Bff's

This is for my nieces, Suz and Bek, and my girls Nana and Anny... love yall!

It's gonna be a Great Day!

It’s freezing outside!
It’s gonna be a great day!
My heat in my car doesn’t work!
It’s gonna be a great day!
My car is out of gas!
It’s gonna be a great day!
The gas station is out of French Vanilla!
It’s gonna be a great day!
While trying to unlock my car I accidentally hit the panic button!
It’s gonna be a great day!
The remote battery for my car is dying, and I can’t get it off of panic, even unlocking it doesn’t work…
It’s gonna be a great day!
When I finally get to work, I spill coffee all over me!
I choose, It’s gonna be a great day!

He Took My Sins Away!

We are currently (2007) in a stage three drought in Central Alabama; we have about a 20in deficiency in yearly rainfall totals. It is so bad that there is even a small town, Wilsonville that only has one well, and only has seven feet of water left in it. While we were watching the news tonight they mentioned that Marble Falls Texas got 18in of rain yesterday. They went on to say that much rain would totally take away our drought. Well Tymothie (7) got all excited and yelled “They took our drought away!! They took our drought!” of course he had misunderstood and I had to explain that the weather man was merely saying that much rain could take our drought away.
We don’t even get that excited about God, and He did take our sins away. We should be shouting “He took my sins away! He took my sins away!” After all,

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Isaiah 53:4
(The message)

My word!

My grandmother started walking 5 miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 now, and we don't know where she is....

photo courtesy Anna L Wight Photography (sorry about the funny twins look, since they are foster kids I had to edit them for the blog. Keep praying, they will be Rotten-berries yet.)

Fiery Darts of the Cheese Fries!

Tymothie (9) and Juliannah (8) are in a peewee league for football. Tym is playing football, and Juliannah is a cheerleader. It has been so much fun… except for the cheese fries. Those things are sneaky!
I go to a ball game, I'm sitting minding my own business, cheering for my kids, and suddenly it happens… I smell em! Sure enough, a person in front of me has just gotten a huge gooey pile of super yummy cheesy goodness. The smell wafts up to my nostrils and does a delicate dance of tantalizing temptation! I WANT SOME CHEESE FRIES!
I knew it was going to happen. I knew this smell of cheese fries was going to throw its fiery darts at my tummy and tempt me to eat them. This time I have a plan. I loaded up on snacks, low calorie snacks, to take to the ball game with me… I knew that if I had something on my stomach it would give me the power I needed to withstand the fiery darts of the cheese fries.
God tells us in Ephesians 6:16
In addition to all these, take the Christian faith as your shield. With it you can put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
We need to use the Shield of Faith to protect us from the fiery darts of the enemy. If we are reading His word, and spending time with him in prayer, we will be better prepared. It might even help us avoid cheese fries.

Is God the Origonator of Dramatic Effect?

My church closed last week.Yeah pretty sad. Finances got to us, well to the church. No, it wasn't about paying the pastor, the pastor hasn't been paid in months. We simply couldn't keep up with the mortgage payment. We signed a contract on it about 3 weeks ago, and were gonna have our last service today. Instead, that Sunday the people voted to let that be the last service. Sad stuff... So today should have been the end... Hence the dramatic effect by God... This is a screen capture of our radar right now. You can't see through all the rain, but that is most of central Alabama.


The cool thing is our first Sunday away from our church, we went to Christian Life Fellowship in Calera, and in praise and worship we sang this...

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
Just to take Him at his word.
Just to rest upon his promise,
Just to know thus sayeth the Lord.

Jesus Jesus how I trust Him,
How I've proved Him ore and ore.
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus,
Oh for grace to trust Him more.



Indeed... Oh for grace to love and trust Him more.

Happy Birthday Nana!

We took her to Mizu steak house... Her first time. She LOVED it. We had an awesome chef, Au-gus. Haha, Jap dude with a German name... lol or is that French?

So when Swine Flu attacks...

So Nana got the swine flu... And it spread... Latest victim... Q. He couldn't preach today last minute, so guess who preached? You got it, me. Here's my sermon tell me what you think...

DaNella’s sermon 09.06.09

What does a baby sin look like?
James 1:15 says, "Sin when it is full grown gives birth to death." So, if sin eventually becomes full grown, it had to start somewhere. Right? I figure if it grows, it had to begin. After all, a plant begins with a seed, a chicken begins with an egg, and a person begins as a baby. So, with that thought in mind, what does a baby sin look like? A thought. That is a baby sin. You think things before you say them; you think things before you do them. All of your actions begin with a thought. Now don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a sin to have the thought, it becomes a sin when you react wrongly to a thought, or allow yourself to believe a thought that is wrong.

So then I was talking to someone the other day, about something we both know that they are tempted to do, and ways to avoid it.
Did you know it isn’t a sin to be tempted? God, in the form of Jesus was tempted in the dessert.
If he was totally human, he was totally hungry.
Face it, exactly how long do you think you could go without food? I don’t look like I’ve missed any meals. Tymothie looks like he may have missed a few, but we do feed him I promise.
Ok so back to my convo with the tempted person. We discussed how they were gonna have to do something that could very well lead to a tempting situation. I pulled them aside and said,” look, this situation is coming up, and you know when this happens you are tempted to do “this”” they agreed, and I said, “so here’s how you handle it. You can’t always ‘flee’ temptation; sometimes you have to stare it down. So what you do, you realize now that it is coming, and you prepare your heart. You pray and ask God and he will help you. You decide now what you are gonna do and how you are gonna handle. You have to approach it like a battle sometimes. You have to be actively avoiding sin.”
Yesterday we had family Christmas pictures made, all 16 of us. I came up with the bright idea for each family group to wear a different color. So my natural choice is blue, but in the spirit of Christmas colors, I chose white shirts for my family. Have you ever tried to put 7 people in white shirts and blue jeans and keep them clean long enough to take a picture? It isn’t easy. I gave strict orders no one was to eat breakfast! (The pictures were early), no one was to touch the cat! (u know, the little scrawny thing we found here about a month ago… He is doing quiet well now. But I didn’t want grey cat hair all over white shirts for pictures) I wouldn’t let them fight, I pretty much told them all they were allowed to do is breathe.
We were actively avoiding dirt.
Sometimes we have to actively avoid temptation. We can’t be passive about it. If we know a certain place or thing tempts us we need to avoid it. However sometimes we can’t avoid it. Like for instance, if the people I work with like to gossip, I can’t just stop going to work, I have to still feed my kids. What I can do is refuse to participate. Sometimes when we’ve done all we can to stand we have to just stand, and stare it down. Similar to Ephesians where it says to put on the full armor of God…
Eph 6:10 Finally, receive your power from the Lord and from his mighty strength.
Eph 6:11 Put on all the armor that God supplies. In this way you can take a stand against the devil's strategies.
Eph 6:12 This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent. We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world.
Eph 6:13 For this reason, take up all the armor that God supplies. Then you will be able to take a stand during these evil days. Once you have overcome all obstacles, you will be able to stand your ground.
Eph 6:14 So then, take your stand! Fasten truth around your waist like a belt. Put on God's approval as your breastplate.
Eph 6:15 Put on your shoes so that you are ready to spread the Good News that gives peace.
Eph 6:16 In addition to all these, take the Christian faith as your shield. With it you can put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Eph 6:17 Also take salvation as your helmet and the word of God as the sword that the Spirit supplies.
Eph 6:18 Pray in the Spirit in every situation. Use every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert. Use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God's people.
So having said all that, I have to admit I’ve been tempted lately… I wrote this about two years ago.


Snake Eyes
The other day during praise and worship, Michael was talking about a story from when he was little. He said that there was this one G.I. Joe character that he just had to have. He was in love with it. Have you ever seen Snake Eyes? Take any G.I. Joe figure, paint it black with spray paint, and put some manly Barbie size sunglasses on it, and there u go, a Snake Eyes look alike. His dad pointed that out to him, but Michael was adamant, no, it had to be the REAL Snake Eyes. So they went to Wal-Mart, and got him one. He says he remembers, on the way home, he buckled it into the seat next to him in the middle seat of the van; made his little sister sit in the back seat, just so Snake Eyes could be next to him. He remembers how much he loved that thing. As he was remembering that, God spoke to him and said “That is how I feel about my children, I love them all. I created them.”
Now back to me…There is this one person in one of my classes that gets on my nerves. This person just annoys the snot out of me… Today I was driving, and as is my habit, I pulled out my digital recorder, to listen to the most recent lecture from my class. I try to refresh myself on it regularly. As I was listening to it, in the middle of the lecture, this person piped up again. I thought to myself Oh my goodness; he just can’t be quiet… It is like he tries to prove the professor wrong, and I feel like if the professor has a doctorate they probably know what they are talking about…. (Sarcasm intended) So anyway, I was in the middle of myself righteous tirade, and God quietly said “Remember Snake Eyes. He is just like Snake Eyes. I love him too.”
Thanks Michael… (Sarcasm here) now you got me in trouble with God.
No, I got me in trouble with God, by not realizing that God loves this person, as much as he loves me.


Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers.
I John 4:21


Guess who is in my class that just started? You guessed it… Snake Eyes.
I have to learn to love them like God!

Swine Flu now we are gonna die...

Now we've gone too far! Poor little piglet.

So here's a question for ya... Do we play God? I now work with the adult mentally impaired. Most of them are fairly independent, as far as able to feed themselves and use the restroom by themselves. However at some point a decision was made to save their lives. Should it have been? If I were to ask any of my fellow teachers I am sure they would say that our lives are better for having known them. I'm not sure Obama's healthcare plan would agree with us.

Gardasil; Protection or a death sentence?

I was reading an article this week that says "The government report released Tuesday linked Gardasil to 32 unconfirmed deaths as well as incidents of blood clots and neurological disorders." Comforting huh?
I have to say as a mother I teach my children purity, and not to have sex before marriage, and that if they stick to that and their future mate (whom I pray for every night)sticks to that, they don't' need to worry about a STD... However I have to admit I had considered getting the vaccination for my girls.
Why? Several reasons.
One, I know someone who stayed pure until marriage and wound up with HPV. Her husband had gotten drunk one night as a teenager before he got saved. He wound up having sex with a girl who had HPV and even though he had no symptoms, he passed it to his wife. Fortunately God healed her before she had children, so she didn't pass on any complications.
Two, I knew a child who's mom had HPV when she was born. Because of that, she wound up having complications all her life. She suffered from growths in her airways, and had to have laser surgery a couple of times a year to remove the growths to keep her from suffocating.
Three, If it works, and could really save them some heartache... Why not.

I guess I know why not now.

If I had it to do again...

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck
 (written after she found out she was dying from cancer).

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day. 
 
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage. 
 
I would have talked less and listened more. 
 
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded. 
 
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace. 
 
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth. 
 
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband. 
 
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed. 
 
I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life. 
  
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime. 
 
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing i nside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, 'Later. Now go get washed up for dinner.' There would have been more 'I love you's' More 'I'm sorry's.'

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute.look at it and really see it . live it and never give it back. STOP SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF!!!

 Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what
 Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us.


Don't wait! Live your life "over" today!

Kitten anyone?

Ok, not really, If I get rid of it my kids will be upset at me. We went to church today to see God and found a cat... Yeah this poor little thing showed up one our church doorstep. It was pretty obvious by the bones showing that no one was caring for it, so we brought it home. As you can see Anny was thrilled... Excetera was not...Welcome Granite everyone.