It's a Small World

Maybe it's because I work at a church that has contacts all over, or maybe it's just because this is Mississippi, but a really strange thing happened today. We were on our way back home from my mom's house in Brandon. We were on 49 in Magee, stopped at the light in front of the Wal-Mart. Someone in the car in the lane next to us was waving and honking. I shaded my eyes and rolled the window down. It was Curt Hale,

the children's pastor at Pinelake. He has lead our Kid's Camps for the past several years. Just last week he spoke at our banquet for Children and Preschool workers. I love Curt. He and Noel and the boys were headed to his mom's for Christmas. After the light turned green and I rolled up the window, Mr. H looked at me and said, "I know I'm married to the church lady when we are hailed by children's ministers from churches in other cities." Have I mentioned how much I love my job?

Porklets, Presents & Gingerbread Houses

I know it's Christmastime. I got up at 4:45 this morning to make porklets. You probably call them mini pigs-in-a-blanket: little sausages wrapped in crescent roll dough. A family we know always called them porklets, so for us, the name stuck. I sent 64 of them to school with L this morning. They are having a breakfast Christmas party. I probably won't get to go to the party because of the presents . . .

. . .lots of presents. Our church had an angel tree in the front lobby this year. We had about 90 angels on it. Most of them were from our local elementary school. The gifts came in last Sunday and the parents will pick up the last of them this afternoon. It has been so much fun connecting the parents with the presents.

My eldest wanted to make a gingerbread house this year. In the planning process, she decided she didn't like ginger, so she made it from her wonderful chocolate chip cookie dough, minus the chocolate chips. She and L decorated it yesterday afternoon. It is a beautiful sight. I think she was inspired by the pictures she saw at CNN.com (photo 10) of London attractions done in gingerbread.

I Love My Girls

Tonight was our staff Christmas Party. It was at Bro. Neil's new house. We decided no kids. (Well, Silas came but he's under 6 months.) Anyway, my eldest suggested that they all go to the movies together. Neil has 4 kids, 3 of them girls. We have 3 girls. Danny has a girl. (Dr. T's youngest would probably have joined the party, but she was making $$ babysitting for Bro. Mark's 2 little ones.) Neil's oldest and our oldest are college freshmen and they took 6 little girls to the movies. Our eldest's boyfriend came and brought his little sister, too. (One guy with 8 girls!) After the movie they came back to our house for supper. I love the fact that they are all such good friends.
When Mr. H and I got home, the house was spotless and M was baking cookies for her class party tomorrow. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky.
Then I realize that it's not ALWAYS so easy. But when it IS easy, it's harder to remember the times that parenting isn't a piece of cake (or a batch of cookies)

Christmas in Reverse

Tonight the children of Agricola Baptist presented "Christmas in Reverse." It is the story of Christmas going back all the way to the Garden of Eden. My L was Mary. She did a great job.









As I was looking at the pictures, I was reminded that we had some miracle children singing tonight. Just 2 weeks ago one
young man was in ICU after being in a horrible car crash. He was able to come tonight.





His mom thought he just wanted to watch, but, no, he wanted to sing. He told her they needed him.

The other miracle child sang with the preschool choir. This little one weighed less than 2 pounds at birth and yet was there tonight, singing away. These 2 children are so much a part of the reason we celebrate. God has been good to us.

Heavenly Things

This morning, very early while it was still dark, I went outside to see if I could catch a glimpse of any shooting stars. This is the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. But, wouldn't you know, it was too overcast to see anything. I was bummed. About 2 hours later, as we were leaving to go to school, I looked out the window of the van and saw this:

If not for the cloud cover, this rainbow wouldn't have been possible. I guess God knew I needed a reminder of His promises more than I needed something to wish on.

Rurban things

Dr. T likes to write about Rurban things. Sometimes, he IS the rurban thing. Here's something you just don't see everyday: Your pastor and youth pastor, playing the piano and singing on a trailor pulled down the road by the minister of music. I love where I work.

the season's heating up

In more ways than one.
It was 80 degrees outside today!
And I'm supposed to go to a Christmas meal tomorrow night. I still haven't decided. The church staff party for Thursday night has been postponed because 2 kids of the adults involved have a band concert (M is 1 of those kids) and 1 kid has a basketball game. We are rescheduling for Monday. We're having surf, turf and bird. I'm providing the baked potatoes. My oven will cook 40 at a time. I probably won't be fixing that many this time, but I know I can when the occasion calls for it!
So next Monday I have a function, then I have to fix pigs-in-blankets for L's party on Wednesday.
I have no idea if we are going anywhere or if anyone is coming here for Christmas. Sometimes I just feel like drifting with the current.

What a Weekend

We're finally home.
This weekend started early Friday morning and we're not finished yet. We started out by feeding the GC Rebels early that morning. (The Bulldog in me forces me to qualify our Rebels with the "GC") Those boys can put away some groceries. Our pastor, Dr. T, took some pictures of the event. You can see them here. While I was in town I took some pictures of the local support.
This sign is made out of red cups pressed into the holes in the chain-link fence at the Middle School. I figured while I was in town, I'd pick up check M out of class. As it turned out, it was a good thing. While I was in the hall waiting for her, Mr. H called from Atlanta saying that he couldn't locate his keys. They might be in his checked baggage, but if they weren't, he needed a ride home from the Mobile airport in about 2 hours. So M and I took some pictures around town.




This vehicle was parked at the Sonic.












McDonald's was showing its local spirit and so were some of vehicles in the drive-thru.























Our church had a message for the team, too.

and so did my van.















We picked up L at the elementary school and headed for the airport. We picked up Mr. H (no keys) and came home so he could the unpack the big suitcase he took to Boston and pack the overnight bag for the trip to Jackson. He was home for about 30 minutes!

We saw lots of vehicles with "We Believe" written on them on Hwy 98 and Hwy 49. We saw some friends from another church when we stopped to get gas in H'burg. Rocky Creek Baptist brought 2 vans.
Being in the stadium in Jackson was a lot like being at Gill Martin Stadium in Lucedale. I saw all the same people. We just had more room to spread out at War Memorial Stadium. Our eldest and her buddies from MSU drove down from Starkville after exams. She even had some friends drive up from LSU. Mr. H took this picture from the South Panola side of the horseshoe.
I wish we would have won the game, but it was a great game anyway. I didn't hear any bad things said about our boys. They gave it their all. They played hard all the way to the very last second on the clock. They didn't give up when they were behind 21-0 at halftime. In fact, they won the 2nd half of the game, scoring 21 points, while SP only put 7 points up in the 2nd half.

We spent the night with my mom in Brandon and drove home this afternoon. We had to be a the rehearsal for our Christmas musical at 3:00. We dropped off the girls and headed to church. Mr. H as a wonderful solo near the end. He's a great singer, if I do say so myself. He's also playing the offertory in both services tomorrow morning, so I'm on my own teaching the Sunday School lesson.
I need to get going now, but I wanted to let everyone know how the game went and how much fun everyone had in spite of the final score.

David and Goliath

I can't sleep. I've been lying there for an hour and I'm still awake. This will be a long day and it has started WAY earlier than I had intended!

This morning at a little before 8 am, Agricola Baptist Church is feeding breakfast to our team. I'm in charge of the milk and orange juice. The usual "Men's Breakfast Team" is handling the steak, sausage, eggs, grits, and biscuits. They have 'mass quantities of manly food' down to a science.

After they eat, my friend Mark is going to speak to them on the topic "Be Strong and Courageous." He has a wonderful ability to speak to people this age.

Then our David will be off to face Goliath.

George County Rebels, We Believe!

I had to go to town today to take L for a checkup. Everywhere I looked, there it was: support for our team. At the banks, at the grocery store, on professionally printed banners as well as hand printed ones, spelled out in plastic cups stuck in the chain link fences around the elementary and middle schools.

The State Championship game is tomorrow night in Jackson, and I think George County (in its entirety) will be there to cheer on our guys. The schools are all closing at 12:30 and most of the businesses are shutting down at 2:00. EVERYONE is headed north to War Memorial Stadium. There are several chartered buses, lots of church vans, and an uncountable number of private vehicles that will be traveling up 98 to 49 and then into the city of Jackson. College kids that were at George County in recent years are taking a break during exams to be there for the big event. I don't know if we'll win. I hope so. But I think right now, for most of us, this is a chance to be together, to be united, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. And we love it!

O Christmas Tree

This year we have an artificial tree. My girls are crushed, but I have a reason: for the past 10 years we have gone to 1 of 2 tree farms, owned by friends of ours, and cut down our tree. Neither of those 2 places are selling trees this year. I didn't want to buy a tree that had already been cut who knows how long ago. So I went with a fake. But it's pretty and it's 9 feet tall and it came with the lights already on it.
But the best part of the tree is the ornaments anyway, right? Those are the things that tell your family history.

This green ball says that I took home-ec in the 8th grade. There is also a purple one and an orange one.

This little man is dressed in the band uniform that Council #7 Hanging Moss wore when I was in the 10th grade.



My grandmother was always making something. She didn't like to be idle, so when she watched her "stories" in the afternoon or other shows at night, her hands were busy. I have about 5 of these beaded ones in different shapes. When I got married she made sure I had something to go on my tree that first year. She sent me a set of the 12 Days of Christmas. Each one is a wreath with a number 1 through 12 and a disk of the French Hens, gold rings, maids a milking, etc. They do not photograph well!



I had an older bulldog ornament, but it perished in a falling tree accident 2 years ago. My mom got me this one to replace it.

This handkerchief angel was a present from my Sunday School
teacher several years ago. She prayed for each one of us as she wrapped them for us.




When the girls were small, there were lots of ornaments made at school of construction paper and their photograph. We don't get those any more. Of the old ones, most of the glitter has fallen off and the picture stuck to something over the summer. I don't really mind, though. When they get around to having their own trees, I'll be able to give them something of my grandmother's and probably something of mine that I did to keep from being idle myself.