I'm back

Boy!!!! I was gone a LONG time!! I never meant to stop blogging.  I guess life just got in the way.

I hope I can catch up on the last 3 1/2 months.

So here goes with a condensed update.

AG turned 1 on October 14. Jason and Amber had a bday party for her at there house on the deck and they could not have order a prettier day.

Phil and I had the privileged of doing AG's cake.

And if I can brag on us I think that we did a fairly good job. I've learned when we do things like this that its better for me to just listened to Phil and follow his directions cause things always work out better if I do. But don't tell him that cause I don't want him to know that he is usually right.

I think that the birthday girl had a good time. She got lots and lots of great stuff and I think she was the prettiest 1 year old at the party.

Phil and I did another cake (mostly Phil) for Jordan's football homecoming party. Jima had several of Jordan's friends over the Friday of Tupelo's homecoming for supper.  Then after that they all went to the game then came back to Jima's for dessert.

Then there was Halloween. Brady and Rae have not dressed up for Halloween in several years. For the last three years our church has had a fall festival on Halloween and we have always worked it. This year was no different. Phil, Barbara, Bob, Adam, Brady and myself worked the ring toss booth. Rae had several friends from school that came so she was playing all night. I think that they said that we had around 800 people that came through the festival!! Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger. This is an awesome outreach program that the church does. It makes me proud to be a small part of this.

Amber let me make AG's Halloween costume this year. I was so happy!! Thankfully it was very simple to make, even for me! The first time she tried it on she wasn't real sure if she liked it or not but thankfully the next time she was ok with being a pretty little ghost.

I can not get this picture to turn!! Sorry.

I think that does it for October!

Rae had a field trip to Memphis with her gifted class. She also had a Dr's appointment that morning in Memphis so we decided to make a day out of it and took the whole family. Everything was great at her Dr's visit.  After that we met her class at The Fedex Forum for lunch. I had never been there before. That place is huge.  They got to listen to a tour guide tell them about the building then they ate lunch on the steps before they headed to the Orphium. The show at the O was a CSI production. It was an ok show. All the kids seemed to enjoy it but as soon as the lights went out Rae got upset. She is not a fan of the dark. She was sitting on one end of the row with her friends and we were on the other end. She climbed over everyone in the row to get to where Phil and I were.

Fedex Forum Guy

Rae and Mallori

 

Rae and Lindy



Of course a trip to Memphis is not complete with out a trip to Target. Especially when Mom makes you pose for a picture.

We were trying to get back home so that Rae could get to her first basketball practice of the season. That will be a whole post on its own. Lets just say that her basketball abilities have greatly improved since last year. I guess they both needed a nap from their long hard day.

Just needed a reason to throw in this picture of AG. She's gonna be a reader like alot of other ladies in her family.

I had talked in one of my other post about a Bible study that we had been doing at church called The Table Experience. The end project for The Table Experience was the church's Thanksgiving meal. Every lady that took the class plus several who didn't fixed a table for Thanksgiving. We brought out our best dishes, glasses, silverware, everything that you would need to feed guests at your table. The men of the church provided hams and Phil and I cooked the rest of the meal. It was a great night of fellowship with our church family and everything turned out so pretty.

Saturday before the meal when we went to set up I was walking around looking at all the beautiful tables. One table caught my eye and when I went and looked at it closer the china on the table was the same china that my momma had. I have a setting of mom's china but I have never seen it anywhere else. So was so sweet to see it there. It actually belongs to a teenager in the church whose aunt had given it to her and she was letting her mom use it for the dinner.



Brady had a band concert in November. The 6th grade band is huge! The concert was really good and Brady even had a small solo which he did really well at. For someone who does not practice at all he is really good at the trombone. They also played with the high school band at one of the home football games. They played "Louie Louie" and did a great job. Of course my camera decided it did not want to work right that night so all the pictures that I have are horrible. It was probably more of the operators fault than the camera.

More Later!!!

The Table Experience

Titus 2:3-5

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ³ Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers.^[a] Instead, they should teach others what is good. ⁴ These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, ⁵ to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes,^[b] to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

We have started a new bible study on Sunday night's at church call The Table Experience by Devi Titus.  Last night we had about 35 ladies in the class. The study is about having a family experience around the dining room table, inviting God into your day. It sounds like its going to be a great study.

We, as a family eat at the dining room table some, but most of the time we are at tv trays in the living room in front of the tv.  I didn't really know how much I missed setting at the table, sharing a meal with my family until this study started and we have only had one class!  It just seems like the kids share more about there day and about whats going on when we are around the table, talking to each other and not watching tv. You would think that with all the technology that we have these days and the ability to record everything that is on tv, that we wouldn't be afraid to miss something that was on at the precise time that we are eating supper.

I can remember when I was a little girl at our house in Longview setting at the table eating supper with Momma, Daddy and Jima. We had a small kitchen table and Momma would have supper ready when Daddy got home from work and we would all set around that old metal table with the linoleum top (green with white spots if I remember it correctly) and have supper. Then as we got older and moved to Endville it seemed like eating at the table was only for Sunday lunches or special occasions.

I miss having that family time. It's not that big of a deal to set the table instead of pulling out tv trays. Its actually very nice to set the table and be able to look at the people that you love and be able to share your day with them. I have some very specific memories of my parents from when I was growing up and I want my kids to have those kind of memories of Phil and I. I plan on eating at the table with my family more this week than we do at tv trays.

How many times will you eat at the table with your family and the Lord this week?

Son Seekers National Vacation

Every summer at Belden our kids do some sort of musical. And every summer the muscial always out does the one before. I think that the kids music group will have a really hard time topping this summers musical. Speaking of the musical group, we have the best. Jessica, Becky, Barbara, Michelle, Christy and Bro Kelly always do a fabulous job with the kids.

This summer they did the "Son Seekers National Vacation" and it was awesome. Rae had been talking about how they were gonna have to dress up like hippies and dance and how she didn't want to wear baggy pants. I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. I knew that they were all getting tie dyed shirts, wearing bandannas and gonna dance. She kept telling me that she needed to come up with a good ending pose but of course all the ones that I gave her she didn't like. I don't know why--I'm such a good dancer!  Getting information out of Brady is like making money grow on a tree. Ain't gonna happen. He is just at the age to where he is too big to be with the little kids and not quite old enough for the youth yet. From looking at the group of kids last night the girls out number the boys by a long shot. I believe that even Brady had a good time last night. It was a really good program and I am so proud both my kids and of the whole group.

We even had a special appearance by the Blues Brothers!! I think that this set of brothers were much more talented than the originals.  This was Brady's last time to be apart of this group of kids. Next summer he will go up to the youth department. That is so hard to believe.  He is thrilled that he will be with them. Momma ain't so sure.

Doesn't he look so thrilled? I promise he had a good time.

These were Rae's  bell bottoms. Ms.Lavonna made every one of them. I think they said she made 50 pairs. They were so cute. I was hoping that we would get to keep them but we had to turn them in. Oh well, maybe they will get to wear them again.

I told ya the Blues Brothers showed up!

This was part of Rae's dance that she has been practicing. They all did a great job.

I love this look on his face!!

Isn't that a great lookin bunch of kids!!!

 

 

I can't wait until next summer to see what they will do!

HOMETOWN NAZARETH VBS

 Last week we had VBS at Belden Baptist. We were in Nazareth.  This is the third year that we have done this series of VBS and it is wonderful! This series is more interactive than what we used to do and the kids seem to like it alot better. All the workers dress up in costumes from the time that we are in and the crafts that we do are from that time period. This year the crafts were:

Olive Oil Shop They made salt scrub.

Farmers Field. They planted grass seeds,

Bead Shop. The made bead necklaces.

Synagogue School.  They made tithe boxes.

Wool Shop. They made soap.

Food Shop complete with dried crickets and worms.

 

Rock Quarry. They imprinted rocks.

Carpenter Shop. They made tile coasters.

Me, Phil and Tina Shelton were in the carpenter shop. It seemed to be a popular shop. They whole market place was really good this year.  One of the biggest thrills this year was the food shop. They always try to have some sort of food from the time period that we are in. This year in was dried crickets and worms. They seemed to be a very popular treat among the kids and workers. We would be in our tent and could hear the chants of the kids encouraging the other kids to try one of the treats. While Brady wouldn't even think about eating one Rae did try the cricket.

Before cricket

Chewin it up

The reaction

I think she liked it

What have I done????

Needless to say the first thing she did was find a glass of water. I don't think I could talk her into doing that again.

One of the things that we do during VBS is have an offering challenge between the boys and girls. The money that we raise during the week goes toward Operation Christmas Child. This year the total amount raised was over $1200.00 !!! Isn't that awesome?! But the girls lost so Ms Teresa had to take a pie in the face. But just at the last second the tax collector for the week decided to take the pie for her. All she had to do was ask.  Bro. Jim, Teresa and Mr. Bob (tax collector) tried to show the kids that Jesus would take your punishment for you and all you have to do is ask him.  It was a really good example to use for the kids, some that never come to church.  I think the most kids we had was 160.  That is just awesome. We had a total of 4 saved this week. That makes the week of VBS all worth it.

Sweet Jennifer was Mary this week.

Brady during the closing service.

Getting ready to make a tithe box.

Getting ready to make a tile coaster.

Adam went with us this week. It was great to have him along for the ride.

Thursday was parents night at VBS. All the parents come to see what we have been doing this week. Phil and I had to stay in our tent to show what we did and since Brady and Adam were in the same group, Bob and Barbara walked around with them. Emily walked around with Rae and saw what she did this week. I don't know how but Rae talked Emily into eating a cricket. I wish I had a picture but I didn't get to see this. I only heard about it.
This has been a great week at VBS. It just gets better and better every year.  Maybe next year you could join us.

Church Camp II-Brady

Brady left Monday morning for church camp. This year they went to Shocco Springs in Taladaga Alabama. He was so excited Sunday night that we liked to have never got him to go to sleep. I'm sure by Monday night he was wore out. There were 11 kids that went this year. This was the first year since Brady has been going that they divided the grades out like they did. Last year the 2nd-6th all went to the camp at Central Hills, the one that Rae went to last week.  This year the 2nd-4th went to Central Hills and the 5th and 6th went to Shocco Springs. Late Monday afternoon Phil got a text from his cousin Ginger wanting to know if Brady was at Schocco Springs. She was there with her church and her kids and nephews. Brady was in their family group!  How neat is that. He goes to church camp 2 1/2 hours away, the longest he has ever been away from us and his family group leader is this cousin. It's neat how God works things out. It seems that Brady and his cousins, Caleb, Jason and Jared had already found each other before Ginger saw Brady. She's been sending us texts keeping us updated on all that is going on. She says that the boys are having a blast together. He will be home tomorrow and I can't wait. He has never been gone this long before. I'm glad that he went but I'll be glad when he gets home!

Always start a trip with a prayer!

Loading up!

The whole gang except for Abram who's hiding in the back seat.

Fearless Leaders!! Awesome Leaders! Plus Sarah. She's in the back with the kids.

And away they go.

I'm so thankful for church leaders who give their time to help our kids learn more about themselves and God!

Karen