Icy Roads

Last night,Bro. Danny and Sis. Kristen asked if Jonathan and I wanted to go see a movie with them and our niece. On our way home we thought the roads were fine, everyone (we thought) was going the normal speed, and it didn't seem icy. As we got of the freeway we stopped at a light, and when we started to go forward the car didn't want to turn, so we were headed towards the ditch! Somehow Bro. Danny managed to get the car stopped on the side of the road, thinking we had a flat tire (there was a really loud metal noise at we turned). As they got out of the car, the whole road was absolutely covered in ice! As we started to move again (going only about 20mph) we were sliding everywhere on the road. The car was driving sideways off and on. It was really scary, there were huge ditches on the side of the road that we could slip into, so Sis. Kristen immediately said, 'let's pray guys'. After we all prayed, we passed people that had crashed into the huge ditch, and as we got there an ambulance was coming. I really don't know how we didn't get in an accident when we were on the freeway going 60mph..God surely watched over us. Thank the Lord we didn't end up in the ditch like alot of people. I can't even imagine how Abigail (my 3 year old niece) would've handled that.
Oh yeah, and Sis. Mandy, Abigail's mom, was driving last night too, and had been also going 60mph, and at one point lost a little control over her car, but she thankfully made it home safe and called us to tell us to drive slow.
Anyways, it just makes me thankful again that God has once again watched over me and the brethren on the icy roads, and thankful it didn't end up the same way it did last time.

A walk in the rain

Not quite sure where the green smoke came from,but that was one of the night settings on the camera. Kinda nifty.

Dad decided he wanted to go on a walk with everyone in the rain tonight. It was pretty cold, but after all the power walking that we did, we got all warmed up. Here are a few pictures that I got to take on the walk. Worked out great because I wanted to try out a few settings on the camera, and the boys were having a great time posing for me. ;D :

Timothy

Timothy and Russell. Looks kinda like fire beside them.Timothy and Russell with what looks like a shooting firework. <3

New Skirt

Yay, I finally finished the other jean skirt! This time it's made out of a pair of jean shorts! My sister-in-law helped me get it all cut out and get things all set for me to sew and mom helped me figure out which pieces went together and how to get it to come out the way it did! Looks kinda interesting, huh? Anyways, I'm glad I finally got it done! That was the last jean skirt project that I wanted to get done. Hooray for me! =D

My Family on Christmas

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We had a nice relaxing and enjoyable time with everyone. This year my second oldest brother, Thomas, and his wife and little boy weren't able to come Christmas morning, that's why you don't see them in the picture above. But they were able to come later that night for our traditional Christmas breakfast (Eggs Benedict)! Here are some pictures of Christmas morning, and Christmas night that I got to take with my new digital camera!:

Mandy and AbigailTimothy II with his new toy vacuum!!Baby James and his Auntie Kristen

I know it's not a whole lot of pictures, but I was trying to figure everything out on the camera. ;D

Anyways! I've got some news! I know most of you probably go onto the Church forum, but to those of you who don't: "Last night, after church, Sis. Eileen came up to Sis. Dayna and was just filled with the Spirit. She asked Sis. Dayna if she could come over and pray for Brittany, Sis. Dayna said, "of course!" Sis. Eileen got there and prayed for Brittany and Brittany woke up and said, "I'm hungry!". Dayna said they scrambled to get her some food so fast! They got her some broccoli and cheese sauce and she was able to eat about 5 teaspoons. Then, at about 3:00 am, Brittany seemed agitated in bed and was wimpering. Dayna asked her if she was hurting and Brittany said, "no". Dayna asked her if she was having bad dreams and she said, "yes", and "Momma, pray". So, Dayna got Dave and they prayed for her and they just felt like the adversary, since he couldn't get her one way, was trying to get her another way. After they prayed, Brittany went back to sleep until about 7:00 am. Then she woke up again; so they scrambled an egg so that it was real soft. Brittany ate about 2/3 of that egg! Can you believe it Brethren! It's so unusual for Brittany to even wake up that early, she usually doesn't start stirring until early afternoon! Also, when Dave and Dayna had Brittany in the wheelchair, taking her in to the bathroom, they both saw Brittany trying to move her foot on the little foot holder of the wheelchair! These things are so encouraging, especially after two days of very little movement and not much eating at all. So, we are cautiously optimistic...and continuing!"

That's what was written on the Forum. Just so thankful for that news. Last night I was talking to a friend of mine and Brittany's and she had remembered that Brittany was real sick last time I talked to her (which was about 1 or 2 months ago) and asked about how Britt was doing. Of course I didn't want to lie to her about how things were going, but I didn't want to worry her alot either. She's really all for going to the doctors and can't see why Brittany would "do this to herself". It kind of was a sad conversation. After explaining why Brittany chose to not go to the doctors, she asked my how can people that are in so much pain be so selfish to not go to the doctors. Selfish because we won't go to the doctors to get healed for our family that has to take care of them. I was just able to explain to her that we are all putting our faith in God with this, just as much as Brittany is. Yeah, it might be hard to watch a loved one hurt, but God hears our prayers, and will take care of us if we have faith. She just said that maybe SHE didn't have enough faith in God that he could heal someone like that. It just made me sad that she doesn't get it. She was pretty upset about the whole conversation(or maybe the right word is she was worried), but at the end just told me to tell Brittany and her family that she loves them and will be keeping them in her prayers. It'll be an interesting conversation when Brittany is all better and the girl is able to hear everything God did for Brittany. I'll leave that one for Brittany to tell if she wants. It just makes me thankful that we have brethren who love us and a family(and brethren) that's willing to take care of us like Sis. Dayna and Bro. Dave are taking care of Sis. Brittany.
And by the way: none of this was me saying going to the doctors is a bad thing. Everyone has different views on it and each individual can decide for themselves what they want to do concerning doctors.

A little testimony

Last night I got a call in the middle of the 'young peoples' visit that Sis. Dayna wanted me to come over and brush Brittany's hair and be with her for awhile after they had cleaned her up a bit. I was pretty excited because I wanted to go see her all day, but I'd been going over there almost everyday to check on Brittany, and thought they probably wouldn't want to see me again! But anyways, on my way over to see Brittany, I had remembered a prophecy I had gotten a couple years ago that God would answer my little and my big prayers, so prayed that I could just see her wake up for just a second because the last few people that had gone over there had seen her open her eyes a bit and communicate with them,saying 'uh-huh' and 'uh-uh' to their questions.
So anyways, when I got there she was totally out, so I just brushed her hair, and continued to pray that she'd move or something so that I knew she knew I was there with her. After her hair was all brushed and put up, I sat down next to her bed and just talked her like I would if she were awake. In the middle of talking to her, I got a text message, and when I get a text message it makes this really loud noise saying 'Whoo-hoo alright! I just got a text message!" and that had her moving a little, so I ran over to get her a drink of juice and after she drank some, she opened her eyes and looked at me and squeezed my hand softly!! I just about cried! Feels like I have seen those eyes in a long time! It seemed like it was taking all her strength just to open her eyes to look at me, but she did it for just a few seconds.
After that she kept on swallowing like she wanted a drink, so I was able to get a few gulps of water in her, and she answered my questions when I asked her stuff, just saying uh-huh and uh-uh.
So Anyways, that was just awesome to me that God did that for me. Even if it was just a few seconds, that's all I needed to see. Just needed to know my Brittany was still in there somewhere, and knew I was in the room with her.

Baby Jesus

A friend from the Indiana Church sent me this today, got a little chuckle out of it:

" It was the day AFTER Christmas at the Church in Michigan. The pastor of the churchwas looking at the manger scene, when he noticed baby Jesus missing from the cradle. He immediately turned and went outside and saw a little boy with a red wagon walking down the street. In the wagon,was the figure of baby Jesus. The Pastor walked up to the boy and asked,"son, where did you get that baby Jesus that's in your wagon?" The little boy replied, "I got him from the church."
"And why did you take him?" asked the pastor. The little boy replied, "Well, about a week before Christmas, I prayed and told Jesus if he would bring me a red wagon for Christmas, that I'd give him a ride in it!"

P.S. Not a whole lot new with Sis. Brittany. Went and saw her tonight and she was still sleeping, but she drank a little bit of soup that we blended up for her. So they were going to keep trying to feed her that when we left. So hopefully she was able to get enough in her tonight and keep it in her. Still needs the prayers.

Sickness

As most of you know, my friend, Sis. Brittany, is not doing too great health wise. I'm really not too sure what's going on, but her stomach is in a lot of pain. It's been hurting her for a couple months now, and I was thinking it was getting ALOT better because I wasn't hearing a whole lot of what was going on with her. But on Monday we got a call late at night to pray for her because she got really bad, and was fainting and throwing up a lot. I guess it really didn't hit me how serious this was until mom and dad came home from praying for her, and told me all that she was going through. I went and saw her last night, and all she could really say was my name in a whisper. She's just really weak and can hardly keep a conversation going or look at you. My heart is so sick for her. I wish I could take it all away, I hate seeing that she's in pain! I feel so useless, and not knowing how in the world I can help her when I'm with her. I know all I can really do is just pray for her, but it's just hard to sit and watch. And nights are when it seems like the pain is worse for her. But she's able to sleep whenever she passes out, which is (sad to say) a good thing because that's when she has relief from the pain from what I hear...
Anyways, please just keep her in your prayers. I know you probably all are. Love you lots Brittany!

Eyes

Yikes! Today I went and got my eyes checked because I had gotten a letter in the mail from the eye doctor saying I could come in and get my eyes checked on to see if anything has changed. Well, everything was going great until he was checking to see behind my eye. I guess he saw something that got him a little worried, so he did a lot of tests on me...like putting numbing eye drops in my eyes and poking them and checking the pressure of each eye..and other weird things. And I kept asking, "What's wrong with my eyes?!" And he wouldn't really give me an answer, just kept saying, I'm just doing some more tests on your eyes to check on some things. Sigh. I was thinking my eyes had gotten 10x worse then the last time I was there. And so we left the room and he said he wanted to do 2 more tests, and left me with a lady that did the tests, while he went and talked to my mom about what was wrong. I guess I have veins behind my eyes that are bigger than they're supposed to be. Which I don't really know what that means, but he was worried about it. As far as I know, I didn't have it the last time I went in for an appointment. So, I hope and pray that it'll go away before my next appointment with him,because mom kinda has the same thing that I do, and he's been trying to get her to go to other eye doctors to get it fixed. And it'd be a bummer if everytime I went in for an appointment that he'd bug me about going to doctors and stuff. I know the guy is sincerely worried about us, and doesn't understand that we want to trust God in this.

It was interesting also, in the middle of me getting my eyes checked the doctor asked about my family and stuff (because alot of them go to him for check ups too) and asked if I was close to any of them. And I just told him we were all super close, and always hung out, and that the ones that don't live here anymore are almost always over here. That seemed to shock him a little, and he asked me what our secret was to that. How did it happen that we all are still close after all these years? My stupid answer was, " We just love each other, I guess." I was kind of afraid to just say it was all God because he seems to not like getting on that subject too much. So then, while he was talking to my mom about my eyes, he asked her the same question: Why are we so close? And how did she get us to love each other and get along? And she was told him what I should have said when he first asked. It was just interesting to me that he'd ask how he could get his kids to do the same someday. :/Guess I got pretty lucky with my brothers,and my parents. Couldn't have asked for a sweeter, loving family. I probably don't deserve them, but I sure am thankful that I'm loved by each one. Wouldn't trade it for anything. Love you all. :)

A Quilt

That's the actual picture of what my quilt will look like when finished...not the same colors though!!

I'm making a quilt and mom is teaching me as I go. My first quilt is actually going to be a big project. I'm making a queen size comforter quilt to go in my hope chest...IF it makes it in there. I probably won't get done with it any year soon. Lol. But I decided I want to quilt it all by hand, because I saw some of the quilts my mom made when she was younger, and they were all quilted by hand. Now, I'm not saying I'm totally going to make it through quilting it all by hand...but that's my goal. Just feels a little more special-er doing it that way, but we'll see! ha. I'll try and post picture of what I get done..slowly. I finally (after about a year and a half) got all the cutting done so that I can start the sewing part. Yahoo!

Oklahoma!!

Yippee! Timmy and I are going to Oklahoma in January! We're gonna stay for 5 days. I'm super excited to go see them again! :D We're leaving Jan. 2 and getting home Jan. 6(2 days before my b-day!). Can't wait to see everyone again over there. Worked out great because normally, I'd have to stay here because of work (it's the starting of tax season) and usually my bosses need me to baby-sit as much as possible for them, and don't normally let me just take a day off for a trip, but they ended up giving me a couple days off because they were going to be doing stuff that week. :DD Yippee Ki Yay!

Surprise!

Last night Poppi and I planned a surprise b-day party for Timothy and Sis. Kristen. We actually had decided about a week ago that we wanted to plan something special for Timothy this year, and didn't really get around to planning anything until the day of his b-day! Yikes! It was crazy, but we went shopping while everyone helped Thomas and Amy move (Sorry guys!). And got everything done in time before he got home. He just thought I needed some 'guidance' from Poppi for a b-day present for Timo. heehee! Anyways, we ended up making up three games for the party. The first one we did was a musical game where Kristen and Timothy picked their groups and everyone had to play an instrument (even if they didn't know how to play it). We got the instruments from the dollar store, and they all worked perfect! There was a tambourine, 2 recorders, 2 maraca's, a saxophone, trumpet, a triangle bell thing, a little guitar, and I think that was it. Anyways, you had to make a band out of those instruments, and then play a song everyone knows and a made up song after that. That was pretty hilarious to watch, cause none of us knew how to play anything! :D
The next game was a painting game. You had to duct tape a paint brush on your partners hand and use their arm like you would while painting. We had to paint a christmas tree ornament and who ever got done the fastest and looked the best at being done fast, won. That was actually a hard game, but it was fun watching everyone! :D
The last one was a cotton ball game. We moved the table out of the kitchen and 3 people got on their tummies on the floor, with their hands behind their backs and a straw in their mouth and had to blow a cotton ball across the room. That's alot harder than it sounds. You could hardly get yourself moving on the floor! At the end of the room you had to make it into your little cup that was lying on the ground. The guys really liked this game. ;)

Anyways, it was a fun night being with some of the brethren and celebrating Timothy and Kristen's birthdays.