No, really -- I have nothing to say tonight. I have absolutely no reason to blog whatsoever, except to set a new record for myself: 3 days in a row. Please, hold your applause -- that's enough, really -- you can stop now. ~ahem~

We had a combo WBM & CPMA service tonight because James (CPMA) and I (WMB) decided to go galavanting around the country for the first half of the month and this was the only time we'd be available to do our services. Everybody seemed a bit distracted tonight really. Been a busy or rough day for most. My klutzy Aunt Sue broke her foot today (at least we think it's broken), so she came hobbling to service in a lot of pain. That didn't help, I'm sure! It was a good service in spite of it all. God's always so good to help us.

Sister Clarkson, you'll be glad to hear that Joe has been downright gluttonous today. Started off with two big bowls of cereal (Mom does not cook breakfast on fast day!), then chicken noodle soup for lunch (forgot about the chicken it it -- he feasted on all four tiny little cubes of it! Ha!), then three BIG pieces of Pizza Hut pizza tonight. He's been trying real hard to make up for those four days he did without -- tells me all the time how hungry he is and keeps on asking for more. Maybe tomorrow would be a good day to whip out another ham sandWICH (emphasis for your sake, Mom)...

Katie read her entire Dick & Jane story book (198 pages, I think) during nap time yesterday. The kid is reading up a storm and loving it. Katie told the lady at the library yesterday, "It's pretty amazing that a 5 year old can read so well, isn't it?!" I just told her to be quiet and sit on the rug. *blushing* That kid. She'll be the first to tell you all of the amazing things about herself!

Sam. What's Sam been up to. Hhmmm... He's into the stealing-everybody-else's-stuff thing BIG TIME right now. I heard Joe in the other room this morning saying, "No, Sam -- give me my toy back. Sam, that's mine -- can I have it? Give it to me, Sam..." I came around the corner just in time to see Sam lunging for Joe. Tackled him and would've proceeded with his ruthless attack had not he been yanked out of the fray. I mean, how dare Joe ask for his own toy back?! He's got a lot of nerve! Pray for us. We're really trying to do our best, but Sam sometimes makes us wonder if there is any hope at all!

James has been busy copying CDs of our Regional Convention. He created one that's full of nothing but all of the special singing and some congregational stuff. It's about an hour long, I think. It's got Mama singing "Going Back" and Janet Talley singing "Holy Spirit, Move Among Us" and her leading some singing, as well -- "The Old Ship of Zion" and such. It even features the Shuler kids singing "So Much to Thank Him For" and the family singing "Happy Tracks" with beautiful harmony on both. How much do you think you'd pay for an eclectic compilation of anointed and inspirational music such as this??? $49.95? Nooooo! $39.95??? Nooooo! $29.95????? Noooooo! This one time offer comes to you at the amazingly low price of just $14.99 (plus $49.95 shipping and handling). And remember, this is not available in stores. And if you order in the next 30 minutes, he'll throw in a complete set of Ginsu 2000 steak knives at no additional charge! But wait -- that's not all, folks...!!! Okay, so that is all. Actually, I think it was way too much. But it'll make James proud. Right, dear? :-)

As for me, my day consisted of all the nasty jobs I've been putting off ever since we got home from Camp. I moved all the stuff (table, chairs, etc.) out of the kitchen this morning, build a tent in the living room for the kids to play in, then spent the next couple of hours on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor. I hate that job, but once it's done I always feel sooooo good. It's needed that for a long time! Then I moved on to the bathroom. There is no room in the house that makes me happier than that bright and cheery blue and yellow bathroom of mine once it's been cleaned top to bottom and is all fresh and sparkly -- especially when I'm burning that yummy Sunbathed Lemon candle in there. Wait a sec,... uh-oh. Be right back................. Okay. Had to go blow out the above mentioned candle! It's been burning for, um... 5 or 6 hours now. Oops. The bathroom smells REALLY great now, though! :-)

I know, I know. It was time to stop a long time ago. I warned you that I had nothing to blog about today. If you're still here reading it's your own fault, not mine. I just wasn't tired enough to go to sleep and didn't have the motivation to do anything productive. So it was time to BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, Ray. Ah yes. We're missing the travelling Adams family, aren't we? ~sigh~ It's just not the same without you guys -- please come back -- we're dying out here -- DYING!!! Help! He-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-elp us!!!

Enough is enough.

G'night All!
~ Becki ~

Can you believe it?! A new post two days in a row!!! Has this ever happened here before??? Pretty freaky. I don't know what came over me. I think it's because of the flood of comments that came in after last night's post. Makes you feel like "it's time" for a new one somehow. Nevermind that half of those comments were from my own self. ;-)

I just finished putting my WMB service together for tomorrow night. I hope it will be a blessing to everybody else and not just me! I'm going to be talking about hope and faith -- not the kind of faith that the children of Israel had, or that Thomas had. When they SAW God work, they believed. But Jesus said, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (Jn. 20:29). It's really a glorious thing when all looks dark and dreary, when the future looks grim and hopeless and it seems that there is no way things are going to turn out okay. That's when we have the honor of hoping in the Lord! "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" (Rom. 8:24). That comes just a few verses before that "all things work together for good" verse. :-) God is good and it's a blessing to be able to trust Him and believe He's got everything in His hands, even when the circumstances all around us are screaming, "It's out of control and there's no hope for things to turn out okay--things are doomed to be tragic and devastating!" Phooey. Not with our God! I want to sing "Let God arise, and his enemies be scattered," even with I'm all alone, surrounded by millions of reasons to believe things are hopeless! God is soooooooooo much bigger than whatever crises we may face. I feel so much JOY just knowing that He is God and He loves me and He loves my family and He loves His Church. He's going to take care of us all. (Remind me of this if I slip and have a surge of panic sometime, okay?! Ha!)

Nothing much has been going on around here today. After much persuasion in the form of a pastic spoon that I wear on my hip most of the time (!), Joe finally choked down his lunch. (No, I didn't give him another ham sandwhich...yet.) Life with Josiah nowadays gives a whole new meaning to the term "gag order." That kid. He's the easy going one. I never would've thought it possible for him to be soooooooo stubborn. He'll find out soon enough though--I'm more determined than he is. ;-)

I took the kids to the library for story time today. First time in months, it seems. We used to go faithfully every week, no matter what. Since April, we've probably been 3 or 4 times total. We can't seem to stay home long enough! So it was nice to do something that reminded us, "Ah yes, we did have some form of a routine once upon a time, didn't we?"

I was looking through that crazy "Every Day a Holiday" book of mine today and guess what! The first full week in August is National Clown Week!!! What do you think of that, Jason?! Somebody was weird enough to set aside a whole week in celebration of clowns. Have fun!

Looks like I've run out of things to talk about. I'll spare you all any more.

Until next time!

~Rebekah~

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. I couldn't wait for it to be over with! I felt really sick and crummy yesterday and it was one of those lousy "heavy in heart" days. But I did receive several phone calls (not from my own Mother, however -- I had to call her), the most amazing one from my BROTHER. I think this is the very first time EVER that Jon has called to wish me a happy birthday. It was kind of freaky. ;-) I think he was calling to just check on me as much as anything. It's amazing how a dweeb like Jon has grown up into such a great guy. Don't misunderstand -- he's still a dweeb. But I'm just blown away at what a great guy he's turned into and how... well, I don't know how to say it, but he amazes me!

I begged James to PLEASE not get me anything for my birthday this year. He usually goes way overboard and comes home with two or three bags full of gifts, mostly clothes from Christopher & Banks. I just wasn't in the mood to have a birthday -- felt like skipping it entirely, you know?! He couldn't resist though and he brought me an Anthony Burger DVD. It's pretty good!

Tammy stopped by yesterday to bring me a gift -- and a cherry-limeade from Sonic, with extra cherry syrup. My favorite. :-) She gave me a really cute recipe box... in the same old gift bag we've been passing back and forth for YEARS.

What's everybody else been up to? I know the Adams have been travelling, Mom's been strutting, and Jason has been making and then not fulfilling committments. What about the rest of you?

I'm suddenly very tired. Maybe it's because I'm another year older. Or maybe it's because simply recounting the battle with Joe wears me out all over again! In either case, I'm going to call it a night.

Love to you all!
~ Bec ~

God blessed us with an OUTSTANDING Family Camp and we are sooooooo thankful. We had 6 saved, 7 sanctified, 3 filled with the Holy Ghost, and 5 healings. Praise God! And that's besides the numerous blessings that God poured out on the rest of us, the strength and comfort He gave, the refreshing and nourishment to our souls, and the good fun and fellowship we enjoyed. It was just such a wonderful time in the Lord. He truly knows what we need and when we need it! He's sooooo good to us and I'm so thankful for His continuing care and His perfect timing.

We were so thrilled to have Ray Adams and family come all the way from Canada to minister to us. They are, after all, some of our very own and it was another "family reunion" to have them there and enjoy the time with them. And God used Brother Ray to minister to us -- I hope their family was blessed as well.

As always, Camp was a blast. I missed out on a lot of picture taking opportunities due to being involved in the action, or in filming it (!), but I know Tammi Adams didn't miss a thing. ;-) I think we're going to hire her as our official Camp photographer. I'm anxious to see what all her camera produced. We're going to be compiling a CD of a whole bunch of Camp pictures and selling them (assuming someone is willing to buy them, that is!), so that'll be great.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our services. The young people really led the way in the altar and it was so beautiful to see them pouring their hearts out to God, and especially praying with one another and encouraging each other in the Lord. WOW. It was such a blessing!!!




 

How 'bout the face of self-deception?! Ha! I love this picture.

We were blessed with an OVER-abundance of musicians at Family Camp this year! :-) It was so great. "Auntie Em" (or "M&M," as Sam calls her) did a really fantastic job with music. It was so much fun -- and such a blessing, too. Thanks, Em! I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE. Go ahead, leave just one little itty-bitty comment to let everbody know you're really there! You know you want to!!!! It's just a click away! ;-)

And here's the happy, however orange-shaded couple -- Ray & Tammi Adams. The funny glow comes not from their radiance (however radiant they may be!), but from the light shining through the circus tent we were using as a chapel. Sounds strange, I know -- but it was so great! I loved it!!! (Even without the trapeze! HA!)

This is a kid named Dimetre, although I'm pretty sure that's NOT how you spell his name. That's okay, because I called him Pirate Boy most of the week anyway. -- Especially when he wore a black and white striped shirt! He is sooooo cute.



This was an interesting variation of the traditional game. If you'll notice, several of the bigger guys have their legs tied together at the knees. Brother Keven's team won two out of three, for which we were all thankful since he's not the most graceful loser in the world. HA! (Just wait, Keven will discover the blogging world and read that! YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU, KEV!!!)



I'm not sure exactly why I posted this picture, except that I knew Philip would enjoy it. This is him and Daniel Doerfler, "The Human Wheel." WEIRD. It takes all kinds, I suppose!


And here's a picture of me with BROTHER RAY. It's been years since we've had a picture taken together, so I figured it was way past time! (And doesn't Sammy look SO HAPPY?! Ha! I love it!)

 

Chris and Shanda Clarkson taught the Junior class. Cute crowd!

And Sam & Tammy Kaufman taught the littlest kids.

This is the first campground we've ever been to that had an archery range and it was definitely a hit! The kids had a BLAST, and a good portion of the adults as well. Chris Clarkson was so kind as to teach all of the little ones how to shoot. As you can tell from this first shot, his son has already had plenty of practice! And Cainan was nice enough to share his bow with the other short people since the larger bows were too hard for them to pull back.



Next up is Caleb. He'd never shot a real bow before (although rumor has it he constructs his own homemade version quite regularly), but he was a natural. He hit the target four out of five tries -- twice! AMAZING!



Joe LOVES the whole bow and arrow thing, so he was THRILLED with the opportunity to try the real deal! (He has a couple of plastic arrows with the suction cups on the end, and he uses a plastic hanger for a bow here around the house -- or the elastic bands on the wrestling ring of his Sumo of the Opera play set! Ha!) He was sooooooo excited.



And then there's Sam. He did quite well, too, for a little guy. If I thought somebody wouldn't get hurt, I'd set something up in the backyard for the boys to practice their shooting on. But I think I'd best wait another year or two for that -- especially with Sam! He's rather dangerous even without a weapon in hand! ;-)



Well, that's it for now. I'd best get busy again. Again, keep us in your prayers.

God bless!
~Becki~ 

I was going to post some pictures along with a report of our Family Camp (we just got home yesterday), but my camera batteries are DEAD and I can't get those pictures onto the computer right now. So I figured I'd try once again to post these ones that Blogger wiped out last time I tried to post them. Ggrrrr.

These were taken at the new addition to the Tennessee Aquarium on our way home from the last trip -- the last one before Camp, that is. Interestinlgly, there are no pictures of fish, or even water. Our family seemed to enjoy the butterfly garden more than all the rest. I've always thought butterflies were pretty, but rather boring. But this was soooooooo neat. So many different varieties and they were so people-friendly!


James was our "catcher" because the butterflies weren't the least bit nervous around him. (Probably because he moves soooooooooo slo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ow! Ha!) He could just walk over and pick up whichever one he wanted.



Nobody can strike a pose like Katie! She LOVED the butterflies.



Joe FINALLY found a butterfly that would let him hold it. Nevermind that the poor creature had been sorely abused by lots of careless little ones before us and was in no condition to fly away. Oh well. Joe never knew.



And here's Sambo. He is precisely the type of kid that is the cause of the previous butterfly's injuries! So we didn't entrust him with one of the fragile little things. But this one found a nice perch atop his hat, so we took a picture quick, before Sam discovered it. You'd never know to look at the brown and black markings on this side of it's wings, but when it spread them to fly, the top side of it's wings was a gorgeous, brilliant blue color.

Okay, that's it for now. My house is trashed and there's soooooooo much to catch up on. But I'm sooooooooo happy to be home!!! We had a FANTASTIC Family Camp and I'll be sure to post about it when I get the time -- and when my batteries are charged so I can add pictures! Until then, please keep praying for our family and especially for The Church of God. I know God is hearing all of the cries of His people and is already answering them. He loves us sooooooo much. I lean heavily upon that at this point!

Love you All!
~ Becki ~ 

Oooooohhh. That is soooooo frustrating. It's SO late and I'm SO tired, but I sat down and took the time to write a lengthy post and put several pictures on it, I went to publish and *WHAM-O* it's gone. "We're sorry, we were unable to complete your request." Somebody ought to be drug out to the street and shot. If only I knew who...

Maybe I'll make time to try again tomorrow, but for now, I'm going to bed. James did want me to post this picture of our family with the Pruitts though, so here it is. (Assuming this thing doesn't flurb out on me again, that is!) We went with Mom and Dad to visit them for a few minutes on the 4th of July. We had such a nice time with them and I'm so thankful for the precious moments like that God has blessed us with. Such wonderful, wonderful people.

Well, that's it for now. Got to try and get some sleep. Until next time, please keep me in your prayers. God has brought some pretty tough things into my life these past couple of days and I want Him to work His perfect plan in my heart through all of this. There is a reason for everything. I don't understand this, but I trust Him. Sorry to end on such a "bleak" note (!), but I really would appreciate your prayers. God knows.

Until next time -- which will hopefully be before Camp this next week...

~Becki~