Friday - date day

For various reasons beyond our control, we have not had a Date Night in ... seems like forever.  So Don, being the wonderful husband that he is, wanted to make this whole day just our day.

We went to breakfast at KOA ... still the best breakfast in town.  As we drove through KOA, we saw this homemade "travel" trailer.  I believe they need a few lessons from our man, Bill Elwell.  Parking it under the portable gazebo is a novel idea, however.  No one was home, so we were left to wonder what they pulled it with. Afterwards, Don turned left on Animal Safari Road instead of left and we went out to Compton Ridge to visit Jennifer, a friend we met here in Branson last summer.  Jennifer took us on a golf cart tour of the park. Pretty barrels of flowers around the indoor pool, which is one of three pools in the park.  The other two are outdoor pools. This is one of the hiking trails between the south park and the north park. Pretty yellow flowers, daisies maybe, along the trail. Well, lookie here now, Bill... here's a new "store bought" mini trailer.  The entrance is in the rear. Each site has these covered patios that just kind of hang out over the edge.  Very unique. Tonight, we went to a movie,  Mama Mia.  No, that's the name of the movie.  It's a musical comedy with Merle Streep, Pierce Brosnan, etc.  Who knew they could sing?

When we came out of the movie, this was in the parking lot.  It's Rod weekend here in Branson.  The big parade down Hwy. 76 will be at midnight tomorrow (Sat.) night. For dinner, we went to Charlie's Steak & Ribs where we saw Rebecca Dawn again. Quail Run friends, you will remember Rebecca Dawn performing for us last winter.  She sings at Charlie's almost every night and she came over to our table, having recognized us, but couldn't remember where, she said, "Ya'll have been here before haven't you?"  We told her yes, but the reason she remembered us was because we talked to her at Quail Run in Arizona.  The light bulb came on and she told us she's going back there this winter as well.  Don really isn't mad here, he was talking to her and she was listening and talking to him and then she realized I was going to take their picture and she turned on her best smile and then went right on talking without skipping a beat.  It was really kind of comical, now that I think about it.  Anyway, it was nice to see her again.  So, if you spend the winter at Quail Run RV Resort, tell Rebecca Dawn you saw her on Baker's Blessings blog when she comes there for her show.

Thank you, Don, for a special date day and night.  You make being married to you awesome... you could even say it's worth writing about. ;-)

Bible Study kick-off

We finally got to start our Bible study tonight: "The Peace and Power of Knowing God's Name" by Kay Arthur.  Yvonne & Wendell cooked dinner for all and we met in their motor coach.Carol, Lucy & JimmyOut of curiosity, I did a little web search.  What's in a name?  The surname 'Baker' is English in origin:

'Baker' Name Meaning and History

1. English: occupational name, from Middle English bakere, Old English bæcere, a derivative of bacan ‘to bake’. It may have been used for someone whose special task in the kitchen of a great house or castle was the baking of bread, but since most humbler households did their own baking in the Middle Ages, it may also have referred to the owner of a communal oven used by the whole village. The right to be in charge of this and exact money or loaves in return for its use was in many parts of the country a hereditary feudal privilege. Less often the surname may have been acquired by someone noted for baking particularly fine bread or by a baker of pottery or bricks.
2. Americanized form of cognates or equivalents in many other languages, for example German Bäcker, Becker; Dutch Bakker, Bakmann; French Boulanger. 

My maiden name is 'DeRusha' which is an Americanized form of the Desrochers:

Desrochers Name Meaning and History

French: topographic name for someone living among boulders, from fused preposition and plural definite article des + the plural of rocher ‘boulder’, or a habitational name from any of several places named with this word. This name was sometimes confused with Desrosiers, even in French language documents.

Tonight was an introduction to the study as we talked about the importance of names and Don led us to Proverbs 22:1, Eccl. 7:1 and Psalm 91:1.  In Psalm 91:1-2, there are four names that God is known by:

• The Most High
• The Almighty
• Our place of safety: our refuge; our fortress
• My God, whom I trust

Next week, we will study the name Elohim:  The God of Creation.

Tuesday: July 22, 2008

We got out of the house this morning before it got soooo hot, driving over to Hollister to the grocery store that has a really good meat market, crossing the Table Rock Lake dam on the way. Don spotted a sign for a resort that we had not noticed before, so we took a little detour to check it out.  We found a complete housing addition.  Of course, you know I got a picture of this beautiful crepe myrtle bush.Almost every house in this addition has the lake in it's backyard.Now, if there's lake on both sides of the street, that must mean that this addition is built on a peninsula.On the way back home, we stopped at this veggie stand on Fall Creek Road to get some fresh green beans and new potatoes.We invited Dennis and Sally over for dinner and a game of spades.    Don grilled these pork steaks to perfection.  It was yummm-dilly-ish-us.I can't believe that I didn't get a picture of the homemade fresh apple pie that Sally made.  It tasted as good as it looked.

I'll leave you with the following tonight~~~~~~    

To the PRAYING women in my life:
Live your life
in such a way that,
when your feet hit the
floor in the morning,
Satan shudders and says,
"Oh, no....she's awake!!"

AMEN!

very sound advice

In my desire to learn more about Israel and the Jewish people, I have subscribed to the Jewish World Review.  In today's email was a link to an article regarding the benefits of gratitude in our lives: 

Gratitude For When Things Do Work Well

By Rabbi Zelig Pliskin   (click on the title to go to the web page)  It's refreshing and inspiring reading.

A wonderful devotional by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers

God Will Always Answer

July 22

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jeremiah 33:3 (KJV)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
I read about some children in a Sunday School class who wrote a missionary to let him know that they were praying for him. The teacher of the class said, “Now children, the missionary is a very busy person, so don’t expect him to write you back.” One little girl’s letter read, “Dear Brother Brown, We’re praying for you. We don’t expect an answer.” Sadly, this is how we pray! We don’t really expect an answer. But God has promised He will answer us when we call upon His name. Psalm 91:15 says, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.”

ACTION POINT:
What are you praying for today? Do you believe that God can answer? Do you believe that He will answer? Thank Him now for answering.

share devotional with a friend                  visit lwf.org

I Choose Now by Anthony Evans

I don`t want tragedy to be the only
Thing that leads me to your throne
With every moment of my life
With pain or joy I will cry
You are God alone
You`ve given me the choice to kneel or walk away
I`ve struggled with surrender long enough to say

I choose now
To be humbled in your presence
I choose now
To fall on my face
Cause one day
Every knee will bow but Jesus
I choose now.

I have the scars I can`t deny from
Thoughtless words and foolish times
But you still forgave
I wondered down a thousand roads
Lost my way but you led me home
Where I was safe
I know heaven is a gift of your grace
But until I see your face

To glorify your name
That`s why I was made
To worship and obey
I won`t wait

[Quite some time ago, I heard this song on KLOVE and really loved the message.  Something reminded me of this song recently, so I placed it on my Playlist and I pray you can testify of this message as well. 

Anthony Evans is the son of Tony Evans, Senior Pastor of the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and president of The Urban Alternative.  Dr. Evans has written many other booklets, videos and articles, as well as the monthly devotional Today's Alternative and the monthly newsletter The Alternative View.]

I love what Anthony wrote on his opening webpage:

Hey Stephanie

Look what showed up late Sunday afternoon.

Saturday and Sunday

It is indeed summertime.  It's HOT.  Stephanie, Rick and Logan got up and went to Silver Dollar City; Don and I stayed in.  After going down to Branson Landing last night in the heat, Don's shingles weren't very happy.

I called my son-in-law, Mike, this morning to wish him a happy birthday.  Bless his heart, he has a house full of crips... Blaine has his arm in a sling and LaNae has a badly sprained wrist and has it wrapped in an ace bandage.  Mike is a twin and when they were kids Matt would brag about being older than Mike, but now the tables have turned and Mike gets to tell Matt that he's still younger than Matt.  Funny how things change as we get older.

Mama Trudy misses me, but she's feeling ok.  She didn't enjoy her meals on wheels hamburger and baked beans yesterday, however.  The canned pears were ok, though.

Tonight, Saturday, after dark, we all went to play mini-golf.  It was still hot, but we had a good time.

Sunday morning, we all went to church here at the pavilion.  Had a good crowd considering how few people are in the park.  Met a really nice couple from Mountain Home, Ark. 

After church Bill Elwell went home.. his house is next door to the pavilion... and brought back a little silver case saying that he has had this for a long, long time and after reading my blog, he wanted me to have it.   I was overwhelmed.  The case is so small, 2 1/2" x 2 3/4" and the little dominoes are 1 1/8" x 5/8" and they will actually stand up. Thank you, Bill.  I carry it in my purse and I have been showing it to everyone.This (Bill's suggestion) gives you a better idea of how small this domino set is: Over at KOA, one of the CRM directors, Jerry & Leslie Donahoo, are in town and Jerry preached and led the music.  That worked out well because, Mike Wilson, who usually leads music for us at KOA was sick.  Jerry preached about the last seven sayings of Christ from the Cross.

Dennis and Sally treated us to lunch at Bandera's BBQ after church and then it was home for Don and I to rest.

Tonight, Jimmy and Lucy came by to get us for ice cream.  That was dinner.

God is so good.  I'm a little overwhelmed at God's grace and love and provision.  I just want to praise Him.

Forever

Rely

On

God

Finally Friday - 7/18/08

Stephanie, Logan and I left the Tulsa area about 8:45 a.m. heading to Talequah to pick up Rick.  First thing, I called Mama and she was doing good, still feeling good. It was wonderful to hear her voice was strong. 

Rick had spent Friday on a float trip (Illinois River) with oldest son, Dillon.  This trip included all the football players on Dillon's high school team and their dads and the coaches.  The players 'slept' on one side of the cabin last night and the dads & coaches 'slept' on the other side.  Well, let me tell you, he had quite a few wild stories to tell and he was tired.

After picking up Rick, we headed for Branson through Springdale, Ark. where we stopped at a really fun store called Oops where I got the "Love" and "Relax"canvas plaques for $3/each ~ perfect for our 5'er.  OOPS is a huge warehouse with all kinds of things at very reasonable prices, better than the online prices. Here's Rick and Logan in the big patio chair in front of the store.

We finally got to Branson and my husband around 4:00 p.m.  Hallelujah!  It's so good to see him! 

This singer at Hard Luck Diner, where we all had dinner, kind of liked my husband, too.  Smart woman.Here's Stephanie, Logan and ???Here's Stephanie, Logan and ohhh, that's Rick.He knew the minute I showed him the first picture that it would be on the blog... "That's going on the blog, isn't it?"

Don and I were too tickled, but Rick wouldn't wait until we composed ourselves.  Guess this is payback.Debbie Kaye is singing to Logan as he slides under the table, too embarrassed for words.Then it was our waiter's time to sing.  I think his name was Mike and he sang a Michael Bublé tune, "Home," and he was really good.This is the second time Don and I have seen this guy sing and even though he's sings pretty good, he looks like the reason Mel's Hard Luck Diner is named such.And this is the second time I've seen American Idol finalists, Jason Yeager.  Tonight, he sang another beautiful Christian song,

Rick was singing with Gordy word for word, a George Strait song, "Troubadour", so Gordy gave the mike to Rick and Rick never batted an eye.  It's so good to know that Rick has another career option.Rick had his turn with Logan in the big patio chair, so it's Stephanie's turn in the big rocking chair. The flower beds are just amazing in this shopping plaza.  These cannas are huge growing higher than the door frame.Hibiscus is really a favorite here, too. This one is a giant.

Terrific Thursday

Wow!  We do love it when Mama Trudy has a day like today.... feels good with heart rate strong and even.  She wanted to get out of the apartment (cabin fever has set in), so after therapy, we got in her pickup (I drove) and headed over to LaNae's so I could tell Lydia goodbye.  Of course, Nonna had her camera and I got some more good pictures of my grandchildren who are growing up way too fast. LaNae put on a puppet show with their webkinz.  Her children think she is the funniest mom ever.  I have to admit that I was laughing pretty hard myself, but LaNae has always made me laugh.And Lydia has inherited her mom's sense of funny.  Here she is with a stuffed pink flamingo (that's my girl) that she named Louie Rodger Floppinstein.  Cute huh?Here's Lydia, Louie Floppinstein and his BIG brother, Flippy.I love this picture of Lydia and Mama Trudy.  See Mama's new necklace?Making animal sounds to each other.From LaNae's we went to Wally World where Mama Trudy walked from the parking lot into the store and sat down while I did the shopping.  When we got home, she put up all the groceries and made fresh guacamole and started the macaroni cooking... she was on a roll.  By the way, riding in the truck did not bother her at all or make her dizzy and she said, "It sure is good to get out!"  Tell me.

After lunch, we decided we could get in a game of Mexican Train dominoes before Stephanie arrived.  She arrived about 3:30, we got my 'stuff' in her car, kissed and hugged Mama goodbye, told her to call me when she got up from her nap and we were on the road.  Did you notice how I sped through that?  Yea, it was a little hard for me to go... ok, it was a lot hard.  However, knowing that she feels good and should be able to be independent for a while longer is such a blessing and we are so thankful to God for His amazing grace.

Not to mention the fact that I MISS MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND!!!

I'm at Stephanie's now and we'll get a good night's rest and be on our way to Branson tomorrow, after we stop in Talequah to pickup hubby Rick who is at a camp with oldest son Dillon.

Stephanie (her dad calls her Steve) is reading Logan (5) a bedtime story... baseball story.  Of course!Hon, can you believe that I will be up and ready to go by 8:00 in the morning????  See you soon!!!