Nieces and Nephew

Hey everyone I thought I'd share some pics of my brother Joe's kids.

Madison is on the right in the red cleats, and Cassandra is on the left in the blue ones.

Yep you guessed it. They are twins. Seven years old. This was their first year playing soccer. Notice the untied laces in Cassie's picture, funny.

Here is Charlie, age 4, with his blanket, Kikki.

Three guesses who named it.

He is such a cutie.

Life Changing Moments

Six months ago on a Sunday afternoon I met up with my mom and my brother Bob to watch a movie, and to bring her some things. After the movie and some Taco Bell I gave my mom a hug and said goodbye and that I love her, and I got in my car and left. It was the last time I would get to talk with my mom before she died. Its funny how fast life can change. One minute I was putting donuts in a vending machine just like every Wednesday morning and the next I was starting a 2hr drive to pick up my brother to drive another hour to see my mom lying in a hospital bed unconscious, by Saturday she was gone, and my life was changed forever. There are moments in life that you will never forget. Those moments that divide life into the before and the after. What a comfort to know that moments like these do not come by accident. God is always in control of every detail. When someone we love dies or leaves us. The temptation is to ask God why He would take them away from us. God did not take my mom away from me after I spent only 23yrs with her. God gave me a wonderful loving mom for the first 23yrs of my life and the time I was given with her will affect who I am, how I think, and things that I do for the rest of my life. I miss her more than I could ever explain and yet I wouldn't trade the time I spent with her for one less moment spent in tears. God is gracious. God is good. He gave me the exact mom I was supposed to have, and He took her home at the precise time that she was supposed to go. How gracious and loving God is to bring my mom out of this world of hurt and sin into His presence! And He shows His grace and mercy by comforting those of us left behind. What God's plan is for me I don't know, but I am thankful to God that He does. And that I will be taken home as soon as I have finished His plan for my life, and not one moment sooner.

God's Creation

Late Sunday afternoon, I decided I had to get out of my apartment, and do something. I decided to take a walk with my camera and see if I could find something worth taking a picture of. There it was God's beautiful sky. The sun shining rays of light through the clouds. The grace of God that we can see His beautiful creation all around us. Psalm 19:1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God,and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Love

I Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. If you were to share this passage with people on the street today I have no doubt that you would find some that would instantly agree with you. Comments like love is a powerful thing, and who knows what else, but what do we think of when we think of love? Usually, we think of things like Romeo and Juliet. The great love stories of the world, or the dream guy we hope to meet some day, but biblical love is much greater. What is biblical love? I Corinthians 13:4-13 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Romans 5:8 but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the love that conquers all. The love of God. Love is what caused God to send His Son to die for us. Our salvation is made possible because of love. When we see God, our faith and hope will be complete, and done away with, but love endures forever. We are commanded to love. Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:28-31 Matthew 22:34-40 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. “This is the great and first commandment. “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 15:9-13 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. We are commanded to love like this. As always Christ is our ultimate example. He set the standard for us. In God’s mercy and grace He sent His son to die for us. Not because there was anything in us that merited such a gesture, but because He loved us even while we were in a state of sinfulness! How often we hold back our meager attempts at loving others simply because we are having a bad day or we just don’t like that person for “some reason.” But we are commanded to love one another the way Christ loved us. and more importantly to love God. Our love for God is what causes us to live for Him, and it enables us to love others as well. If we love God and others the way we ought the other commandments will fall into place, because we will be seeking God's will and not our own.

Poster Board Doors

I have recently decided to clean and organize my apartment. For those who have been here its shocking I know, but I'm almost done! and I will post pictures of my apartment once its completely in order. Until then here is a project you might enjoy. (Or it might just convince you that I am in fact nuts.) Poster Board doors.

I went to Walmart, a great start for most of my projects, bought four thick poster boards. I taped two together and taped the other two together, as you can tell from the picture. One long piece of tape on each side for hinges and presto I have doors on my shelves.

The hook you see is a regular Christmas ornament hook latched onto two ornament toppers that I hammered through the poster board and taped in place.

The door handles are made out of two slivers of cardboard cut from the packaging of the tape I bought. I folded each end and taped them on also. I think I will probably decorate them at some point, but this was an easy inexpensive way to keep my kitties off my shelves. its been almost two weeks and the tape still holds.