Blog Templates Anyone?

I was searching around on the web for autumn blog templates and found this site which has some really neat, cute and pretty templates! Thought some of you out there might be interested in checking them out! Here is the link! And here is an absolutely beautiful autumn template for Wordpress users!
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Our fearless hunter, Rocky, treed a raccoon right behind the house! Here is a picture of the poor thing (the raccoon). I think he/she will probably stay there until nightfall because Rocky is surely keeping a close on that tree! Or maybe it will wait until Rocky takes a nap. *grin*

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AND here is something else our dear house pets MIGHT be doing while we are gone! *smile* And we thought they just slept all of the time.

Good Wednesday Afternoon!

Sooooo, here are a couple of pictures, as evidence, of some of what I have been up to the past few days! First, the Ohio State afghan I have been working on and it is coming along very nicely. And, secondly, the afghan that I am working on for Chantelle, the winner of the contest I had recently!

Nothing too exciting has been going on of late, but life is good, God is great and I can't complain. *grin* We kept our granddoggie, Trixie, this past weekend. We enjoyed having her 'cause she is a sweetie but Ellie the cat wasn't too thrilled, let me tell ya! *smile* But she (Ellie) is back to normal since Trixie went home Monday.

I PROMISE!! YOU HAVE MY WORD!!

CROSS MY HEART AND.....well...you get the idea!! I WILL post this afternoon, but this morning is pretty busy and we are headin' into town!! *smile* Soooooo, I'll blog at ya later!!! Bye!! ((HUGS))

Barbara H. at Stray Thoughts passed on the "Nice Matters"
blogger award to ME! I could hardly believe it, especially since I have kind of been in the blogging doldrums of late, but I graciously accept anyway!!! *smile*

“This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award.”

Now I am to pass it on to others that I feel the above applies to. Soooooo, I choose to award Theresa at My World and Welcome To It. She is such a giving, upbeat person. I look forward to reading her blog each day. She loves and cares for so many people in her life. I sometimes wonder how she does it all. She is truly and inspiration!

Becky at What the Muffin? always manages to make me smile with her dry wit and teenage view of the world and life. Theresa and Becky always leave great comments on my blog and I appreciate it so much. Your blogs brighten my life! Now pass it on!!! (the award that is! *smile*)

HOW TO INSTALL A HOME SECURITY SYSTEM

If you don't have the money for the REAL thing, this might very well work! *smile*


1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 14-16 work boots

2. Place them on your front porch, along with several empty beer cans, a copy of Guns & Ammo magazine and several NRA magazines.

3. Put a few giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazine.

4. Leave a note on your door that reads: Hey Bubba, Big Jim, Duke and Slim, I went to the gun shop for ammunition. Back in an hour. Don't mess with the pit bulls -- they attacked the mailman this morning and messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it but it was hard to tell from all the blood.

PS - I locked all four of 'em in the house. Better wait outside.

And the winner is............

CHANTELL!!!!!!! There is a link to her blog on my sidebar! Yayyyyy, Chantell!!!

And she just moved into her new apartment! So she will certainly enjoy a new afghan to go with her new things!! You'll just have to email me the colors you prefer, okay, Chantell? Or did you prefer the fudge? Let me know!
Thanks to all of you who left comments and were hoping to win! I'll try to come up with another contest in the next few weeks, k? The Lord's best to each of you!! ((HUGS))

Slow going here

Okay, so I'll be the first to admit that I don't get ALOT of traffic on my blog: an average of 24 hits a day. But I'm not blogging to see how many visitors I can get. Nope. I blog to stay in touch with friends and family that I don't see very often and to let them know what is going on in my life. Oh, and I have amazingly met some absolutely wonderful people that I know consider dear friends through blogging and that has been sweet! Oh, and as you can tell by my lack of blogging recently, all that has been going on in my life is: NOTHING......NADA.......ZILCH.......ZERO!!!! Anywayyyyy......I said all of that to say that this has been the SLOOOOOWWWWEEESSSTTT countdown to 10,000 that I have ever lived through in my entire life!!!!! I actually thought that some of YOU....*grin*..... in your zeal to win a prize might have taken to visiting my blog a leeeetle more often. right. Anywayyyyy.....when it happens it happens and I will be quick to let you know who wins! And...noooooo.....don't go visiting unnecessarily just to hike the count. Let it happen naturally. *smile*

Tidbits!!

Depending on what you find entertaining or humorous, you might find this post by Ninja John to be both. I know I did!
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While I am no longer a youth, I am planning to go to the youth rally in New Straitsville tonight with Sis. Pam and offer my support to the youth! :-)
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We are still counting down to 10,000 and at present we are standing at 9,833!! And I am crocheting my little fingers to the bone! Well, okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I AM working on it, okay??? *grin*
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I have nuthin', people, to blog about. I am down to bare bones. BUT hopefully, the next few days will bring some inspiration and happenings that I can present to you here!!
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Soooo, until the next post, I leave you with this:
"What Pets Do While We're Away"



And we thought all they did was sleep!!!

Where Have I Been?

Hello everyone! It is now Thursday and I kind of wonder where my week has gone. On Monday, I went to Columbus to have lunch with my niece, Bethany, her husband, the Drewster (Drew *grin*), and little Nathen, my nephew, Troy, and his two sons, Corbin and Cade. We went to Max and Erma's on East Broad Street. Troy and Bethany live out in that area.

Soooooo, by the time I got ready to leave home, I could hardly make it out to the car because of the pain. "I haven't got time for the pain...." Remember that old Carol King song? BUT, I pressed on because I had already made all of the plans. And I am glad that I did because we had a wonderful time. Here are some pics of little Nathen and Bethany:



Is this little boy a cutey or what???? I just kissed on his little cheeks like crazy!! *smile* They're just so kissable!
Ed and I don't eat out very often. We just prefer to eat at home. Thusly, I just can't believe the prices they charge in restaurants! Unbelievable. I had an Ultimate Cheeseburger, which came with fries: $7.99!! And I didn't eat the fries because they were just bland, even though I kept adding salt. I also had Peach Tea, which looked like a glass of beer when they brought it because it had foam on the top of it. I told the kids, "This looks illegal." They just laughed. The tea was okay. Anywayyyyy......thank goodness I had some great company, because the food was kind of disappointing. Oh, the burger was delicious but not $7.99 worth of deliciousness.

I got home at about 7:30pm and I was ready for bed, let me tell ya! *grin* I didn't sleep very well and the next day, Tuesday, I paid for my "galavanting" the day before. It has been more difficult for me to get comfortable in bed so that I can sleep soundly, but I press on. It is just that the pain level has been up considerably, here of late, for whatever reason and it makes doing the ordinary, day-to-day things a bit of a challenge. And that means that I go slower than usual and sometimes I just don't feel like blogging because I don't want to whine or complain. BUT!!! I PRESS ON!!! In Jesus' Name! And I BLOG!! *smile*

Sis. Pam is home!!!! Now that might not mean much to you BUT it does to me!!! She is my prayer partner and such a dear friend. She works in the Athens school district, working with deaf students and every summer she goes to Florida to spend time.......two and a half months worth of time!!....with her son and his family. But, she has returned and I am so excited!

Lastly! Here is the Ohio State afghan I am working on for the lucky winner of my little contest and celebration of 10,000 hits on my blog!!

Running Interference Here!

For some odd reason, my counter did a reverse and was almost back to 9,000, so I put in a new one with the correct count and we are back on track to 10,000! I am glad to see that everyone is excited! I'll post in the morning about the past couple of days and the goings on here,k?

Countdown to 10,000!

Well, it HAS taken awhile, but I am on the countdown to 10,000 visits to my blog! Sooooooo, in honor of this momentous occasion, I thought I just might offer a prize to one of my faithful readers, meaning, I would put all of your names in a basket and draw it out, then contact you via email, get the pertinent info needed, and send the prize to you! Isn't this exciting?!?!?! (okay, okay....I know....it doesn't take much to amuse me. *grin) Nowwwww, what should the prize be??? My first thought is: AN OHIO STATE AFGHAN!!! And I just happen to be working on one at the present time! I mean, football season is just around the corner!!! Of course, if you don't live in Ohio, that might not sound so great, hm? *tapping my chin thoughtfully* Well, you could tell me the team colors that you prefer and I could make it in those colors or the home decor colors you prefer. Let me know what you think! Orrrrrrrrr, how about some of Ed's homemade fudge? And you have the options of plain, nuts, raisins, or both raisins and nuts? It is delicioso!! Another idea is a knotted fleece blanket/throw in the colors of your choosing. I'll post a pic of one that I made with OSU fleece. (Love that OSU stuff,hm? *smile*) Oh, and there are some of you who read but do not comment and that is okay, but if you want to be included, you'll have to post a comment here,k? Well, it is getting late and I must be taking myself off to bed as tomorrow is Sunday and I want to be rested and all for church! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!!
here.

Bits and Pieces

Okay, so I got a new cellphone recently and I couldn't ever hear it ring when it was in my purse. So, I got to perusing my ringtones and settled on "Rooster". Yep, you guessed it. It crows like a rooster. I'm not kidding. So I put it in my purse and put my purse over on the counter by the key rack where I always keep it. So the next morning, I'm doing dishes and I hear this rooster crowing and I say to Ed, "Heyyyyy, Ted (our neighbor who lives on the hill across from us) must have gotten some chickens. Hear his rooster crowing?" I am soooo blonde sometimes. *smacking my forehead* Here it was my cellphone "ringing". Ed just looked at me, grinned and shook his head. I thought it was hilarious! Needless to say, when I've been out and about and my phone goes off, I have gotten some weird/wierd *sp* looks but I love it and I ALWAYS hear it! Well, unless I have it on silent mode, of course, like when I'm in church! I wouldn't want it to start crowing in the middle of service!

Up there....a few sentences ago, I couldn't remember how to spell wierd/weird! Isn't it wierd/weird how you can type/write a word a kazillion times and know how to spell it, then one day....poof!.....it doesn't look right, you can't remember, and you have written this word sooooo many times before without any problem! And it isn't alzheimers either, you guys! I've done this for years! *grin* Anywayyyy, I'm still not sure if it is wierd or weird and I've just not bothered looking it up but I'm thinking it is W-E-I-R-D. If my vocabulary rules serve me correctly, I believe this is an exception to the rule: "I before E except after C" You might know,hm? Okay, I looked! HERE. It IS W-E-I-R-D! Mystery solved.

I have Spysweeper installed on my computer. When I add a website to my favorites, it automatically asks me, originally, one time, if I want to keep it..... Well, yeah. I added it, didn't I? *grin* But this "weird" thing happens EVERYTIME I go to Chantell's blog! It ALWAYS asks me if I want to "keep or delete" this favorite? Well, yeah. Hello. It's one of my FAVORITE blogs. That's why I PUT it in MY FAVORITES! Probably just some little glitchy thingy with Spysweeper, like me not being able to remember the correct spelling of "wierd/weird", even though I've used it a zillion times. *sigh* Such is my life some days.

It is 4:56AM, Wednesday morning. I have been sitting here since 4AM, unable to sleep. Alot on my mind. This seldom happens to me but has happened a couple of times in the past month or so. Usually I go to bed and sleep till 3:00AM, go to the bathroom, then sleep until 5:30AM. Like clockwork. Not tonight. Possible post-menopausal insomnia or I truly do have alot on my mind? Okay, I don't actually have ALOT on my mind, just some STUFF I am dealing with, so I am going to go pray for awhile and endeavor to give it to the Lord. Gosh, but that is difficult to do sometimes,hm? Let it go. Relinquish it to the Lord. But try I will! In Jesus' Name. For I surely can't work it out on my own.

With that, I will say, "Good night and Good Morning to all!" *yawwwwnnnnnnn*

It was bound to happen

Just coming off of a week of Campmeeting, I was feeling pretty good about myself spiritually. Felt renewed, inspired, but something felt a bit off-kilter in my spirit. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. Bro. Cook preached his heart and soul out Sunday and I just felt so inadequate musically or "worshipfully" to accompany him. Then came Monday and I found out just how lacking I am. I went to the church to spend time in prayer, needing to close myself away with the Lord. In the midst of this, I asked the Lord to direct me to a scripture or passage that would help me. Without a doubt, He directed me to I Corinthians 13 (the love chapter, it is called) Now, I know what it says.....mostly.....and like a stubborn child I told the Lord, "I know what it says. I don't WANT to read it." Because I knew I was in for some chastisement. But......I read it.......and read it again......and have read it several times since. And have been smitten in my heart mightily because I am so far from what He wants me to be. He is so holy and so loving and compassionate. And that compassion extends to me so freely and fully. Where would I be without it? I would have no hope. There is an old song that the choir sang when I first came into the church. Part of it goes like this:
"And if I have not charity,
If love does not flow through me,
Jesus, reduce me to love....."
I want to be like Him. A reflection of Him. To be genuine. Right now......there's wayyyyy too much of me in the way, I'm afraid. "He must increase but I must decrease." John 3:30

8 Random Things About Me!

I've been tagged by Barbara who has a wonderful blog over here! Sooo, I am going to endeavor to tell YOU (you know who you are *grin*) 8 things that you don't know about me. (And you thought you knew everything, didn't you? *smile*) Oh, and then I am to tag 8 people to do the same, so be prepared!

Okay....first the rules:
1. Post rules before we give you the facts.
2. Start with eight random facts/habits.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their 8 things and post these rules.
4. At the end of the blog, you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names. Leave them a comment to tell them they are tagged.

Here goes:
1. When I go to bed at night, I lay down and go to sleep. Just like that. I don't toss and turn and all that. Ed says I could sleep on a fencepost! *smile*
2. I don't care for sweet stuff or desserts. Yes, you read correctly. Now that is not to say that I don't eat them occasionally, but I can do without them. Bring on the meat, potatoes and bread!
3. I weigh more than what you THINK I do!!! I just hide it well! (Thank you, God.)
4. My feet are NOT attractive. *feeble grin* (Hey, we all have our shortcomings!)
5. Pizza Crossing all-the-way pizza and grilled medium steaks are my two favorite foods! Yummmm!
6. I play piano, keyboards, organ and AM/FM radio! *grin*
7. I USED to teach two hours of aerobics every Monday night. (22 years ago, to be exact. *sigh*)
8. I love to read. I LOOOOVE to read. From a good book to junk mail and cereal boxes.

There you have it! Nowwwwww......I am going to tag these lucky people: Tracy, Becky, Jana, Theresa, Chantell, Stace, Tersie, AND Mrs. Gossom!

So you want to be a millionaire?

We've all fantasized about winning the lottery, haven't we? Thinking: "Oh, if I could just win a cool mill or few...Oh, I'd pay off the church mortgage, buy my sister Debbie a new home, a new vehicle, set Daniel and Erin up for life." Come on, now, we've all had these fun times of wishing. *smile* We think we'd be happy, satisfied, content. Well, sometimes we think we just might be, but in reality we know differently. Don't we? Read here to know for sure. "Only Jesus can satisfy your soul."

Sunday

We had life-changing, church-changing services with Bro. Ken Cook and his wife, Julie, yesterday. That's all I can say. Many of you know what I mean. I'll blog some more later in the day! God's best to you as you begin a new week!

The kitty of the house!

Doing what she does best! Sleep! Now she has several places around the house that she likes to sleep, but this is probably her favorite. Cramming her fat, furry self into this little box that is scarcely big enough. I believe green beans came in this particular box, but it makes no matter. Sleep she does! Or should I say.......she goes into a semi-comatose state for a few hours? *grin* Ya gotta love the kitty.....*smile*

In Memory of Tiffany

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Psalm 116:15

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" I Cor. 15:55

"Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matt. 5:4

"He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Psalm 147:3

"It's Over.....It's Over.....It's OOOVER!....."

.....in the words of that old Roy Orbison song. *sigh* (Does anyone else remember it?)

I'm talking about Ohio Apostolic Family Camp and what an awesome time we had! I cannot even begin to tell here all that transpired there, but the word of God was awesomely delivered and His presence was there each time we gathered in the tabernacle from the first note played! As I said before, I was privileged to see so many friends that I only see at campmeeting. How wonderful it was! Thursday evening, Sis. Smith was driving one of the golf carts transporting people to the tabernacle from the parking area. I was sitting next to her and people were heading for the tabernacle in droves. All I could think of was this is how it is going to be someday......all of the redeemed gathering in, as the old song says. "When the redeemed are gathering in, washed like snow, and free from all sin. How we will shout and how we will sing, when the redeemed are gathering in."

On a much sadder note, Mt. Vernon Apostolic Church will be laying to rest one of their precious young people, Tiffany Potter, 24,who passed away this week of lymphoma. My heart goes out to her family and the church. This is such an awesome church that is pastored by my former youth pastor. You can read some posts about Tiffany here and and here. Please pray for the Potter family and the church as they grieve the loss of this precious young lady.

I will blog more later but for now.......being the sleep-deprived person that I am from a week of late nights, I am going back to bed for a little while! *yawnnnn*

Campmeeting Time in Ohio!

It has been a wonderful week at the Apostolic campgrounds in Millersport, Ohio! Even though I decided not to stay at camp this week, I have been able to go to service each night and it has been wonderful! I've seen so many good friends and heard some absolutely awesome messages from Bro. Klinedinst and Bro. Godwin. The music and worship each night has been so refreshing and strengthening. I'm glad that I decided to stay home during the day and ride with others at night. It is now Thursday and I am feeling the toll that it taking on my poor body but I type this as I am preparing to go take my afternoon nap, in preparation for another trip to Millersport with Pastor and Sis. Martin this evening! TTFN!