Welcome to Blogsville, Melissa

Melissa and Dave Hendricks now have a blog, and we're so excited to welcome them to the community. Now we can read all about their exciting life in Montana and their kids and how all our friends and church family are up in their neck of the woods. www.daveandmelissa4.blogspot.com

Jehovah Rapha--The Lord that Heals

Got the call from the doctor's office. Everything is benign. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Almighty God, for your healing touch. I praise your Holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
~from Psalm 103

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like ....

. . . . Christmas

Well, here's our tree and you can see part of our table decorated. We're not quite finished with either one. The table needs a few finishing touches. It's a new one and there are a few things I want to add to complete the look. Then there's the tree. I'm sure you noticed it's missing a topper. I've been looking for a topper for a few months now to no avail. I even went to a HUGE arts and crafts show a couple weeks ago with a Christmas tree topper my only mission, but only a few of the booths had tree toppers, and the ones that did only had a few each. I didn't like any of them either. It's got to be just right, you know. If anyone is considering starting a career in arts and crafts, I think a booth with Christmas tree toppers would sell like hot cakes, and it's apparently something no one does because this show was spread out in five different convention center-type buildings; I mean, it was huge. There were vendors there from all over the country and I looked at probably 70% of the booths. I was really shocked that no one sold tree toppers.

As for the Jackson-with-the-Amish-hat pictures, I've been trying to transfer them from the camera onto the computer, but something keeps goofing it up. I thought I had the problem solved, but I think Becky's evil computer dwarf decided to pay our place a visit. I tell ya, the little twerp better watch it because I'm probably not as nice as Becky is. :-)

Back in the Saddle Again

Well, I'm officially recouperated and back in the saddle!!! The surgery went well and we're awaiting lab results, but I'm not worried because I just feel God's everloving protection and care.

The light at the end of this cave I've been thrust in to is just beginning to twinkle and I am sooo ready for Christmas break. My house is almost back in order after my few days of repose and I'm working on getting caught up with my school work. It'll happen soon. I can feel it.

Despite my pleas with the Lord not to allow this day to come and my attempts to shut myself up in denial about the fact that my baby's growing up, Jackson turns two today. He's such a "corker," as our pastor calls him. He's the happiest child and such a little ham, well, show-off might be a better descriptor. Any time we're out in public, be it store, restaurant, or park, he always finds someone who will give him his full attention and he goes all out to put on a no-holds-barred entertainment session for as long as he can keep an audience. It's really embarrassing, and we do try to keep it to a minimum, but he just has this magnetic personality people are drawn to. We're scared he might want to be a politician when he grows up or, worse, some kind of showman on Broadway here in Branson or something. Tonight we went out to eat (had a long workday; didn't get home until quarter to six) and he had this elderly couple in stitches. He would turn his head slightly and slowly roll his eyes to look at them and then just giggle, and then he'd spend time "talking" to them with such expressive chatter and gestures with not just his hands, but his entire little body. They were eating it up and egging him on. I tell ya', we've got quite a challenge on our hands for the next sixteen years.

We're having his birthday party this Saturday. That's why I've got to get my house back in order. But like I said, it's coming along ... slowly, but surely. He loves Mickey Mouse, so that's going to be the theme decorations and cake. We're looking forward to that; he'll get to play with his cousins, so that'll be fun.

Our church was supposed to have a revival last week, but it was cancelled because of the snow storm. We need a revival desperately, so please pray for us that it'll come soon. It's not been rescheduled yet because the evangelist didn't know when he'd be able to come, but hopefully it won't be too much longer. I'm trying to plan a time for the ABM service; Anthony's the ABM leader. We're going to try to have one at our house soon, which is another reason I've got to get this house ship-shape fast. Oh, pray for me, ladies. Between work and regular chores at home, it's hard to get to those "back-burner" jobs. It'll happen, though. I'm optimistic.

Well, I guess I'd better get off here and go to bed. I have an evaluation tomorrow by my principal in one of my classes and need to do well on it. Take care, all. Good night and God bless.

By the way, I do have pictures of our tree and of Jackson in his Amish hat; I'm just having a little trouble right now with our camera uploading onto the computer. I'll try to get Anthony on it soon--he's the techie at our house--and try to get those pics on here. :-)

Well, it looks as though a minor surgery will be able to clear this problem up AND the doctor is fairly certain we'll be able to have another baby after this. :-)

I go in the 29th early in the morning. It's an outpatient surgery, so nothing major, but surgery is always a little nerve-wracking. However, I know the Lord's got it all under control. Thanks to all for the encouraging words on my blog here and, most of all, for praying. I really appreciate it. Please remember me that Wednesday.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. God bless.

Still Aren't Sure

The doctor will be running more tests next Monday to see which of his theories, if any, are correct. I send those emails after that. Until then please keep praying. Thanks to all who have been praying. I really appreciate it. :-)

Please Pray

I have a doctor's appointment Friday and while I can't divulge on the blog due to the possibility of mixed company, I am a little nervous about it. Anthony and I are trusting Jesus. He's in control of the situation, we know. Just please be in prayer.

World Series Champions

There are only two sports that I like. One is basketball, and I like it moderately, but I really do love baseball, and I have always been a Cardinals fan. They're just really good AND they're Missouri's winning team. Well, we won the World Series tonight in just five games. Whoooo hoooo!!!! And I'm proud to say that we have fans who are dignified. Remember last year when Boston won? They started rioting and trashed their stadium and stuff. Well, Cardinals fans just cheered and expressed how excited they were. It's so exciting. The last time we won was in 1982. I remember my mom was in labor with my little brother and was watching the World Series in her hospital room. We've been in the World Series, I think, three or four times since then but haven't won until now, so this is really awesome.

All I can say is GO CARDS, and to the "experts" who said the odds were in Detriot's favor, check your stats again 'cause you were WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!

Taguchi is my favorite player. Isn't his son adorable?

What a Fun Weekend!

Terry and Shaye Ammons graced our home with a visit this weekend. It was so nice being able to fellowship with some folks our age. It doesn't happen very often for us out here, so we were just thrilled. They are so much fun to be around.

They got here Friday afternoon and we took them out to Amish country (Seymour, MO) that night. We ate at the Amish Country Bed 'n Breakfast there. It was soooo good. They serve smoked meats (ham, brisket, chicken, pork, etc.) with homestyle vegetables and homebaked bread, freshly churned butter, and an Amish-made barbecue sauce that is out of this world. We took a drive out into the country and found that Amish-run general store. The people are so friendly and I really love just being there. Shaye said she'd never seen anything like it and thought it was really neat to see their primitive dwelling and their buggies. She ended up borrowing some of my Beverly Lewis books to take home to read so she can learn a little more about them. We bought Jackson a little hat they sold at the store just like the ones the Amish boys wear. He looks adorable in it.

The next day we went to Branson and just drove around. We went shopping for a little while at the outlet malls where I found some great deals on some fall/winter clothes for Jackson, which he DESPARATELY needed. I even found one new outfit for my self, actually Shaye found it for me. It's really pretty-a brown wool skirt and a pretty lighter brown sweater to go with it. I love it and can't wait until it gets cold enough to wear it. Actually, yes, I can wait until it gets cold ...

We ate at Panera (mmmm.... the new Lemon Chicken Artichoke Pannini is delicious) and looked in some of the novelty shops. None of us bought anything in those, but it was fun just looking around. We spent the most time in the little Christmas shopping village. I love looking at Christmas stuff, but, again, I was good. No purchases, just a lot of dreaming and oohs and aahs. :P Then we took the scenic route home. It was very pretty with the fall colors just beginning to show in the Ozark mountains. Very enjoyable weekend.

Well, gotta' go. :-)

They Grow Up Way Too Fast

I simply don't know if there'd be any entertainment in this house if it weren't for our little Jackson. Oh, my, he's so funny. He's truly got the gift of gab already, and we don't even know what he's saying. He does, though. He just jabbers and gestures and giggles like he's telling a story. And I'm sure he is; I just wish I could speak his language. It's soooo cute. He is starting to say more words now, too. He can say mama, dada, baby, nana (that's what we're calling my mom), apple, bubbles, ball, uh-oh, bye-bye, and a few others. One of our favorite things to do is I'll say "one" and he says "tyu--ree" (that's two and three mixed together, I think). Then I say "four" and he holds out his hand with all five fingers extended and YELLS "yiiiiiiiiiiibe" (for five). It's so funny.

The other day I was talking to him and telling him that we ought to go tickle Daddy and he laughs and then gets serious all of a sudden and says, "Ball?" I took it that he wanted to play with his ball, so we went and got it. That was so funny.

We visited a Japanese garden the other day. It just thrilled him to get to feed the carp that were in the pond there. We bought some of the fish food from the dispenser and let him throw it into the pond. He would just squeal when he saw the fish come up to eat HIS food. Ha. It was great, although he was making me nervous by getting way too close to the edge of that pond. I was able to keep hold of him well enough so that he didn't fall in, though.

Sometimes I can't wait until we can actually have a conversation with him--a real one, you know, and sometimes I know it'll happen all too soon and hope that day never does come. Ahhh, it's truly amazing being a mommy. I love it.

I do know that he understands a great deal of what we tell him, though. Yesterday his babysitter told me that he wasn't sharing with the other little boy she keeps. I had a very stern talk with him last night about being nice to Parker and sharing the toys, and today Linda (the babysitter) told me she didn't know what we did, but he was 100 times better. This time is was Parker that was being ornery. Amazing, isn't it? I mean, I have 11th graders who act like they don't understand my directions sometimes, but my 22-month-old son understands a lecture on sharing. It just befuddles me.

Well, I better get to bed. Terry and Shaye Ammons are coming to visit this weekend. They'll be here tomorrow. We're taking them to see the Amish country here and maybe go to Laura Ingalls Wilders's house in Mansfield, MO, (where she and Almanzo lived shortly after having Rose until they died--it's only about 35 minutes from here), and then we're going to Branson to shop and stuff. Should be lots of fun; we haven't seen them in a while.

Take care, all. Good night.

Fundraising Advice Requested

I am working a fundraiser tomorrow for school. It's going to be at our town's fall festival. We are selling frito pies, nachos, chili, and caramel apples. What would be your advice on how much to charge for each? This is a very small town (pop. around 2,000) so it can't be too high. Most people don't have much money around here.

It's a Miracle

Some of you may have read a recent post where I made a reference to a boy on my newspaper staff who lost a $600 camera at a football game weekend before last. It was pretty traumatic because, well, it was a $600 camera. I prayed really hard, but by this time was convinced that it was probably a lost cause. I was actually getting ready to start calling area pawn shops with the serial numbers, assuming it'd been stolen.

Well, this morning the secretaries showed up at my classroom door with huge smiles on their faces. Springfield Central High, where the camera was lost, called and said they'd found the camera and the principal was holding it for safekeeping. It just so happened that our principal was in Springfield today (almost two hours away) and was able to swing by and pick it up.

God is so good. I was beginning to feel responsible for the incident and ready to tell the principal that I'd pay for half of the reimbursement cost--in several payments, anyway. I am so grateful for this answered prayer. Our God is awesome!!!! :-)

Prospects Galore!!!

In southern Missouri, there is a highway (Hwy. 60) that has often been called "COGOP Alley". Seriously, there is a Church of God of Prophecy in just about every town on this highway for approximately 300 miles. And I used to preach to, visit, and fellowship with many of those churches and know that, unless people have changed, they would not go along with the new "changes" that have taken place in the church.

Because of a recent incident, I am becoming more and more convinced as to the one of the reasons God has placed us in this area. The other day, I had an incident with one of my staff members (for the school newspaper) losing one of our very expensive cameras at a football game last week. After questioning some of the kids, I found out that a boy who wasn't on my staff was taking pictures for the irresponsible staff member who'd been allowed to check the camera out from me. I checked with the office and found out that this kid was working at his internship in a local body shop/auto mechanic place. I went out there to question him and no one was in the office. I stepped inside the garage and yelled out a hello and heard one of the men who was under the dashboard of a car yell out, "We don't wanna' talk to you" (jokingly, of course.)

He stepped out of the car and said, "You do remember me, don't you?" It took me a minute to realize that it was Stacey Prewett, one of the local pastors in COGOP. He'd had me preach at his church back when I was in high school on a few different occasions.

We sat down and chatted for several minutes and he told me he'd moved into Willow Springs (where I teach) and was getting ready to take over a church in Summersville (another town really close). I feel I may have a shot at getting him to come over. I remember he believed very much in the old-time way. Ya'll pray that God will help me do and say the right things to him and some of the others out here that I know because, for the most part, they do believe the way we do and I KNOW that some of the people out here aren't going to go along with the junk COGOP's preaching now.

Autumn is Here

The one turned out really good, but in the other one, he sort of has his eyes half-closed. I didn't buy any of that one. We got our big 10X13 of the first one.

Oh, by the way ....

Sears has a really cool thing where you can buy the CD for $20 and they actually sell you the copyright to the pics. So I am not doing this illegally.


We tried the mirror thing. I wanted him to lay down on it and look into the mirror so she could get a shot from above, but ... um ... well, no, it was not an option! He wasn't buying into that.

Beep! Beep!

Easy Does It

I figure just a couple at a time is best so that the computer doesn't get overloaded and something blows up on me.

The rocky horse was cute. The lady tried to get him to lay his head on it for a sweet picture. NO WAY was he going that route!!!!

As you can probably tell, my husband and I love fall. Here he's in a cartoony-looking fall scene. We thought it was just adorable.

Here he is ...

We tried so hard to get him to wear a little yellow raincoat, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Oh, well. It's cute anyway.

He got really tickeled about something when he was in the big red car.

Baby Pictures To Be Posted Soon

Well, we're off in a couple of hours to get Jackson's pictures made. I love getting his pictures made. It is lots o' fun ... that is, if he cooperates with the photographer. We've not had many problems with him doing that yet, so I'm hoping he behaves himself today.

Megan, do you think you could "show" me how to change my blog template. I've tried soooo many times and I'm still doing SOMETHING wrong. AHHHHHHH!!!!! IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! I've got this really pretty one I want to use and it just won't work.

Talk to ya'll later.

Update on the Trip

It's all planned out. Itinerary, financial analysis, transportation details, etc. It's all done and turned in as of Monday afternoon. My principal was impressed with the details. She said she's already got her bags packed. (jokingly, of course) Here's a condensed version of what's on the schedule:
Monday, Mar. 12--we'll get in DC around 12:30, so we'll check in the hotel and have a group meeting, then hit the National Gallery of Art and a few hours at the Smithsonian (Natual History) , and the Pentagon Mall
Tuesday, Mar. 13--Arlington National Cemetery where we'll see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns *chillbumps just thinking about it*, Holocaust Museum, Library of Congress, and Moonlight Memorial Tour, which includes walking tours of the following memorials: Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, Vietnam, WWII, Roosevelt Park, White House, Capitol Building, Iwo Jima
Wednesday, Mar. 14--Ford Theatre and Petersen House, Supreme Court, National Archives (I told the kids to bring lots of lemon juice and q-tips *tee hee*), several more hours at the Smithsonian (American History & Air and Space), dinner theatre (still not sure which play we'll see because most theatres don't have schedules out yet for March)
Thursday, Mar. 15--a few more hours at the Smithsonian (American History) and fly back home

I can't wait. Anybody wanna' meet us there? :-)

Just got some really sad news ...

My cousin called me today. She told me that a girl I used to go to church with in COGOP was in a car accident yesterday and passed away. Ach! She was only, like, 20 or 21. They said she crossed the middle line and hit a car head-on. I'm not sure if she was sleepy or what, but it just breaks my heart. I was pretty close with her family at one time. I'd go to their house after church and we'd play games until pretty late. I even went on a couple of dates with her older brother. WAY BEFORE I GOT MARRIED, BTW. Anyway, they said Kathy (her mom) is not doing well. She died at 2 in the afternoon and she wouldn't leave the hospital room until around 7 o'clock yesterday. They were a very close-knit family. She home-schooled her girls and all. She has another daughter, Deborah, 17. Sarah (the girl who passed away) had just been married for about two years. No children yet, so that's one thing. But, oh, she'll be missed. She could sing and play the guitar. She was a really pretty girl. It's hard to believe. I need to find out the arrangements because I'll definitely need to go. They live close.

Anyway, I guess I'm rambling a bit, but it seems like people do that when they get news like this. Ya'll take care. Good night.