My Paternal Grandmother

This is my paternal grandmother when she was a teenager. I've never met her because she died when my dad was young. I've always been told that I look like her. I don't know if you can pick out a resemblance from this particular picture.

One of the best stories about a connection I've had with her happened when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I was at a yardsale in a different city than the one I grew up in. An older lady kept looking at me saying I reminded her of someone. It dawned on her that I looked just like her childhood friend, my grandmother!!! What an awesome experience! I've often wandered how much alike we would have been. . .

My Purpose in Life

My purpose in life is to complete the mission God has planned for me. The greatest part is sharing about Jesus, telling others what He has done for me, and how they can know Him personally. I have missed many, many opportunities out of fear – fear of being rejected, of others not liking me, of just plain confrontation. I would do anything to avoid confrontation. I don’t want to leave this life without being the person God wants me to be and doing what he has asked of me.

I want to stop living in fear, letting fear control my life. Hey, I’m always going to be afraid, but I don’t have to let it control me.

I asked God for forgiveness of my sins when I was 11 years old. I realized that I was a sinner, I did a lot of things that weren’t right, and I told God that I believed that His Son, Jesus, had died on the cross for my sins. Jesus was perfect. He didn’t deserve such pain and humiliation. He had tens of thousands of angels waiting to save Him from death on the cross, but He chose to die anyway.

After I prayed, I didn't have a huge overwhelming swell of emotion. I just felt like everything was ok, and that God had forgiven me. Because of what Jesus went through, I now have hope. I will never be alone. I can always tell God how I'm feeling even when I'm mad at Him for some reason. I know that my life has purpose, and that even though I have problems, God will always help me through them. I have hope that God will use me to help someone else with the same problems.

If you're reading this and have a personal relationship with God, please pray that I will have the courage to fulfill God's purpose for my life. If you don't have a personal relationship with God and want one, here's some Bible verses to tell you how:

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9

The Bible says "...Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures..." 1 Corinthians 15:3b-4

Jesus said, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:3
Jesus had prepared a place (Heaven/Eternity) for those who believe in Him.

Corn Maze Adventure

I have never been through a corn maze, so this was a fun experience. This is my husband's parents, niece, and nephews. All the kids (except for the baby) snuggled up in this wagon with sleeping bags. We have never seen them so QUIET and STILL when they're all together. Fluff Fluff (my brother-in-law) had the job of pulling all the kids through the maze through mud, over corn stalks. What a trooper! We navigated all 3 or 4 (I can't remember how many) mazes under the direction of super Aunt Boppy. The trip was for her birthday.
We had a great time even though it was extremely cold. The hardest part of the trip (even harder than the cold) was getting everyone to smile for family pictures. We all climbed up on those stacks of hay and smiled and smiled and smiled. It takes a miracle to get all the kids looking at the camera at the same time. It's worth it though because we always have the best pictures for the family Christmas card.

I LOVE FALL

My favorite time of the year is fall. I love the colors - red, orange, purple. And I love fall activities - hayrides, fall festivals, bonfires, corn mazes, trick-or-treating. Here's Scamp in her Halloween shirt. She was getting ready to go on her first hayride.
My parent's have a hayride/bonfire/haunted trail every year. This year my sister created a scavenger hunt on the trail through the woods behind my parent's house. My older cousins dressed up and hid in the woods while my younger cousins and friends went on a search through the dark for prizes. What a blast!
Scamp and I rode in the cab of the tractor with my dad on the hayride. She fell asleep halfway through, and we ended up riding the rest of the way with my mom. She followed the hayride in her car.
My dad typically takes a rode up through a hollow on some friend's land. My mom parked the car to ride the trailer at this time, but Scamp and I stayed in the backseat since she was sleeping. Mama locked us in with the keys inside. When she returned and tried to get in, the alam started going off. I couldn't move since Scamp was asleep in my lap. Every time I would manually unlock the door and my mom would pull the door handle, the car would lock back! Finally, we opened the door in collaberation, and she had to climb over me to get the keys. Needless to say, Scamp slept through the whole thing!!