her list so she could mark it off.

guitar heroes

i was looking for hunter a couple of weeks ago after youth & finally found him upstairs with the praise team as they were practicing. hunter was on guitar. he was having a great time thanks to aaron & wyndand. after playing awhile wyndand told him if he wanted to stay after the next week he would teach him a few basics & chords.

it was all hunter could talk about all week. so, true to his word, wyndand & ryan showed hunter a few things about learning how to play the guitar.

michael has a guitar he is letting hunter practice on, so they were both jamming the other night. i'm thinking future garage band?

anyway, i am so thankful we have Godly role models like wyndand, aaron & ryan for hunter to look up to. they are the real "guitar heroes." they take time out of their busy lives to "mentor" our youth. what a powerful way to help hunter learn about how to grow up & be a man of integrity.

major mess

thankfully this was a major mess with minor injuries. there were 6 kids & i right next to this when it fell over on chloe. she opened the doors & it leaned just enough that it fell right on top of her. i didn't even realize she was under it until she'd been trapped for a few seconds. brad quickly lifted it off & she cried for quite awhile, but no major injuries. God spared her of really being hurt.

it hit cooper, michael (hunter's friend) & hunter on the way down. cooper cried for awhile because he hit his head, but was fine after that.

see all those marbles & broken glass? i vacuumed for about 20 minutes over & over the same spot to ensure i got all the glass cleaned up.

whew!

Irrevocable

Interesting tidbits from Esther.

The King's order authorized the Jews in every city to arm and defend themselves to the death, killing anyone who threatened them or their women and children, and confiscating for themselves anything owned by their enemies.
Esther 8:11 MSG

King Xerxes had authorized Haman to write the first law (Est 3:9-12) to destroy the Jews. It was written in the King's name & sealed with his ring. That meant the law couldn't be revoked (Est 8:8). All the King could do, after learning the law would include killing lovely Queen Esther, was write a new law authorizing the Jews to defend themselves on the day they were to be destroyed.

King Xerxes made a choice and had to live with the consequences. That choice affected many, many people. Even though the Jews couldn't control the law the King wrote, they had to face the consequences of the action. King Xerxes did what he could after realizing what he'd authorized. He tried to make amends, even though it required the Jews to defend themselves, even to death.

The Jewish people fought to defend themselves & Queen Esther even asked the King for one more day so they could fight again. Here's another interesting point it said more than once in chapter 9. Even though the law authorized them to, "they did not lay their hands on the plunder."

They didn't want the stuff, they just wanted their lives & freedom. Isn't that cool?

Physical Training

Do you notice how great you feel after you exercise regularly? Up until our move to Minden & back again I was running regularly. I had more energy, felt better physically & my clothes fit better.

Then, we started packing & moved. By the time I was ready to start running again, we were thinking of moving again. So now it's been well over a year & not much physical exercise.

Sonja & I ran in the 5K run for Breast Cancer Awareness yesterday. We got 2nd in our age division! Yeah for us! Don't ask how we did overall...

I digress. Even though neither of us had been training regularly for this run, we did it anyway. We ran what we could (did a bit of walking) nice & easy, not giving up until we crossed that pink & white finish line.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 says

Have nothing to do godless myths and old viwes' tales, rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

As I thought about this verse while doing my Daniel homework, I realized how much BETTER we'll feel & how much more our Godly training is than our physical. If I feel so good after running regularly, imagine how I feel after studying my Bible regularly.

One thing that has hindered my studying in the past is guilt. Guilt of not doing my life journal everyday or guilt that I couldn't make myself get up in the morning early & do it. That was an attack from the enemy.

In the front of the life journal it says to give God the best time of your day. It doesn't have to be a certain time, just give him your best. If you aren't a morning person, don't do it in the morning. Do it when you're at your best. If you miss a day, don't feel guilty, just get back at it the next day. If you are doing the life journal, don't feel like you have to "make up" all the days you miss. Just keep pressing on & you'll read those selections next year.

Just as it said in our Daniel workbook, not one moment you spend in Bible study will ever be wasted.

Cute Bobs

The girls got their hair cut today. They look adorable. Chloe got about 4-5 inches cut off & Kamrie got about 6-7 inches cut. This was their first real cut, rather than a trim. Chloe was sure she wanted her hair cut to her shoulders but didn't talk as specific about what she wanted done as Kamrie did. Kam said, "I want it cut to here & curled under. I want bangs that I can push to the side, not on my forehead."

God's House

m: "goodnight cooper. i love you & Jesus does too."
c: "where does Jesus live?"
m: "in our hearts."
c: "God's in here." (pointing to his body)
m: "yep."
c: "our heart is God's house."

out of the mouth of a 3 year old. amazing.