Christmas Blessings!

with love...

Jami and family

Um...

What?!

Am I the only one that thinks this is a little bit "off "??

Yes, for real!

This morning I filled up my gas guzzling SUV for only $25.27!!

Wow... sure beats the $65 - $70 I was paying prior to the gas price plunge. I LOVE IT!! I just wanna drive my trailblazer, all day long... wherever I wanna go... until all the gas is burned out. That way I can fill it up again - for under $30. WOO HOO!!!! :)

ZERO

Yup...it's zero here today. -17 if you consider the wind chill. BRRR.

This morning I went with Luke to his LAST doctor's appointment for the broken leg. I nearly froze to death getting in and out of the car, and wore my gloves inside the building. But the good news is that he is doing great and doesn't have to go back. WOO HOO!! Next year about this time if the screws are bothering him they can go in and remove them, but as long as he feels fine, he doesn't need to go back. I'm so thankful that a year later he is mostly back to normal with the exception of an overcalcified bone "bump" on his shin.


Now... back to the cold. I'm tired of it. Mostly because I hate going out in it and it's a total pain that Ciara's car is cold blooded and has lots of problems in the winter time. Last week while Luke was in Atlanta, Ciara's car door gunk froze up and her door wouldn't shut. This happens every year about this time. ANNOYING!!! So basically you have to find a way to warm it up enough to stoften the goo in the latch so it will move and stay shut. Also, it doesn't like to start sometimes and the steering wheel squeals its disapproval of the cold. If the car isn't properly warmed up (15-20 minutes) she may as well not even try to drive it because then it has steering problems and roars like a lion. Most recently, the speedometer refuses to function in the cold. UGH!!! Seriously. While I'm thankful that my daughter even has a vehicle to drive (1995 Chrysler Cirrus) I'm annoyed that my 2002 SUV is parked outside or in the machine shed because her little cold-blooded beast demands to be kept in my warm garage, you know the one with the automatic garage door opener. *Sigh* So of course Luke is leaving town again tomorrow for the week. Looks like I may have to just put her car in the machine shed and stake claims on my warm garage if I'm going to have to be driving the kids to school anyway. I just don't think it's worth the fight, because even if her car is warm in the morning, it won't be after it's sat in the parking lot at the highschool for 8 hours. So... say a little prayer for Ciara's car and all of our sanity, because even if we could afford to do something for her, we would never be able to sell her Cirrus this time of year with all it's problems. The key is if we can sell it in the spring ... make sure it's nice and clean so that the new owner won't find out for a while that it doesn't like water either and dies when you go through the car wash or a big mud puddle. ha ha. Poor Ciara, but at least she has wheels right? ;) About 75% of the time it's fantastic.

So... I'm looking forward to some warmer temperatures coming up this week. It's supposed to actually get into the 20's and 30's eventually. YAY!!

Playin with the Democrats

Ok, so this would be some "good fun that is funny"...

I'm pretty sure it would chap their chittlins!

Here's how it goes down...

First... President Bush resigns.




















Then Dick Cheney becomes President and appoints Condoleeza Rice Vice President. Two weeks later he resigns, and...














Condoleeza Rice becomes the first BLACK, WOMAN President of the United States of America!!!!

(oh, AND she's Republican)












Whatta ya think? ha ha I think it's genious, I only wish I had thought of it myself! Muwah ha ha! :)

Are you suffering? Pray. Are you happy? Sing Praises!

James 5:13. I just finished reading the book of James. I think it's fantastic! I love the words of wisdom found within those pages... for a book with only 5 chapters it is jam packed with great advice and challenges. Here's a few nuggets I got from James:

"Don't grumble about eachother", "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.", "Remember, it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.", "God opposes the proud but favors the humble", "If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life", "you say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this", Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin", He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession", "when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy".

Yeah, so I've really been touched today by 5:13 - "Are you suffering? Pray. Are you happy? Sing Praises! It's easy to pray when we suffer, but do we sing praises when we are happy? I think too often we forget about God when things are going good. I sing all the time. I sing in the shower, in the car, in the soap shop, in the kitchen. I love to sing! But I want to sing God's praises!! He is so worthy. God has been faithful in my life and I will endeavor to sing his praises at least as much as I ask for help... or maybe more! :)

About prayer... so my friend Kristi (South African Missionary and fellow manic ) told me about how she has a prayer book. She writes down all the people that she's promised to pray for so she won't forget. Isn't that a great idea? I've been guilty in the past of saying I'd pray, but then after a few days or a week... I guess I just kinda forget about it. I know... SORRY!!! But I don't do that anymore. I was really convicted about my faithfulness and committment to pray for those I love, so I began this process about a couple of months ago and it works really well for me. I have so many on my list though, that I had to divide them equally and go every other day. M,W,F and T,T,S. It is actually quite effective and I feel good about not forgetting anyone. The biggest joy is when I can go in and write that a prayer has been answered. Opportunity to SING HIS PRAISE! :)

A while back... as I contemplated my friendship with Kristi, I had come to the conclusion that God had absolutely put us together as friends so that we would pray for one another. I truly believe that. Kristi is the type of person that will pray for you if she says she will. It's important to have a friend like that, praying for each other is incredible. Right about the time I had the revelation about us being "praying friends" a box came in the mail from Kristi, all the way from South Africa... and here's what it was:

It's an African Prayer Doll. The note said that I should put it in my home and whenever I dust around it or move it, I should pray for her and her husband, Dan. Isn't that cool? It's been quite a conversation piece. As luck would have it and as you can see, it has a very narrow base. Guess what that means? It falls over a lot. Falling over a lot means that I have to set it back up a lot, which means that I pray for Kristi a lot!! :) Kinda neat how that all works out. Here's how my prayer doll looked this morning as I had my morning devotion:

Yup, I "lifted her up" in prayer today. Actually their mission there is really awesome and they are feeding lots of hungry kids. It's pretty exciting. She posted today about the "Soup Clubs" they have going on where kids can get fed 6 days a week. They also have a child sponsorship program where you can sponsor a child that Dan and Kristi may even know. Our family has been talking about this for a long time, and this Christmas we are going to sponsor a child. It feels so good to give, and it's amazing how much you are giving with only $25 or $30 a month. It puts these kids through school and feeds them and gets them clothing. It's quite humbling actually. Maybe you feel the nudge to be part of this fantastic mission. If so... check out Kristi's page. She can getchya hooked up. Plus she has a lot of cool pictures on her blog.

Well, that's it for now. PEACE OUT! :)

Trojan Horse

UGH! I feel really annoyed this morning. I'm considering singing a song for our Christmas program at church. "Adoration" by the Newsboys. So, I went online to download the song so I could listen to it and see if I could swing it or not... 3 times in 5 minutes I had to shut down my computer because of.... (drum roll please...) STUPID TROJAN HORSE!!


Trojan horse From Wikipedia
This article refers to a form of malware in computing terminology. For other meanings, see Trojan Horse (disambiguation)In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, also known as a trojan, is malware that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse. The term is derived from the classical story of the Trojan Horse.


I kept getting the box of death saying the the Trojan Horse virus was found on my computer then I had to click the button to tell it to "clean all". Of course a restart is required every time this happens. SERIOUSLY!! I just feel so irritated that I'm trying to listen to a Christian song and have to get a virus. Why do people use their brains for evil? I never could understand this... if you're smart enough to write code to destroy people's computers or at least damage them... why wouldn't you use that talent to do something amazingly good? It's beyond me.

So, I don't know. Will I sing adoration at our Christmas "dinner show"? We'll see.