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Your word for the year….

5 Jan

The new year has begun and now  2011 is being set into order. With many talking about new years resolutions, which I personally do not participate in as I never seem to keep up my end of the bargain with all those promises, I felt that I wanted to have a ‘word’ for the year.  I was somewhat inspired after hearing some others doing the same.  With some thought and prayer, I decided that the word for my year would be HOPEFUL.   After contemplating this for a while, I was directed to the words, Faith, Hope and Love. It seems to me that one cannot be had without the other. Hope being the rope that connects faith and love! Hope being deferred makes you very hopeless and that being very hard to operate in faith or love. I have much to be hopeful for this year in dreams, visions, prophecies, seeing my kids and family reach goals and aspirations, brothers and sisters in Christ having a heart towards the Lord like never before….. and just in life as a general. I am grateful that God has already resolved many of theses hopes in His word and knowing that He is the same yesterday and forever, I have great hope and walk being very HOPEFUL in everything.

Have any of you chosen a word for the year, let me know what it is if so….

Prov.13:13

Ecc.4:12

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Let it snow….

2 Dec

This time of the year is great with Thanksgiving, family and then Christmas just around the corner! After arriving home from a fantastic 21 day trip to South Africa and being back here in the States, I have come to realize how blessed I am to experience two vastly different cultures!  One thing you do learn is to live by the motto, “When in Rome, do as Rome.”  Differences are not back and I must admit I rather enjoy many of the cultural diversities here and in South Africa.  Jet lag was not to bad with only waking up at 4:00 am for about 5 days in a row.  I do know that my body hates me, as a week after arriving home, I left for a 9 hour trip to Wichita with the family, to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was well worth it as we had some great times with friends and family. The weather was also great but no snow this year so I made up for it with snow on my page!

Thanksgiving dinner at home before we left for Wichita, Ks.

Decorating after lunch, our tradition.

Outside decorations...Joy to the World!

The tree is up!

Michael carving the ham and turkey.

....that was hard work!!

Isaiah enjoyed every minute feeding the dogs!

All good things must come to an end….

21 Nov

It is finished…. my travel blog that is.  Here is the link for you to read about my trip and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Please be patient….

6 Nov

It is very difficult getting on the internet here, yet my travels continue….Blog Update ~ Enjoy!

I promised a travel blog….

28 Oct

I have the amazing opportunity to travel to South Africa to visit with my family for 3 weeks.  I promised a travel blog while jetting around, so here it is….Blog Update Enjoy!

Silly Bands….

23 Sep

The latest craze….I would say. Everywhere I go, I cannot help notice the bunch of neon colored bands on people’s arms. I was puzzled at the obsession but after inquiring about these glowing bands, I came to find out that there was a lot more to them that meets the eye!  After discovering that once these bands are removed from the arm and placed on a surface an amazing shape takes place. Come to find out that there is a whole array of shapes, ranging from animals, figures, super heroes, extra! Well, a giraffe being my favorite animal, I was on a mission to find one. Thanks to my daughter Kristen, who knows all about these bands, being a children’s pastor, managed to retrieve one out of the goodie bag in children’s church! That is when the Lord started speaking to me. Never judge a book by its cover…..I will never look at another silly band as it is but what its image is designed to become!  There is a beautiful image in each one of us, maybe not to the eye immediately but give it space, time and a place to take shape and walla, there it is! There is a scripture that speaks about this, 1 Sam. 16:7b ~ But the LORD said to Samuel, ” For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”  I have been challenge to see people as God sees them, complete in Him, giving Him glory and beautiful in His sight, not what we see on the outward but what we are created in His image to be!  He is the potter and we are the clay and He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Mike in Malawi – April 2010

20 Aug

Take a look at the video!

Summer countdown…..

14 Aug

I thought that it was about time to write again. Sorry about the delay but the word busy does not describe it. I must admit that I have enjoyed every minute of it except for the unfortunate event of having to have a crown placed on one of my teeth…but thanks to a friend of ours, Van Kirkland, who saved us a few hundred bucks, seeing that his business is making crowns. Plus, I have found a great new dentist, Dr. Carpenter who never caused me any pain at all. Needless to say, I have been royally crowed! Moving on here, Sarah and I was blessed to be able to go and visit some of our best friends in Wichita, Ks. for a week. Malinda and Brad are always so fun to visit and we had the privilege of helping buy his Ipad!! Yeah!!  Plus, we went to the local drive-in to see “Despicable”, which we always love doing.  We are also spend rather a lot of time in their awesome pool!

Sarah with friends!

Do not disturb!

Malinda and Cheryl chilling on their deck.

Sarah also went for a spin in Brad’s Corvette and tested out the 0-90 acceleration as they went to Freddy’s to buy us frozen custard ~ yummy!  She loved the car and we sure enjoyed the custard.

She did have the keys in her hand and I said, "Nooo".

Sarah was excited about also attending YfN in Dallas with our youth group.  Unfortunately this will be her last year there as she now prepares to start at Concordia University on August 21st.  She is very excited and looking forward to her studying nursing and obtaining her BSN.  It was also time for her to say goodbye to her Pediatric rheumatologist, Dr. Ruy Carrasco, at Dell Childrens Hospital and meet her adult rheumatologist here in Round Rock, Dr. Tew.

Dr. Carrasco and Sarah at her last visit.

"We are Family..."

Summer has been filled with lots of other stuff and now with the temperatures being in the 100’s for days, we are looking forward to fall…..  Here are some other picks showing some of the fun we have had.

Michael and I on the cruise to the Bahamas in June.

The whole group getting ready to board the ship.

The Dallas Cowboys played and Kristen brought us treats!

Maddy at the dog park visitng friends.

Lacy recovering after her surgery, now no puppies.

Friends have made our Summer so much fun!

Peedy, our friendly squirrel is still causing havoc with throwing acorns at us and teasing the dogs. We now have two hummingbirds in our backyard who really enjoy our feeder and seem to have no fear of humans.   Now with all the college shopping done and the car half packed for Sarah’s big move, thank goodness she only moves 15 miles from out home but that still does not make it easy for us parentals 😦  Yet we are so happy for her and know that her future is bright.

Big news ~ I am off to South Africa at the end of October, by myself to visit my family for 20 days!! Yippee and I am so excited as the ticket only cost me $120.00 with miles!!  Will keep you all updated……

My sister Ann and her husband Rob, waiting in South Africa!!

Summer loving….

1 Jul

Summer has come like a flood for us and we have had the privilege of enjoying every minute of it!  What with graduation, VBS, cruise, Wimbledon tennis, World Soccer Cup and lots more, who could be bored for a minute!! VBS was a great success this year at TOLC and Kristen with her amazing team did a fabulous job as usual.  Many childrens lives were touched and changed forever. There was great excitement and participation with the food drive and we were able to bless a local ministry with lots of food.  Then came our cruise to the Bahamas and we had a blast!!  The weather, ship and company was amazing, not to mention the beautiful scenery and new lands that we all saw.  Sarah and I swam with Dolphins at the city of Atlantis in Nassau, Sarah D and Sarah J sent para-sailing in Key West, some went mope-ding in Nassau, snorkeling in Freeport and Key West.

Us...

The whole crew!

We were very excited to have Loretta join us on this cruise!

Jeremy & Kristen celebrated their first wedding anniversary with us.

Sarah, Kristen and Sarah.

BFF Sarah D!!

Sarah in Atlantis, Bahamas, after swimming with the dolphins!

Paradise! Atlantis in the Bahamas.

~See our complete cruise album~

David, Laura, Abigail, Christian and Elisha Schnucker sailed away with us!

Senioritis!

5 May

Sarah and her violin

With school winding down for Sarah’s senior year, there are tons of fun things happening!  Her orchestra class competed int he UIL contest and they received a 1, which is the highest award. She has played the violin for 6 years now and has done really well.  We also had senior pictures taken and she attended prom!  It is hard to believe that this is my last one in school around here, apart from college!  Sarah is going to be attending Concordia University here in Austin and has obtained a scholarship to do her BSN in nursing.  We are really proud of her and know that God has his hand on her to do great things!  She is very exited about this transition and will be staying on campus.

Sarah UIL Contest – they received a 1! Take a listern.

Sarah - Round Rock High 2010


Cheryl and Sarah

Michael and Sarah

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