Saying Goodbye And Welcome

Last night we said goodbye to Pastor Johnson, Sally, Alison, Amy, Elisabeth & Emily. There were a lot of tears flowing in our church. It's never easy to say good bye to people who have been a part of your life for many years.. I kept my emotions in check--until-- I saw Brandon. Mike and I were talking in the parking lot with two other church members. Everyone else had  left... I looked over, and there sitting on the curb, alone, was Brandon, crying. I didn't think he understood everything that was going on. I was wrong. I still get teary when I think of that.  We will continue to pray for the Johnson's and their ministry. We will of course be able to keep in contact with them via blogs and e mail.


Now, I want to introduce our new Pastor and his family. This is Pastor Don Randall, Merlynn, Charlotte and Donald. Our church has supported them for years as missionaries to Northern Ireland and recently they were in the Phoenix area, attempting to start up a new church. They have been a part of our church picnics for several years now. They have attended several church functions too.  Who would have thought, years ago, that someday, they would be our Pastor (and family)?  God knew. Change can be scary, but it can be exciting too. I am looking forward to God's blessing on our church through their ministry. I only hope I can keep up with Merlynn. I say that  because I know she reads my blog.. LOL..  She has a bit of a wild streak in her.. It's all good though .. HaHa.  I will just hide the cheetos from now on (inside joke).

Welcome!!

Going Away Party

We had a suprise going away party for Pastor Johnson and Sally and the girls. 

Special

Our Pastor and his family are moving this week to start a new church in MN. God has blessed them with musical talent. They all play a variety of instruments.  Over the years they have done specials. This is by far my favorite song to hear them sing. This special was done at a home school concert last week. I asked them to sing this song one more time, today in church. Unfortunatly, the quality of my recording was not as good as this recording. .




I also want to share with you the talent of thier oldest daughter. She is the one playing the violin. . Click HERE.. This was also at the home school concert last week. I wish I had recordings of all the girls playing.   Among other things, I will miss their musical talent. The girl playing the piano is excellent too. She is not our pastor's daughter however.

You can also see the last special the kids sang with the Johnson family on Brandon's blog--HERE

Beautiful!!!!

This beautiful girl...

Made me this beautiful Afghan.

I just love it!!

A SMASHING Good Time!!

Saturday afternoon we went to our first demolition derby. We are totally hooked, now!! Despite the rain, cold wind. It was a blast. Considering we were sitting on metal bleachers and could see lightening in the distance, we braved the circumstances anyway. . LOL. I text a friend and told her what was going on and told her "I'll see you in Heaven"! Hee Hee..  For those in the colder areas of the country reading this, the temp with the wind chill was around 45 ish. I fully expect to be sick next week.

I recorded some of the Heats. I wish I had saved my memory for the final heat. When they came out to win, they came out to win!! It was truly a duel to the death. There were two local guys in the battle but the final  winner was a guy from Phoenix. I am looking forward to next year's event.

Here is the link to two of the heats that I recorded. Click on the link below. The yelling is my hubby and son (and me, at times). It was toooooo much fun!!

HEAT ONE-Part 1

HEAT ONE PART 2

HEAT TWO PART 1

HEAT TWO PART 2

My Sore Back!!

 In Feb I started cleaning up the back yard. It was over taken in weeds, grass and leaves from our tree.  Our Chinaberry tree is a very messy tree. I hoed up the weeds around the tree and raked up the millions of leaves into a several huge piles. I never got around to cleaning up those piles. I finally got that done today. Brandon was HUGE help too. He raked and hauled and cut down weeds. His red wagon was put to use hauling the bags from one side of the yard to the other. Sadly, the wagon handle broke. We hope Daddy can fix it.

When we moved into this house, we were very concerned about this tree. The berries are highly toxic if ingested. Naturally, we were not worried about us, but we were worried about our dog. It has worked out. Newman has not bothered the tree at all. The tree went dormant over the winter and is now blooming. It is such a pretty tree and it smells WONDERFUL!! When it started blooming the flowers were purple. I wish I had taken a picture of that. Now they are white and  dark purple (they look black in the picture).  Again, this tree smells so sweet!  All the while I am cleaning up the berries and leaves I am singing the song "Just what makes this little old ant". It is going to be a never ending job just keeping the mess under some control.  I should have taken more before pictures. Believe me it was a huge mess. It is as cleaned up as it's every going to get, just in time for the rain the weekend. Ugh..

                                          The berries fall off constantly

I added about 6 more bags after I took this picture

Sorry Babe. We need more trash bags, a new rake (the handle broke)  and we need to make a run to the dump.  I need Tylenol and my heating pad. I never could have done this 38 lbs ago.. Yeah me!!

Level Four

Brandon has worked hard at learning his King's Kids Bible verses. He was very excited to get his award tonight, even though the picture I took does not reflect that. LOL.. He is at that age where picture posing is just not 'cool'.

T