Help!

Okay Ladies... I have a question. I just made a recipe that included 1/2 cup of wine. We didn't have a wine bottle opener- so Jon came to the rescue (see below) with a drill and pliers to get the cork out! In the end we still couldn't get the cork out- but made a big enough hole to pour the 1/2 cup needed :). I know the easy answer is to just go buy a bottle opener- but is there another way to uncork a bottle??? :)

HomeArama!

October 21,2008

I had a glorious afternoon at The Palisades ~ HomeArama 2008 with my friend Sharon Hawkins today! We had so much fun looking for ideas. Ideas for us are... how do they position their towels? What color paint do they use? How do they position books on bookshelves? :) I hope you enjoy the photos. I wonder what our mansions in heaven will look like???!

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Charlotte Extreme Home Makeover

October 22, 2008

Miri has always been a fan of the Extreme Home Makeover Edition TV show. She especially loves to see how the girls rooms turn out :). When the EHME crew arrived in Charlotte this summer- we went to the site... a few times! When we were recently in Philly, Miri was so excited to find out that her Uncle John is actually a driver for the show. He gave her a hat- which she HAD to wear on Sunday to celebrate since the Charlotte episode was airing. Miri celebrated Sunday night with our friend Julie- also a big fan. (Thank you Julie!)
Here are a few pictures we took of the house in the making....along with pictures of one of their biggest fans- Miss Miri.

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Apple Picking Fun!

October 21, 2008

Yesterday Miri and I went apple picking at Skytop Apple Orchards with my friend Kim. We had a blast!! I hope you enjoy the pictures. The mountains are so beautiful! http://www.skytoporchard.com/

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What are we going to wear tomorrow?

October 17, 2008

Not sure what to put on tomorrow morning?

Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24)

Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14)

Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Romans 13:14)

I also want women to dress...with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God (1 Timothy 2:9-10)

Thank you Barbara Hughes! Help Lord! (Disciplines of a Godly Woman pg. 94-95)

What do our trials mean?

October 14, 2008

Taylor is reading J. I. Packer's Knowing God and asked me to read chapter 9 because he thought it'd encourage me :). Wow did it ever! I especially loved this quote from page 97:

Our Perplexing Trials
“We should not...be too taken aback when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now. What do they mean? Simply that God in his wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and He is dealing with us accordingly.

Perhaps He means to strengthen us in patience, good humor, compassion, humility or meekness, by giving us some extra practice in exercising these graces under especially difficult conditions. Perhaps He has new lessons in self-denial and self-distrust to teach us. Perhaps He wishes to break us of complacency, or unreality, or undetected forms of pride and conceit. Perhaps His purpose is simply to draw us closer to Himself in conscious communion with Him; for it is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest. Or perhaps God is preparing us for forms of service of which at present we have no inkling.”

Lastly on page 98-

" We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what He is doing, and what He is after, in His handling of our affairs." Amen!

We love Philly!

October 14, 2008

What a weekend! We praise the Lord for safe travels, beautiful weather, and for allowing us to see so many loved ones! Our weekend started with the long 11 hour drive- but with the breath taking views of the changing leaves and laughter in the car-it was so enjoyable!

Though we arrived quite late at the Whitpan's, we enjoyed a late night visit and then headed to get some sleep. While Bill, Miri and I headed off to Eddie and Heather's wedding Friday afternoon-Jonathan and Taylor were getting ready to go to a semi-formal Friday night-honoring Dave Harvey (senior pastor of Covenant Fellowship church)!

The wedding...Eddie is Bill's sister Sherry's oldest son. This wedding was a joy to attend for many reasons. 1.Because we all love Heather and Eddie! 2. Sherry and husband John live in CA- so we rarely see them 3. Bill's parents and all of his siblings were there! Bill's brother- George-who lives in Colorado is a pastor and helped officiate the wedding. Bill's sister Bette and husband Paul came from Atlanta. What a glorious reunion!

Saturday our family headed to my cousin Mike and his wife Jackie's house. It was such a joy to also see my Mom and Aunt Rita there!! We had a delicious cookout and so enjoyed catching up. Miri LOVES her cousins Rachael and Kara and had a blast.

Saturday night we spent the evening with our dear friends...the Farmers- from Covenant Fellowship! We so treasure them and had a wonderful time catching up. I asked Missy to email me the 'Better than Robert Redford' dessert that Jill made that night. I will be sure to pass it on when I get it. It's so yummy!!

Sunday! What a glorious morning to be at Covenant Fellowship! We attended this church before we moved to Charlotte and had the privilege of seeing Dave Harvey become senior pastor. Today Dave was joyfully passing the baton to Jared Mellinger so to enable Dave to serve Sovereign Grace Ministries full time. (He will remain in Philly) It was a joy seeing Bill Patton honored (who was senior pastor when we first joined the church and Alain Redrup (interim pastor). What a surprise it was to also see Mary Brown! Mary was the one who introduced us to Sovereign Grace about 20 years ago! We saw many dear friends and gave much praise to the Lord for how He is working in and thru the precious people at Covenant Fellowship. We will forever consider this church.... home. ~

There is a rule in our family. You cannot leave Philly without having eaten a Philly cheese steak. Okay...it's MY rule :). After church we enjoyed wonderful fellowship (and a cheese steak) with Jocelyn and Kirk Whitpan (our hosts). They are family to us and we love them so dearly!
We then watched the Eagles win!! Yahoo!... took a long walk and then enjoyed our next rule. We MUST play the Mexican Train with the Whitpan's every time we're with them. It was a blast!!
We then packed up and said our sad goodbye's the next morning. We thank the Lord for such dear friends who live to glorify the Lord thru their lives!

We pray you enjoy our little slide show which captures some of our wonderful times...