They Should Have Invited Us to the Royal Wedding...

Friday night we had Ladies Night Out. Our hosts asked us to wear hats decorated to match our personalities. It took me a while to figure out what to do, but in my usual crunch time moments of inspiration I got it done. :)

I found a hat that will actually make a really great beach/outside in the sun hat (minus all the junk) at Fred's for $5.00. The things hanging on the hat are little play garden tools, because I like gardening flowers, and crochet hooks. Crochet is probably my favorite hobby right now.

The shells represent my love for the beach. The XBOX controller is for my love of video games.

The flowers are for the aforementioned flower gardening. The jewels because I like shiny things (whether real or fake :) ).

Books because I love to read, glue gun because I love to craft, and a favorite family recipe because I love to cook.

And of course a kind warning that I don't do mornings. :)

When I was explaining all of my hobbies and got the the video games the ladies giggled. I said, "I know I'm a bit all over the place with my hobbies. I'm either an older lady or a teenage boy." lol

Ms. Dorris's hat cracked me up. She used a cut up shoe box, taped pill bottles to the front, and added a bow. She called it her pill box hat. :)

Mrs. Cynthia works at the county clerks office so she borrowed a license plate and turned it into a hat. She and I tied for 2nd place when we voted for our favorite hat.

Mrs. Elaine's hat had battery powered Christmas lights. :) There were lots of good ones I don't have room for, but if we're facebook friends they are on there.

Mrs. Irene won for best hat. It was great.

On the back it says, "Senior Citizens Special, by Senior Citizens, Inc." Good stuff.

We had an AWESOME time. We ate, talked, laughed, planned, prayed, sang, and heard from God's word. The singing was so beautiful. We have a great bunch of ladies at Ripley church of Christ!

Wonderful Ladies, Wonderful Husband

Saturday night the Ripley church of Christ had our monthly Ladies' Night Out. We had a great time eating and fellowshipping and had a great devo by Mrs. Ann. Thanks to her for hosting! I always love spending time with my fellow members of the church, but especially the ladies. It's always so much fun. But, this night was special to me for another reason. I got to experience something I wish all preacher's wives could. I got to sit and listen to a room full of women saying wonderful things about my husband. They talked about what a wonderful preacher he is. How he explains things plainly and connects verses in a logical way. How he has helped them to see that you can understand the Bible. It's all there in the text. They also talked about how sweet and loving he is. He's not afraid to show affection or say publicly that he loves me. How he's just so warm. How he helps with Reagan. Of course, I already know how great he is, but it's nice to hear others say it as well. And to know that your husband is appreciated. I love him. :)

Heaven on Earth

Our group from Canal Heights

This week we went to Indian Creek Youth Camp. It's a Christian camp we go to every year. Our friend from preaching school, Billy Hayes, is the director of the week we always go to. Camp is always fun and uplifting and I always learn so much. It's always great to see so many friends we rarely see and to meet new ones. I love being around so many Christian people. When you are singing praises to God in a room full of 140 people sining their hearts out and as loudly as they can it makes you so look forward to singing praises with all the saints (Christians) in heaven one day!

Mitch being baptized for the remission of his sins!

While it is a week about fun and friends, the main purpose is to grow spiritually. This year the theme was the book of 1 John. I had never done any kind of in depth study of the book. I can now say that it is quite possibly my favorite book in the Bible. There is so much in 1 John about our relationships with each other and with God. This book is about love and how to know that we "have come to know him." One of my favorite passages is chapter 2 verses 3-6.

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."

If we keep the commandments of God we are truly His children. I think that is a point so many miss. In order to know God, you must do what He says! If you have not done an in depth study of 1 John I would highly recommend it. It teaches us how we are to treat each other and how to love God. Those are two very important things for someone who is trying to be a Christian.

Studying for the Bible Bowl

We had a ladies class that was just awesome. Each day we studied a different chapter of the book. It was so wonderful to be taught by ladies who really did their homework and knew the scripture so well. Each night we had wonderful sermons on 1 John as well. All of the men did a wonderful job but, of course, Justin was my favorite. :) He did such a great job and I was so proud of him!

Chance Hicks preaching Sunday night.

We had to leave Thursday morning (camp ends Friday morning) but by the time we left there had already been 7 baptisms and 1 restoration! This doesn't even show the countless number of people this week re-energized and refocused on the important things. I know it definitely made me want to be a better student of God's Word.

Our Jungle Journey

This past week the church hosted our Vacation Bible School. Our theme was Jungle Journey: Exploring the Nature of God. We averaged around 35 kids a day, which is great for a congregation that only has around 6 or so that come every week. We have more children than that but many don't come to class or church every week. We had a lot of fun and most importantly taught children God's Word.

These are some of the decorations we used.

A very talented member, Betty Stephens, did these with pastels.

She also did all of the decorations in the fellowship hall.

This is one from my room.

Another one from my room. The attendance charts and a pictures from our story that we added to the wall each day.

These are a few of my favorite pictures from the week.

The whole group (minus some who had to go to work, etc.)

Reagan had fun too!

It was a great week. We do classes for 3 years old and up so Reagan didn't go to class. I held her while Justin did the opening and singing and then he took her while I was teaching my class. We kept her pack and play in the nursery and put her down for her nap in there everyday. She did really well considering we were not in her normal place. We have put her down in there before when I was working on my decorations so she was somewhat use to it.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Indian Creek Youth Camp!!! I'm sooooo excited! I look forward to camp so much every year and miss it as soon as it's over. Except I don't miss the lack of sleep and being in the heat all day. Thankfully we do have air conditioned cabins! Camp is kind of like a big reunion for us. Many of our friends from Memphis School of Preaching will be there. And for most of them it's the only time we see them all year. I love getting to catch up with everyone. Most of all I love being in a place where most of the people are concerned with living a Christian life and bettering themselves. I love having Bible class and worship everyday. I love all the singing and being present for baptisms and restorations. It's an amazing thing to be a part of someone becoming a Christian and having their sins washed away. Camp is always so uplifting. If only the "real world" could be so wonderful. I'm thankful to have such a wonderful place to go every summer!

I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures and fun to share with you when we get back!

A Devo and an Art Show

This past Sunday night the Ray's hosted a youth devo. Does it still count as a "youth" devo when only two people (3 if you count Reagan) there are under the age of 20? Anywho...

There was singing...

and speaking...

and eating...

and more eating...

hey, those girls look alike...

and Reagan got a pony ride from another big dog (this one would actually sit somewhat still for us)...

and there were cool old family photos...

(they look like mobsters!)

and some cool art by Matthew...

and even more cool art by Lynda!

This one is my favorite!

They are a very talented family! We had such a great time and really appreciated that they hosted a devo (with an art show to boot)! :) We've now added these devos as a monthly event. It is always such a blessing to spend time with our Christian family.

Busy Little Bee

Sorry I've been away so long. Since I got home from the beach Thursday night things have been super busy. I promise I'll post about the trip soon, but for now I'm just going to update you on everything that's been going on. Reagan and I got back Thursday night somewhere between 7 and 7:30. Friday I was sitting around, chillin', taking it easy, when all of a sudden, I remembered I had about a million things to do. You see, Justin and I clean the church building to make a little extra money, and it was still dirty. I also was in charge of decorating for a bridal shower that was to take place Sunday afternoon. I had not started yet. We had no food in the house, so I also was planning on getting some groceries. I was thinking I had all day Saturday to get it done. Then, I remembered that I was going to be gone all day Saturday. There was a teacher's workshop in Northport with Teah McWhorter and April Meacham. Justin cleaned the building, I decorated, then we just picked up supper. Saturday we left the church building at 7:30am. Have I mentioned I don't do mornings? :) The workshop was AMAZING!!! It was so educational, motivational, and encouraging! I wish more of our teachers had gone with us. I'm hoping we can get our elders to host a workshop here at some point.

Sunday was busy. We had am worship, shower at 2, clean up shower, come home for a little while, then pm worship. Needless to say, I'm still worn out!

So, dear blogging world friends, this is why I've not posted anything else yet. I will get to it soon. But right now I'm going to take a little time to chill while Reagan is napping!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!!!

Saturday night we had a Valentine's Banquet at church. We had lots of fun. We had bbq, beans, potato salad (all from a local restaurant), rolls, and peach cobbler...mmmmm. Deborah C brought the tea (thanks Deborah!) We had a great time of food, fun and fellowship. Justin and I pretty much took care of everything because we wanted everyone else to be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy themselves. Here are a few pics of the decorations.

And of course Reagan was there...all decked out in one of her Valentine's outfits from Grammy!

"The Kids" as we usually call them, although they are all college age.

We had some entertainment in the form of the Not-so-Newlywed Game.

The winners with their prize.

And the losers with their prize...a certificate for a free marriage counseling session. :)

After the banquet. We were both so busy at the banquet that we forgot to get someone to take a picture of us!

Here is a link to the facebook photo album with all the pics from that night!
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Look at the beautiful flowers my sweet hubby got me! Lillies and roses, my favorites!



Here is Reagan in the other valentine's outfit Grammy gave her! Actually, she made this dress. Isn't it so cute!