Leonard Log

Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Coe's

(Not such a great picture of me.....I flew on 2 hrs of sleep and was exhausted by the time we arrived in Oregon) We flew into Portland and on our way down to Stayton, we stopped in to see The Coe Family. I sure wish that we had more time. It is always so difficult when we travel. I wish we could see everybody and stay forever!

Miranda's Garden

This is our first tomato from Miranda's garden. Miranda wanted Grandpa to help her with a garden when he was here. He planted tomatoes, other flowers and watermelon! We have had a small watermelon and we are watching our other one grow!

Uncle Phil's Visit

Uncle Phil was here for SOS and we were able to spend a little time with him. What a treat to live where the AF sends people for training :)

Monday, June 04, 2007

Family Pictures

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Memorial Day Weekend

We went to visit the Ehabe family and had a lot of fun time with the family.

McKenzie took to being the "big sister" more than ever and was very helpful.
We went to Stones Mountain just outside of Atlanta. It is similar to Mt. Rushmore, but smaller (so I hear, I haven't ever seen it) and it is a Civil War picture.....crazy enough. I didn't get a picture. How did that slip by me? As usual, Dave was having fun with the girls.

We tried to take it easy, Ernest just had Gall Bladder surgery and we didn't want to have him over exert himself. Unfortunately, I think it was a little too much walking for him.

McKenzie Turns 11

McKenzie turned 11 and celebrated with her friends at Libby Lu. This is their "before" photo.
Their after photo
They performed a Hannah Montana song
McKenzie's Rockstar cake. You know it is tradition that I make the girls a cake....I almost forgot. Luckily kenzie reminded me by telling me what she wanted and I had to do it that day. This working full-time stuff is a lot to manage. I almost forgot what it was like :)

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Annie the Musical

McKenzie's end of the year 5th and 6th grade musical was last night. She was cast as Duffy, the oldest orphan. She did an excellent job. She sang loud and very well! She had a lot of fun. They caked themselves in cocoa powder and messed up their hair. I was kind of "disappointed" when I saw her on stage because when she left the house for the performance, her hair was almost standing on end. It was REALLY messy. It was one of the times that I let her go out that way! I guess it didn't last long.
They danced and sang, all the students did well. I love to see their progress. McKenzie had a little bump along the way today. Thursday night she didn't want to put any weight on her foot. Come to find out, playing outside without shoes isn't such a good idea (maybe that's why mom is always on her about putting on shoes :) Anyway, last week she stepped on something outside and it poked her. She ran inside and put her shoes on. I didn't think much about it. Well, she now has a full blown infection on her foot and it was working up to the top side of her foot. Luckily I have Friday afternoons off and I was able to get an afternoon appointment for her. She is now on antibiotics. I'm not so sure that she is up to running for her baseball game today. I'll have her dressed and ready to go....she may be sitting on the bench today.
You know that Duffy's performance stole my heart, but the close second was "Sandy" the dog! Boy did he do a great job....he even sang a little in howls. It was hilarious!

Biscuits Baseball

Who names the city baseball team around here? When we first moved here, I didn't think it was for real. But yep, they're called the Montgomery Biscuits! With the girls' baseball teams on base, we went to the game. It was fun to get out as a family. They had fireworks at the end too!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Gibson Guitar Store

We visited the Gibson Guitar Store for Dave and McKenzie. Too bad it was Sunday, they weren't making guitars that day!
McKenzie's favorite guitar
Dave's favorite guitar

The Acquarium Restaurant

Dave knew he wanted to take the girls here. We went for dessert after the show. There are tanks all around and a large one in the center with several sharks and all kinds fish.
Deal or No Deal was in town to recruit two posistions. There were 30,000 people that showed up to try out. It was quite the sight to see all the people. Luckily we had other plans, or Dave would have been in line to try out too. He likes the show and always says that he would know just the right time to get out with the most money.

The Grand Ole' Opry

In good American Tradition, we all went to the Grand Ole' Opry.
Mel McDaniel with "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On"
Trace Adkins with "slap your Grandma" in the lines. I won't elaborate any more of the song. It isn't one that I am thrilled with and the girls don't really need to know anymore :)
Little Jimmy Dickens
Opry Cloggers.

Dressed up and ready to go!

It is tradition that when we go somewhere out of town, we buy the girls hats. Appropriately, I found pink cowgirl hats.

Gaylord Opryland Hotel

Dave had his work cut out lugging luggage for 6 people. We didn't pack lightly...I don't know how :)
If you haven't ever seen the Opryland Hotel, it is worth the visit. I didn't think that we would be able to stay there because of the budget. But, Miss Frugal (me) found a great deal on Priceline. I couldn't pass it up. There is shopping, pools, and tons of waterfalls and plants. It is quite impressive.

The first stop for the girls was the pool! We let dad take a nap and G&G and I took the girls to the pool. It was refreshing for the girls. Happy girls, makes a happy vacation.

We were there during the Red Hat Society Convention. It was quite the sight. You can see that some of the rooms were decorated. They intrigued me with their flare.

I'm going back to work!

Ok, not that what I do isn't work....you know. I'm just adding more to my plate. I have accepted a position at a local dental office. I will be working into a dental assistant position with a goal of becoming a hygienist. This has been something that I have felt suited me well for many years. I just had to get Dave through seminary and the girls old enough to feel good about going back to work. The wonderful thing about it is that I don't HAVE to. I am doing it just for me. It is great experience and I get paid! Hopefully in the not so distant future I'll become a Registerd Dental Hygienist....but I have to start somewhere :)

Reasons to Adopt

If you were to go to Jerusalem and to climb the mount of olives you would find a mosque captured by Salidin in 1187. It was a church before that where it was believed that Jesus ascended into heaven leaving his last footprints on this earth. Many of us would question the validity of this claim, however, Jesus no doubt left mighty big footprints while he was on this earth. They are felt and experienced every day in every corner of the world. His legacy is one that is far reaching and touches every strata of income, every race, gender and color.

Luke 10:25-37 (NRSV)
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”
27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
woman lay dying on a Calcutta pavement. Her feet were half eaten away by rats and ants. She had been lying there for days and no one had taken any notice of her.
Then a nun came along. She was a tiny woman, dressed in a white sari which hung loosely about her and covered her head. She walked quickly, for she was always in a hurry. Her name was Mother Teresa.
When she saw the woman on the pavement she stopped. Full of pity, she picked her up and carried her into a nearby hospital for treatment. They told her there that the woman was too ill and poor to bother about. Besides, they had no room. Mother Teresa pleaded with them, but they said there was nothing they could do for her. However, she would not leave her patient, and set off for another hospital. But it was in vain. The woman died.
This was not the only person Mother Teresa found dying on the streets. There were many of them. There was an old man who was so thin he looked like a child. It was pouring with rain when Mother Teresa found him lying dead under a tree in a mess of sickness and blood. He was outside a hospital but no one had taken him in.
I think the world today is upside-down, and is suffering so much, because there is so very little love in the homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other. If we could only bring back into our lives the life that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in Nazareth, if we could make our homes another Nazareth, I think that peace and joy would reign in the world.

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat" - Mother Teresa"Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired" - Mother Teresa

And thereafter, she got engrossed with the task of serving the poor and sick people of Calcutta. The coming years witnessed the setting up of a charity organization called the Missionaries of Charity. In 1950, her source of concern was the care of lepers, the people discarded by society.Missionary of Charity opened its branches in almost every country to assist the poor, elderly, blind and people suffering from deadly disease like AIDS. For the bright future of children, she opened up schools. In 1979, she was awarded with Nobel Prize for the services that she had rendered to the society.

32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
On U2's last tour in 2005, which sold out more than 100 arenas worldwide, Bono gave his fans what they wanted to hear. For two hours, he belted out songs from the band's new album and sang old classics.
He also gave his fans what he wanted them to hear.
He took the opportunity to reach and inform roughly 20,000 people a night about his other job, of trying to eradicate poverty and slow the spread of AIDS in Africa. Through the band's music and his own words, Bono dedicated a portion of the show to bring attention to DATA, the organization he co-founded with Bobby Shriver and Jamie Drummond in 2002.
Bono went on to become a high-profile champion of Africa, as an artist, diplomat, lobbyist and negotiator. His eloquence, celebrity and Irish "moxie" enabled him to confront the rich and powerful from a mountain top in Davos to the General Assembly of the UN, from an outhouse in the bush of an impoverished African country to The White House and Congress, not to mention the stage of his sold out concerts and on every TV network. He has pushed, persuaded, cajoled, charmed and maneuvered the likes of Bill Gates. George Bush, and even Jesse Helms, to support debt relief and the fight against AIDS. He is a passionate campaigner. No one can say no to him
Bono was awarded the Liberty Medal on Thursday for his global work with DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) during a ceremony held on the front lawn of the National Constitution Center.

33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’

BRIGHTON, Iowa - If you sometimes get the feeling kids today only care about themselves, then maybe you should take a road trip to Brighton, Iowa, where a few nights each month dozens of children, heck, even teenagers, roll up their sleeves, don hair nets and go to work making meals for for hungry children thousands of miles away.
"It's changing them on the inside," says Don Fields. "Every one of these kids will want to come back and do this again."
Don Fields launched this operation two years ago, after a mission trip with his wife to Honduras. It's part of a national Christian program called Kids Against Hunger.
The Iowa kids have shipped container-loads of meals to places like Guatemala, Romania and Ethiopia.
"It helps them so they won't die," says 7-year-old volunteer Noah.
"I like doing it," adds 15-year-old Brianna. "It's really fun to know you are making a difference in the world."
And they are making a difference. To date, the kids have sent some 200,000 specially formulated meals overseas. Nationwide, Kids Against Hunger has prepared and shipped nearly 30 million meals.

36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Karen Daniels, a 31-year-old nurse from British Columbia who heard God calling her to minister through her medical skills in wartorn Sudan, where temperatures often reach 115 degrees and the only "bathrooms" are pit latrines dug in the ground.
Marianne Morton, who donated a kidney to a neighbor she barely knew, a Jewish man who was being kept alive only through daily dialysis

Projected number of orphans worldwide will reach 44 million by 2010

AIDS is taking lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, swallowing families, communities, hopes. So far 17 million have died. At least 25 million may follow. An intimate look at a modern curse.

Number of Christians 2.1 billiion

What can one person Do? What would God have me do?

He is a newborn baby in a third world country. He lives in a room filled with crying babies that no one picks up and no one cradles. He is fed just enough to live, changed on rare occasion. He will most likely never crawl, never play with his own toy, and never be spoken to one to one by an adult. He doesn’t know what it feels like to be full or what its like to be loved.

I don’t know his birth name-but he’s my son. He’s one of my footprints and that is what God has called me to do. What will God speak into your life? Where will he send you? What will be the difference that you make in this world?

Who then is your neighbor? Your neighbor is the person that you see who needs something that they can’t do for themselves. Your neighbor may not know the name of Jesus, the love of God or the feeling of being full.

What can one person do? It was one person who elevated the condition of the poor in India. It was one person who ended slavery in England after a lifetime of fighting it. It was one person who taught children to read on Sundays so that they wouldn’t be destined to lives of mining coal. It was one person who shared Jesus with you and changed your life.

What will you one person, do with one life to leave your footprints on this world before you go?
What is God speaking to your heart? Obey, dream big dreams, take chances, and don’t give up. God is faithful. God gave you the desires of his heart. God designed you for his purposes and you will never be satisfied until you are living the dream that God birthed within you and equipped you to do. Go now and make a difference.