On to State!

Brandon and Ciara take 1st place in IDA
at MCL Forensics tournament on March 9th!

IDA is "improvised duet acting". When the kids get to the tournament, they have to "draw". They are drawing for person, place and situation and then they have 30 minutes to think up a story with a plot, name the characters and then perform a skit in front of judges that is a minimum of 4 minutes and a maximum of 7 minutes. This process happens 3 times at the tournament - then they find out if they've qualified for finals - which means they are guaranteed to place and receive a medal. Only 1st and 2nd place can qualify for state. I was so proud of the two of them. The thing is... they've been acting, putting on plays, making videos and doing silly stuff together since they were old enough to speak so they make a dynamic duo! :)

State Forensics will be in Topeka on May 2nd and we're looking forward to being there to see them perform. Whatever the outcome, their parents are VERY VERY PROUD!

Oh yes, our children have a flair for the dramatic! ;)

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! :)

Grandpa Makes Soup?

So my Mom had to have surgery on her wrist yesterday. She has a condition that is spelled so weird I'll never get it right... so I'll just tell you that she had calcium type deposits on the tendons in her left wrist - every time she'd move her hand or fingers just a certain way, these sharp "daggers" would stab her flesh, nerves, vains, whatever! Geesh, I felt so sorry for her. She did have a cortisone shot a while back and it helped... but it only lasted 2 months or so and the pain was back. She said the shot was really painful, and she just wanted to have it fixed permanently. Don't blame her. She was very nervous because she had heard some not so pleasant things about her surgeon, but after learning that he was a Harvard Med School grad, I told her that he can't be too big of a dummy. :)

She went into surgery at 10:43 a.m. and by 11:30ish - my dad, my grandpa and I were called back into recovery. Everything went smoothly and surgery was successful. The surgeon said it was much needed and defintely worthwhile and that he didn't know how she could tolerate the pain as long as she did. We got back there and she was smiling and doing great! I was stunned and amazed at how good she looked. She was sitting up drinking iced tea and getting ready for crackers. WOW! Of course she hadn't eaten in lots of hours and I was feeling all sorry for her with her wrist and hand all wrapped up and I wanted to do somethign to help, so I offered to bring over supper for her and Dad. Turns out they preferred to keep it simple and just eat left over spaghetti, so I said I'd make green bean and dumpling soup (a family favorite!) and bring it for lunch today. Then when I went to check on her last nite she said, "hey... you're busy with work, so Dad and I will have a sandwich for lunch and we can do the green bean soup for supper." This sounded like a good plan - so that's what we settled on. She just called me a little bit ago and told me that we need to push the soup off another day because her dad (my Grandpa Fisher, who is 84 years old) is making her chicken noodle soup and will be bringing it over for supper.

Isn't that the cutest thing ever!!?? This old rascal is making home made soup for his daughter. Now this is something that Grandma would have totally done if she were still here. I dont' know... but for some reason this just really blessed my heart and made me smile and I just wanted to brag about what an awesome dad my Grandpa is to my Mom today as she recovers from her surgery. I love "YAY" moments like these. You GO Grandpa! :)

Our Daughter is a GENIUS!

Ok... I am so proud of this girl. I talked to the school counselor at Ellis High School this morning because Ciara is taking some college courses next year (her senior year). While on the phone he told me that he thought Ciara's ACT results were in. She scored a 29!! Holy cow. I don't know how the heck she got so smart, but I am just really stunned. He said that the national average is 21.5 and that the average of EHS students is 22. The best score you can get is 36. The best news yet is that with an ACT score that high, she automatically qualifies for admission AND a scholarship to Fort Hays State worth approximately $4,800. WOO HOO! Our Ciara is a smart little cookie... just wanted to share the joy!

Have you tried Live Links?

Ok.. this may sound kinda mean, but it's oh so funny! My almost 16 year old daughter has a friend that is a guy. They love to chat about the most ridiculous things and he is a fairly intelligent, and fun conversationalist. The problem is that he would love to date her, but she just wants to be friends. (Even though he is a cute kid). Ok... so in this wonderful age of technology he asks her out on a date via text message. Here's how the conversation goes:

The guy: "I'm looking for a woman to take to a movie tonite"
Witty daughter: "Have you tried Live Links or the Personal Ads?
The guy: "I meant you... you should go with me"

Just for those of you who haven't seen the commercial, Live Links is a personal dating service company where you call in and meet people and talk to them over the phone. The commercial is ridiculous and usually has some scantilly dressed young girl having the time of her life talking to a complete stranger. So of course witty daughter is just being silly... but he proceeds to beg her to go with him. She says something about not leaving the house because she has a nasty cold sore. As luck would have it, it's a midnite movie. She tells him that her parents wouldn't let her leave the house at midnite and he tells her to sneak out. She says "NO WAY! besides, you know I'm a good girl" He pauses, then asks her, "why are you a good girl?" Here's the best part - her response is:

"I don't want to disappoint God or my family." YAY!! This opened up a huge conversation about faith and the bible. She shared the truth with him, I'm pretty sure he hasn't ever heard it. She was very honest and open about it and he was interested. Not sure if he completely understood or believed it all, but he listened and she shared.

Praise God for getting it right as a parent. Apparently somewhere along the line her Dad and I did something right. She is such an awesome young woman and I was sure to tell her how proud I was of her for being so bold.