Sunday, 02 October 2005

I’m back!! What a weekend! I had a great time and completed 20, 12x12 pages! I’ve not only completed but exceeded my Creative Memory goal of 205 pages in 2005! In fact I completed 213 actual Creative Memory Pages. That doesn’t count the other albums I have been working on that aren’t Creative Memories! I’ve been a cropping fool!

Friday was very hectic for me until I left for the retreat. I was determined to get the church newsletter out by Friday! It would have gone out Tuesday had my computer not given up the ghost! I also do the bulletin on Fridays so that made things even more of a challenge. I also got a new computer! Woo hoo! Even though I haven’t gotten to do a thing with it because I was so busy trying to get the newsletter and bulletin done! Pastor helped get it hooked up and started loading stuff for me. With the newsletter out of the way I’ll have all this week to input data. I didn’t get to leave the office until 1:45pm. I usually leave around 12:30. I was hoping to be at the retreat by 2PM. Well, that obviously wasn’t going to happen. I still needed to load all my stuff.

I finally get home around 2PM and start loading my scrapbook supplies and bag of clothes. I left for the retreat about 2:45PM. The retreat is only about 18 miles north of me so I didn’t have far to go. It was a great “out of the way” place. If you’re interested here’s their website www.mitchelrvpark.com . We had a building that was set up for scrap booking so once everything was setup we were able to leave our stuff out all weekend. We each had a six foot table to ourselves so boy, did I spread out! There was a total of 10 of us! We each had a cabin to stay in when we slept which wasn’t much. They were really nice!

I didn’t get very many pages done the first day. It always takes me a while to get in the grove. I only did 6 pages and stayed up until 2:30PM! We had tacos for supper and brownies for dessert! We made a trip back to the Scrapbook Store around 9:30 PM to pickup any additional supplies we might need. I woke up Saturday morning about 8:30AM. My roommate had already gotten up and made coffee so grabbed me a cup and went outside to drink my coffee and spend a little time with the Lord before I began cropping again. I read my Bible a little while then I went for a walk and had a great time talking to Father God. I got back to scrapbook about 9:30AM. Breakfast was made. We had egg and sausage casserole, cinnamon rolls and cereal. For lunch Cathy’s (we call her “Cat” the owner of the scrapbook store and organizer for the retreat) husband cooked us hamburgers and hot dogs. For dinner he cooked us Brisket and beans (good ole’ southern eatin!) and we had German Chocolate Cake for dessert! Around midnight we had ice cream sundaes! I bet I gained 10 lbs this weekend! I’m not so sure I ate more than I cropped! I did get 14 pages done but I also didn’t get to bed before 2:30AM Sunday morning! I got up at 7:15AM to packed up my stuff and headed back to town. Doyle was home from work when I got there. Kaidence (my daughter’s dog) had been on the rampage. Once again my daughter didn’t put her in her kennel and she got out of her room chewing up a couple of pairs of shoes (one pair being my best pair of boots and the other my niece’s favorite pair of flip-flops!) and had peed in the floor! Thankfully the boots had minimal damage and were still wearable! I told her that’s why she is to be kenneled when no one is home or no one is awake! Maybe, just maybe she will finally listen to me….if she doesn’t she’s going to have to buy me a new pair of boots!

After church and lunch I promptly laid down and fell fast asleep! I was so tired during church! I’m glad it was really good otherwise I would have fallen sleep! I did see part of the Cowboy game but it’s just as well….they lost it. Got off the couch in time to go to church again at 6PM for our Presbytery service. Doyle and I were the first candidates. It was good but I’ll have to admit I’ll need to listen to it again before I can tell you what was said. I did receive it whole-heartedly though!

I shared this scripture in the morning services today and sense I need to share with you. The Holy Spirit seemed to be leading us into a time of spiritual warfare. Declaring the things God has said He is giving us. I was prompted to go to Nehemiah where I was reading yesterday. This is the scripture I read and what I shared. If you’ve never read Nehemiah I encourage you to go there. It is a great book that is often overlooked.

Nehemiah was trying to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. When their enemies heard about this they became angry and conspired together to attack Jerusalem and create confusion. I began reading in Nehemiah 4:9 "Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God and because of them we set a watch against them day and night." Verse 13 the latter part, which says, “I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.” I said “With a weapon in one had they continued to build and make repairs with the other hand.” Then I read the latter part of verse 14 which says “Do not be afraid of them Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.” I began to exhort the people to fight for their loved ones who are not in church or don’t know the Lord especially the women who’s husbands aren’t coming. I said “I stand here before you as a representative of one whose husband didn’t come for 8 years. The amount of time doesn’t matter. What does matter is if God did it for me, God will do it for you! It’s time to not be passive or complacent but to fight for what is yours! To take back what the enemy has taken! You women who have no husbands, begin to ask God to bring a godly man into your life. It’s time to quick sitting on your laurels (yes I said that! For you young ones that means your backside!) and fight for what is rightfully yours whatever it is! Whether people, possessions or promises."

I have lots of catching up to do so will quit for tonight. I’ll try to get some pictures of the pages I completed and post for ya’ll to see later this week.

Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses! Nehemiah 4:14b NKJV