What a week....

and it ain't over.

Monday, we went into Casa Grande for lunch.  Neither of us felt like cooking.  It was raining and cool, not a bad thing.

Took a few pictures on the way home.  Here's an alfalfa field that is growing again after the last cutting.

The nearest mountain is obscured by haze.

Kind of a nice photo taken while going down the highway.

Bales of cotton waiting to be taken to the gin.

Horses.  You know me, I photograph a horse every chance I get.

Okay, that was Monday.  Not a lot going on, but I did manage to take a few pictures.

Tuesday, Don didn't feel his best. Not much going on.

Sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, something happened.. started "going on," if you will.  A stomach virus showed up at the Q, attacking me first.  I will spare you the ugly details, but will just say I felt like I was going to die.  Yes, I realize I am a light-weight when it comes to pain, but I was really sick, wretched even, all day... with fever and aching all over, in addition to the stomach wretching issues.

I missed Ladies Bible Study.  Thelma filled in for me.  Thanks to the prayers and baking soda water and the Aleve, I was all better by seven o'clock Thursday morning.  Amazingly.  Don was so sweet and felt so helpless while I was so sick.

Now it's Friday.  It's a beautiful day.  I left for choir practice before Don was out of the shower.  After choir practice, happy to be feeling so much better, I walked down to say "Welcome back!" to Donna and Carl, who had arrived on Sunday afternoon, but due to the rain and being sick, I had not seen them yet.  They were sitting outside in the sun behind their rig.  It's so good to see these dear friends from Kansas.

When I got back to the Q, Don was in his chair.  He had walked up to the club house, but didn't stay out long.  First clue that he wasn't feel good at all.  Stomach hurting.

See, I'm all better.  And it's "show your support for our troops by wearing a red shirt" day.  

With the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service fast approaching, I did a lot of printing music and programs and delivering it to Thelma. 

On the way back to the Q, I stopped in to see Toma and Jim's new floor in their park model.  Toma, at my insistence, laid out the strips she has made in the process of  creating a new southwest quilt for their bed.  It's going to be beautiful! 

We've also been on the phone quite a lot today with prayer requests from several folks.

Well, it's 11:50 PM and my sweet husband is soooo sick and I feel so helpless.  He's had fever and stomach issues all night.  He finally agreed to drink a little soda water because I assured him it would come right back up, hopefully bringing the "bug" with it.  It came back up, but he's not feeling any better.  So if anyone is reading this at this late hour on Friday night, thank you for your prayers for him.

I went searching for a scripture to pray for Don and found Isaiah 58:8 -

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
       and your healing will quickly appear;
       then your righteousness will go before you,
       and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Now, go ahead and try to convince me that God doesn't have a sense of humor.

I'm claiming this one, also:  Psalm 41:3 (Amplified Version) "The Lord will sustain, refresh, and strengthen him on his bed of languishing; all his bed, You [O Lord] will turn, change, and transform in his illness."

Psalm 119:50 (New American Standard Bible)

⁵⁰This is my comfort in my affliction,
         That Your word has revived me.

Praise the Lord!!

Oh, yes, I almost forgot.  Our electric water heater stopping working tonight, so I switched it over to propane and now it's heating the water.  Wonder what that's all about?  I sure don't have a clue.

We are so blessed.  Lord, help us to be a blessing.

First December Weekend

Happy Birthday to granddaughter, Maddie (Madison) who is 15 today, Saturday.

Maddie, being a great big sis.

Maddie, being a great little sis.

Maddie, being a teenager.  We love you Maddie!

Saturday dawned very cool, so we spent most of the day inside.  At 4:00 PM, we met Mike and Madeline, Pat, Linda, Don and Carol at the Pizza Hut which is located right on the Christmas Parade route.  Madeline had made reservations for a table by the front window, only to find out when we arrived that they decided it was "first come-first served" and we no longer had reservations... just like that, Pizza Hut did not honor what they promised.  This is not true of all Pizza Huts.  We love the Pizza Hut over at Toltec.  The owner/manager there is great and all the people who work there.  Well, we decided to leave instead of waiting around for a table and we all met at Mimi's for a wonderful, much quieter meal.  Well, it was quiet until we got there.  We had a fun time and I did take pictures, but everyone of them is blurred, so gang, you're safe from the blog yet another time.

Don and I watched the Big 12 championship and witnessed the Huskers of Nebraska almost pulling off an upset over the Texas Longhorns.  Texas kicked a field goal with ONE SECOND on the clock to win by ONE point.

Sunday dawned cool, very cool, again, with slight overcast of clouds.  The community center was almost full for worship this morning, despite the cooler weather.  I got a shot after choir practiced and as the worshippers began to gather.

We started singing Christmas carols this morning and the voices did ring out beautifully.  From John 10:11-14, Don's message was the third of the "I AM" series, "I AM the Good Shepherd."

After church and the fellowship that followed, Fran and Don pretend to be cleaning.  Actually, Fran was cleaning and Don took the broom for this picture.  Fran is sporting a very nice new navy pin-stripe suit and Don a new shirt and tie.  Striking figures, both. (click where the picture is and it will open in a new page... I don't know why it doesn't show up here.)

Did I mention that Don has a bad cold... there are no good colds, are there?  We didn't go out to lunch today.  Just stayed in and rested until 3:30 when we went over to Rick and Wendy's for dinner at 4:00.  Well, folks, dinner was delicious.  And then we played three hands of Spades.  Like I said, dinner was very good.

Don had a CRM board of directors conference call tonight.

Well, that about it for our weekend.  Please understand that there are always prayer requests that we are not at liberty to post here.  We appreciate all the prayers for the ministry here and all the needs, spiritual and physical.

We are so blessed and pray we can be a blessing to others.

Christmas is coming

Daughter, Leslie, has good intentions to digi-scrapbook a Christmas page everyday until Christmas.  The journaling on her first one says, "It's the first day of December and the tree is up and decorated.  Let the countdown to Christmas begin."  The picture is of an ornament gift from her DMIL who gives her a Santa ornament every year.

Shop 'Til I Drop

First, Happy Birthday to Dennis Maloney, General Director of Christian Resort Ministries, International.  We pray you have a great day, Dennis!!

My husband woke up in a shopping mood this morning.  I think the body-snatchers stole him for the day.  The good Lord only knows how badly he needed to go shopping for clothes.  Don has several pair of khakis that need to find a new home in the trash and now he has three new pair to replace them.  And a new white shirt to replace the very old one with a few blemishes.  He has been wearing a tie the last few Sundays and I think the Christmas season has him in the mood to dress up, so we found a new tie that he liked, on sale.  In fact, everything he purchased today, including a new belt, was on sale!  We did good.

We also had fun finding SpiderMan stuff for Uriah from the Home of Hope Christmas tree up in the Club House.  And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get this five year old a Beginner's Bible.

Next stop was several stores where we were looking for congregational candles to be used at our Christmas Eve Candle Light Service.  Didn't find any, so I ordered them from Mardel.com tonight.... free shipping!  Yeah!  (I searched CBD for the candles, but was surprised they don't carry them.)

Okay, back to the shopping marathon.  We went to three grocery stores because Don had found things on sale he wanted at each.  It's been a long time since he could buy bulk meat on sale and divide it up when we got home to go into our 'new' small freezer.  He was so excited.  "Strange man," she said with a loving smile.

I think we found one of Bob Quinn's long lost cousins out here in the West, a traveling horseshoe-er (it's my blog).

We started at 9:30 this morning and got home about 3:00 PM.  My 'dogs' were 'barking!!'  Speaking of 'dogs,' I found a pair of black shoes on sale at Kohl's.  Would you believe that I didn't have a pair of black shoes, except sandals or flip-flops.  Usually, that suffices, but it's getting rather cool for sandals on Sunday morning.

For those who shop regularly, I'm sure this post is just "riveting," but for us, it was fun and much needed.

Lorraine and Dennis arrived back in the park this afternoon, following her receiving a kidney transplant.  She's doing great and looks wonderful.  Praise the Lord!!

I guess I needed a "beatin'" so we called Rick and Wendy to come over and play Spades.  Gals were thoroughly thumped by the Guys Punks, three games to one.  Well, at least half of our group enjoyed themselves tonight.  Yes, it was a sacrifice of love... we let them win so they would continue to play with us. (cough, cough, cough!)

Counting it all joy, we are so blessed.

PS - Click here to read the CRM Newsletter 2009 Year End Focus to learn more about Christian Resort Ministries, International.

Also, as you use the convenience of shopping online, REMEMBER to use our CRM site to access Christian Book Distributors as CRM receives a 5% tithe for items ordered through OUR site.  You must access CBD through CRM’s web site to send the 5% credit to CRM.

Linnea and Fran's Roses

Our Ladies Bible Study has been changed to Wednesday at 9:00, the hour before the Men's Bible study.  This morning, Jim Taylor invited any of the Ladies who wanted to, to stay for a prayer of healing for Dan Webber who is suffering with severe tinnitus (ears ringing).  The doctor says there's no cure for it.  We are trusting God together for Dan.  It's always a wonderful time of unity and bonding when Christians come together for prayer for someone. 

Don and I walked over to Linnea and Fran's this afternoon to discuss the Christmas Eve music with Linnea.  Before leaving their site, I filled my lens with their beautiful roses.Okay, I admit that the next few have been enhanced. In reality, these roses actually look like red velvet and I'm rather pleased that they now actually look like velvet in these pictures.

This is natural light.

This is enhanced.Natural light.

Have I told you lately that I love taking pictures of flowers.  And if it's 25 degrees where you are, I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed capturing them.

Their's is the biggest bougainvillea in the park, I'm sure.

On our return to the Q, we caught Larry-Larry and neighbor Jim working!  It's documented.

We passed Charlie and Nancy's and Tess was on the patio begging me to come talk to her.  Contessa is a ten year old Schnauzer.  Charlie is adding to their patio.  Where are the pictures I took of Charlie, Nancy and Tess?  Oh yes, I must have had a brain whatever and didn't take any!!!

Before we got home, we were invited to sit on the patio with Slim and Pat and before long Roger and Leona joined us.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day and a choice one to sit outside and visit with neighbors.

Arizona Opry Christmas Show

Tonight, we rode with Rick and Wendy to Apache Junction to the Arizona Opry Christmas Show.  As we were walking to the door, the full moon was rising over the Superstition Mountains.  It was beautiful.

I love my camera!  I took the following pictures from almost the back of the room, without flash.  Well, at least the pics of the entertainers on stage were that far away from us.

I could tell you all their names, but I won't take the time or space.  If you are interested, just click their website here to learn all about this variety musical group.

The story here is that Rick was harassing our waitress, Pat, from Minnesota, but she had his "number" and was a lot of fun.  We were wondering if anyone else ever got extra cake to take home.

This is grandson, Nate, to Barbara and George. 

It's a good variety musical show.  This group, many are related, are very talented.  As much as we enjoyed the show, we enjoyed our time with Rick and Wendy even more.  On the ride home, we sang songs and had a great time.

We are so blessed.

Run, Baby, Run

BIBLE MEDITATION:
Hebrews 12:1 - "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Hebrews 12:1 (New Living Translation) 

God’s Discipline Proves His Love

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
A soft-spoken woman went to a high school football game. She’d been quiet the entire game until there was a fumble on the field. The substitute quarterback, a little scrawny kid, picked up the ball and started running past the other players toward the goal. And this little lady exploded! She jumped up and said, “Run, baby, run! Run, baby, run!” He was her son. That’s what the saints are saying, as they watch us on the playing field of life. They are cheering us on from the Heavenly grandstand to “run with patience, the race that is set before us.”
ACTION POINT:
Do you need a lift today? Imagine a grandstand the size of heaven cheering you on to victory!

Devotional by Adrian Rogers