Early Christmas Greeting

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Nothing much to say , so here's a video for your viewing enjoyment

Not a whole lot to say. Everything is calm and quiet. We are looking forward to having a few days off and seeing family on Thanksgiving. Jimmy turns 15 on Fri, so we will be going out to dinner at his favorite place ( Melting Pot). Hot oil, pokey sticks, raw meat, and Rootseys! That spells DANGER!
Thank you Lord for all that you are.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Love,
Joann

Here's my devotional for today
November 24
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
True friends will put an edge on your life. They will make you a sharper person. Not all my friends do that for me, but my best friends do. Have you ever had a friend who loved you so much that he would even hurt you in order to help you?
Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” What truer words of love can be spoken than from the heart of a friend who is going to spend an eternity with you? Even if those words hurt, they are words that will heal.
ACTION POINT:
Do you have a friend who sharpens you as iron? Then forward this email to your friend as a word of thanks.


and yet another silly video
Red Light, Green Light Kitty

Frozen Lasagna!! Yeah!!

The Rick-ster called and asked for frozen lasagna for dinner! Yippee!

I love it when that happens.

I just had a great day with my Mom. We went out to lunch together to one of our favorite places. Meg-O-Malleys. It was delish. I got a steak and Blue cheese sandwich,a nd she got a Kilkenny ( cabbage and corn beef) sandwich. Feel good food. My Dad loved to go there to eat, so we went there often with him. Sort of bittersweet, being there without him . I miss him. He always ordered Cottage Pie, sniff-sniff.

My Mom seems ok, a bit lonely, but she is very busy. We did a bit of shopping and she came home with me for a while. We are going too have movie night every weekend with her, so that's sort of fun! Sarah and I brought Blue down to her house to have a good smell fest. He loves sniffing out differnt places. Making sure everything is on the up and up. He's a good dog.

Pretty doggie. Double-Click on this picture to enlarge and get a load of his long eyebrow thing-ys and pleading eyes

So Rick is going to be thrilled when he gets home. We have a major clog in the boys bathroom and the flusher thing-y is broken. Yikes! Nice thing to come home to.

Jimmy is off to Robotics in a sec <Go TEAM Voltage>. He'll have you know it is very cool to be a geek. Not so much, being a nerd, but geek is cool, says he. So at Robotics they are having a "coffee fundraiser". We are not sure of the particulars, but it sounds good to Jimmy. I've created a coffee snob. Well, like mother, like son.
Got to check Charlie's algebra, "help"!

Joann

Lego Man takes a picture of himself every day for a year

Proverbs 21:1
1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Just a warm and fuzzy thought if anyone worries or prays for our leaders.

Here is my devotional for today from the church I go to

I have to read this again, because, alas, I am a sponge. Hope you can be a bucket- bearer.
Please take a sec and read it. I have put a link to a live puppy cam on the bottom of the page if you have got nothing to do. Who doesn't love watching puppies? I know I do! Careful, it's addictive! Love Joann
PS Here's a link to this weekend's lesson by Pastor Mark. It's a great teaching although it's long but you can get onto the web-site here or over to the right on my page. It's about spiritual warfare. Worth listening to. bye, again

Bucket Bearer or Sponge?
Based on “The Answer to Thirst” by Pastor Mark Balmer; 11/8-9/08,
Message #2464; Daily Devotional #3 - “Bucket Bearer or Sponge?”

Preparing the Soil (Introduction): So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.” (Mark 14:13) Are you a bucket bearer? Bucket bearers know how to regularly go to the source of living water in daily devotional time and manage to carry an overflowing bucket throughout their days. By reminding themselves of God’s past provision and of His continued goodness today, they keep their buckets constantly full. When some thirsty soul comes near, they are prepared to scoop up a dipper full of God’s goodness from their overflowing supply and freely share it. Sometimes in their day to day travels, they unknowingly slosh against thirsty fellow travelers and spatter refreshment unaware onto people who didn’t even realize that there was such refreshment available. This causes parched seekers to follow the bucket bearer’s trail until they, too can locate the bearer’s source. A man carrying a bucket of water must have been something of a rare thing in Jesus’ day, or his poor disciples would have been hard pressed to discover which man to follow (Mark 14:12-13). A bucket bearer is still rare today.

Planting and Watering the Seed (Growth): It is much easier to find sponges. The Israelites were sponges (Exodus 17:1-3). They absorbed God’s blessings over and over. They stood on the free side of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire lit their night hours, and the cloud protected them from the hot sun during the day. They were fed manna every day, and they knew Him to provide water in their past times of need. Yet as they absorbed every blessing for themselves they refused to be satisfied. At the first sign of missed expectations they became angry and resentful. They attempted to suck all the faith right out of their leader with their accusations, negativity, and demands of “Give us, give us!” The sponge’s selfishness results in complaints, quarreling, and unhappiness, no matter how many blessings are poured out upon them. A bucket bearer is willing to share his supply with all who are truly thirsty, but a wise bearer will soon recognize when he is dealing with negative, demanding sponges. At that point, he will do as God instructed Moses, and just walk on ahead (Exodus 17:5), leaving the choice to follow or complain up to each individual.

Harvesting the Crop (Action/Response): Do you consider yourself to be a bucket bearer, or a sponge? Are you looking into the face of expectations unmet? How are you responding? What are you doing to keep your blessings bucket full and ready to share? Are you mindful of the many blessings poured out on your life? Take time to list a few. Stay daily in God’s Word and refill that bucket today.

Cultivating (Additional Reading): Psalm 1:1-3; Revelation 21:6
cm
Our group singing in the Upper Room, and yes , I know I have a terrible voice, but God loves it!

Rick and I( it hurts to look at, doesn't it)

Our Shadow while riding a camel

The steps outside of Caiphus' house that Jesus climbed

A 500 ton stone in the temple in the tunnels

My camel, he looks thrilled

Our group going up to the Temple Mount

The guys had to wear paper yamakas in Holy Places

Rick out side of the Temple Mount

Gethsemane

smooth sailing

Rick in Hezekiah's tunnel. He looks a bit alarmed because it was dark Good Morning all, I've got two out of three kids to school this morning. Charlie's still here with me. on't tell the other two but I kinda like being with him for an hour or so , just the two of us, in the morning. I'm not sure what I am going to do today...I might bake some scones for Pastor Mark and bring them into church as a small "thank you" for all the work he did to prepare for our trip. I have been going through my pictures. There are so many of them and I don't have enough memory space on FLickr to put them all on there. I went to go see my Dr. yesterday, and to resume Herceptin. He said things all felt good. No new tests scheduled, so that's always nice to not have anxiety about that. Just got to get on with life. He gave me the choice of going once every three weeks for Herceptin or once a week. I decided to stick with once a week for now, because I did the three week thing and I had a recurrence. I know that probably doesn't mke a difference, but it feels a bit safer for the moment. So smooth sailing. I was a bit anxious or nervous about him prescribing CAT and PET scans and all that jazz, I know I shouldn't be. Jesus tells us not to worry, but you know me. I felt a big peace, before my appt. "it's going to be ok", I just kept listening to tat and was very relaxed and excited to see my Dr. Isn't God so awesome how he calms even the tiniest of storms? I brought him a little clay lamp that's a replica of one found at Masada with some oil from the Judean desert. he thought it was pretty cool. I was happy aobut that. Anyway. Have a great day. Got to get Charlie out the door. Love ya, Joann Let me know how you guys are doing if you have a sec. Love to hear from you. Sometimes I get a bit bored talking about myself.

Remember our Heroes

Pearl Harbor survivor Houston James of Dallas embraces Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during a Veterans Day commemoration in Dallas. Graunke lost a hand, a leg and and eye when he was injured by a bomb in Iraq last year. (AP Photo)

Hi Guys

Getting back to normal life. What a great trip. I am still sorting through pictures.
Now, some of you may be a bit disappointed ( or not ) about the election outcome. i was a little bummed, but God is in control, and President Obama it is. Romans13:1-2, says it all and so does 1Timothy 2:1-2. So there you have it. Yeah America!!!
OK, so all that aside...I saw this really cute video and I have to put it on. I hope you don't think it disrespectful because it is not meant to be. I just have to share it because it is sort of fun. Anyway , here it is.

the eagle has landed we are home and drinking starbucks

Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow

...and boy o boy , are they flowing, big time over here.

We are having the time of our lives! I won't bore you with all the details, that'll come later,.
Our days our packed with so much. It's really the way to go, having every thing planned, and a big bus to ride on. We went to the TempleMount yesterday and stood where the Holy of Holies was. I was a little intimidated to actually touch the rock (Mount of Moriah), the place where the Ark of the Covenant was and the Presence of the Lord was, the place where Abraham bound Isaac to sacrifice to the Lord, before God stopped his hand. You know what! He's not there anymore, it's just a rock. He lives in us, we are the Holy of Holies, thanks to Jesus' sacrifice. Pretty cool.
So we are hitting all the big spots, all the little ones and everything in between. Oh, and we ate at a tent set up to look like Abraham's in the Judean desert yesterday and guess what...yup, he was there. good old Father Abraham was there and washed our hands and fed us lunch. No sign of Sarah or Hagar though.
Last night a lot of us went downtown to Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem and did a bit of window shopping and ate a big meal. It was nice. It was the area where you hear about the bombs going off. It put a different perspective on it when you walk around there for yourself and see everyone. it was pretty urban and funky. Lots of machine guns and Hassidic Jews. An interesting combination. Well, I'll be home soon. Can't wait to see you all. Rick is doing great. We are enjoying our time together. Love ya,
Joann

The Holy City

We got to Jerusalem yesterday afternoon. It's undescribable. Yesterday we went to Masada and Ein Gedi to the caves where David and his army hid from Saul, and where he cut off a corner of Saul's robe. I'm sorry I haven't posted any pictures. I can't get on to Flickr, and the other way is too slow. We are staying at a kibbutz in Jerusalem overlooking the Shepard hills.
We are going to Mount of Olives and Gethsemene and other places today.
This is the Lord's city. I am so blessed to be here and so humbled. It's a gift to be here with my huisband and the people on the tour with us are so precious. It's like a giant Partidge Family Bus! The food is not agreeing with me, but I keep eating it because it's so good.
Love to all. Hope you are well.
Joann