Picture me on a soap box in the middle of the street.

I do believe the end is near. Mr. Harold Camping only has a few of the details and the date wrong. I look around at the terrible things happening in our world from earthquakes (the earth will groan for His coming the Bible says), tornadoes, hurricanes, famine, wars and rumors of wars, and I can see that the end is really near.
But let us not get all caught up in the fear that can be associated with this thought.

2 Peter 3:9-18 (New International Version)

⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

 ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.^[a]

 ¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹² as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.^[b] That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³ But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

 ¹⁴ So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵ Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. ¹⁶ He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

 ¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

I just want to be ready when He comes, whenever it may be. I want to help those in need, love those in need of love and give hope to the hopeless.

Viewer Discretion is advised.

I feel awful for not blogging. Life has taken a few turns this past year. Let's recap.

February, 2010 I was put on bed rest with my 3rd pregnancy because of my blood pressure and almost preterm labor.

April I had my 3rd baby boy.

May started to resume some normalcy and I was settling into the mom of 3 boys.

June 1, 2010 my world turned upside down. Donny had his motorcycle accident. The boys were sort of shuffled anywhere and everywhere. I was at the mercy of friends and family and neighbors. After it happened he wasn't comfortable showing the pictures. He didn't even want to see them. But he has told me I can use a few for this blog. So I will. And here is where the "Viewer Discretion" begins.

These are just a few of the pictures we have. And these are only of the major injury.


I show these to say 3 things.
1. WATCH OUT FOR MOTORCYCLES!!!!
2. Nothing in life is guaranteed and it can change in the blink of an eye.
3. MY GOD IS SO UNBELIEVABLY GOOD!!!!

We went to see the Ortho Doctor today. GREAT news! He's doing very well. Shows NO signs of arthritis! Well on his way to a great recovery.

The end of July held surgery #7 to remove the external fixator.
August was the beginning of school and Noah started kindergarten!

September and October were fairly uneventful

November we became youth leaders...again! AND surgery #8 to correct foot drop that Donny developed in his bad leg. And money began to become an issue. Prayers and faith were all we had. Little did we know that God had moved the hearts of great friends who were busy putting things together that we had no clue about.

December marked a HUGE shift! God moved the legal part of things and we were able to close our suit and collect all settlements! He granted us favor in buying a van. We were blessed by Joyce Meyer Ministries with groceries, 2 months house payments, electric paid for a month and 2 car payments! AND, some sweet, wonderful and giving friends blessed the boys with Christmas gifts. Our attorney, also, got in the game and rounded up support for us and blessed our family. Our future Christmas mornings may never compare to this last one.

January we really began a struggle with Long Term Disability through Donny's job. It wasn't until just about 3 weeks ago that we finally got things figured out and found out that we were going to get paid and our benefits returned.

February was fairly mellow.
March- My baby brother got married! And I gained a new seester :)

April held several things. My oldest turned 8!! My baby turned 1!! And I was asked to come on staff at GCFIRST Assembly of God as the youth pastor and the church has agreed to help me get my Ministerial studies taken care of.

May2 I started in the office at the church. I am learning so much and I am excited to be on the ground level of the mighty things God is going to do!

And then the other day, I updated my blog turn on our website with this. Go ahead, take a look. This is my latest update called, Created for Him.

Sorry this sort of rambled but maybe now you have a taste of what my life is like. And this hasn't included the day to day normal "Mom" stuff that is required of me.

Thanks for reading and please stop by again!

I don't want to take a ticket and stand in line.

I am not political. I do have opinions and I vote, but I am not a political person. So this post is one that I have debated on writing for the past 2 hours. But, here goes.

I was sitting at the dining room table working on some crafty things tonight and Donny was watching television. A hockey game to be exact. Who'd have thought? Anyway, a home improvement commercial came on and a line in it was, "Because you don't want to take a number and stand in line to fix your home." Or something very similar...the "number and stand in line" is for sure, though. What went through my mind is that apparently we can't imagine going to Home Depot/Lowe's/Ace and standing in line with a number for some wood or a hammer and yet we voted in a President who's main goal for our health benefits will require us to stand in line with a number to have that operation you need on your heart or that your child needs on their ears. It's unfathomable to me!
Okay, I am off of my soapbox and although I know that I chose to write this blog and make it public, I am just voicing my opinion and don't need to be yelled at for it. Feel free to comment but let's be respectful.
Thanks, and I don't want to stand in line.

Fun With Apps

Apps are good.
Apps are fun.
Share your apps with everyone!

We downloaded a new app a few days ago and have been having so much fun with it! We thought we would share our fun app and the things we do with it with you.

The app is CamWow. It uses your camera to make funny pictures and other effects. Here are a few.

This one is my favorite! What's not to love about it!

Shrunken head?

There once was a Who in Whoville.....

And now to introduce you to some friends of ours.

Daniel

Kyle

John

Bethany

Josh





Go ahead now. Go grab your phone, iPod, iPad, whatever! Go to your apps and find CamWow! You won't be disappointed. It will provide hours of fun and loads of blackmail.

Did You Know...

Did you know that God and Jesus live so high above us because they are in heaven?

Did you know that God and Jesus live there because they are bigger than ghosts?

Did you know that when the sunshine appears through the clouds and you see the rays breaking through and stretching down to the earth it means that Jesus is coming down?

These are all lessons he taught me. Sometimes being a Mom is so much fun.

I am a junkie

Hi. My name is Stacey and I am a junkie. Getting high with The Most High is my favorite past time.
So what happened? What happened to living from one fix to the next? Where did the unquenchable hunger for that high go?
Oh, sure, I could list excuse after excuse but the ultimate problem falls back to the one typing this right now. It's not pretty but the mirror can no longer be ignored. The intervention for my passion has begun. I'm being shown how my choices have effected my addiction.
What about you? Are you still getting the shakes when it's close to time for your next fix? What's the answer? Ah, the answer my friends, is found when we are standing so perfectly fine that we realize there is no longer a need for something to grip and we find ourselves grasping for something to replace it. But there is nothing that can give us that rush! There is no one who can satisfy our hunger. No. There is only one who can come in and totally wreck my life into a beautiful disaster.
God, I need You more today than ever before. Shake me from my slumber and light the fire that once burned bright and intense once again. Fill me with Your presence that I may be intone with You heart. Let Your light shine so brightly in me that others can't help but see You as they look at me. And may the words in my mouth be seasoned in love, mercy, grace & hope!

Going without and other thoughts for the day.

Ever had to go without something? Ever chosen to go without something? 

For the next 21 days, our church is doing a 21 Day Fast. This is such a neat thing to participate in. The entire church from the kids on up have a part in this. 

I love the kids set up. They get a weekly calendar with daily scripture readings and what they are to fast for the day.

The youth and adults have journals. 

Working with the youth, Donny and I decided we would participate in their fasting. Today marks day one and the fast is video games. Now, aside from a few apps on the iPod and Wii fit, I don't do video games. I have given those up though. And since that is all, I have opted to fast Facebook for the day. (I will post a link to this blog but that is through Blogger so I am really not getting on facebook, see?)

The purpose of this fasting and prayer time is to seek out God; to draw ever closer to Him and find His unfolding plan and will for our church. We know that without vision people parish. The goal is to be in a place at the end of 21 days that we can, as a church, see what the vision for First Assembly of God is. It's an exciting time to be a part of what's going on!! Change is not always easy but it is mostly good! 

Other thoughts:

Noah is having trouble with the concept of rhyming. So today while we took a ride in the van, we talked about words that rhyme. Poor thing. He wants to do more of a word association than rhyme. It ended up with him telling us words and we would say the rhyming words. He would say things like road and I would say "toad". To which he would laugh in hysterics.  Or he would say "bed" and I said, "Fred" and he replied, "Mom! There's a Fred on Scooby Doo!" And then came things like alligator, power line, crocodile, McDonald's and such. Oh Lord help me. 

I am so ready for Spring. I love the winter and all the snow but this year I am beyond done with it all! I want the nice, warmer days to come and I am ready to head over to Busch Stadium for a Cardinal's game with a wonderful pretzel and cheese and some peanuts! I can't wait for bike rides and going to the park. 

And lastly, is this simple thought of reassurance tapping at the back of my brain. What a wonderful thought to have. Here it is,

Philippians 4:19 (Amplified Bible)¹⁹And my God will liberally supply (^[a]fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.