Moi Thoughts

*disclaimer-long post!

Sitting and reminiscing with family and friends of days gone by, began the memory wheels to turning. Many things happen throughout the course of a life that shape the character of who one becomes; however, there are specific moments in life that stand out above all others. In this individuals life, that time of reminiscence reproduced the memory of one woman in particular. A woman, whose life story became a twisted, woven tail of sanity dipping into insanity and attempting a return to reality. This woman was one of the first neighbors to greet this individuals family when they initially moved to her neighborhood. She greeted the family with warmth and flavor, bearing a homemade chocolate cake and a bright, welcoming smile. Eventually the family's oldest daughter babysat her children, and their small daughters would play with her son in the cheery playhouse behind her home.

This woman stayed home with her children while her husband worked for the railroad. Eventually, the woman and her family relocated to Texas due to a transfer for her husband through the railroad. The individuals family stayed in the neighborhood and, along with with their siblings, grew up knowing most of the other neighbors as close friends.

One day, out of the blue, "the woman" and her family reappeared in the old neighborhood. However, something was different! Strangely different, and somewhat menacing. This time, she did not greet the neighbors with friendly smiles. Instead, she suddenly began instigating situations in the neighborhood that were threatening and caused the neighbors to feel unsafe.

At night it was quite common to see oddly colored porch lights go on through all hours of the night. On the nights that the red porch light came on, traffic was sparse. On the other hand, on the nights that the green porch light came on; traffic was a consistent flow. It was nothing new to see Mercedes, BMW's, Porsche', and many other pricey vehicles pull up, and drive away, throughout the night when the green light came on.

The woman's strange behaviour began to escalate and many of the neighbors experienced extremely, threatening interactions induced by her random episodes of insanity. One neighbor's sons had to pull the woman off of their mother one day as she randomly attacked and started pummeling the boy's mother, as she was getting in her car to leave for work. Another day, the individuals brother had to go out and pull the woman off of his wife as she was threatening to attack the wife as she left the individuals home. The woman began a reign of terror in that neighborhood that oppressed the neighborhood for many years.

Insane events became common place situations in the neighborhood. The woman took all of the curtains off of the windows of her house at night and performed crazy, disjointed dances in clothing of all the colors of the rainbow. Another night, the woman beat her gorgeous, German Shepherd to death with a tire chain. One evening, the individual, and visiting guests, stayed up all night the night before summer camp; as the woman emptied the Porto potty out of her camper into the street in front of her home. She was not finished! She then sprayed the waste down with the water hose to the street in the front of her immediate neighbor's home; and then used a broom to sweep the leftovers on down to her neighbors also. These youth, watched the woman water the yard, spray waste and perform insane, zany acts throughout the course of an eight hour night.

The individuals beloved Irish Setter almost became the casualty of random pot shots taken by the woman, in the neighborhood, with a 12 gage shotgun. Another bright, sunny afternoon, gunshots ripped through the individuals yard, not quite 3 feet from where they sat with a small child on the porch of their parent's home. The neighborhood violence began to strongly escalate and neighbors were now becoming afraid to step into their own front yards, for fear of being physically attacked or shot at.

One cool evening, a neighbor from down the block began the trek down the street to bring her sister, another neighbor who lived at the other end of the block, a birthday rose. Mid trek, the woman ran randomly into the street and attacked the lady walking to her sisters. The woman viciously ripped her clothing off and started punching her in the face. In self defense the neighbor lady ripped the woman's clothing and began to fight back. Needless to say, there stood the individuals family in stunned shock, and silence, watching the two women fight, bare chested, in the middle of the street! Finally the victim's nephews came out from their mother's home with 2x4s ready to seriously hurt the woman. Just in time, the police showed up and the individual always felt that was probably the only thing that saved the insane woman's life, and possibly the victim's life, that horrible day.

On a warm, summer day the individual and their family were eating dinner when suddenly black cars swarmed the neighborhood. Out of those cars began to spill, with weapons drawn, serious and grim faced, black coated federal agents. Opening the trunk of the woman's Cadillac these agents began to pull out small, black lunch pails by the dozens. "How incredibly odd?" thought the individuals family as they witnessed the bizarre scene unfold. Suddenly, an agent began opening the small, black pails and pulling out sandwich bags full of white powder. Now, the truth behind all of the random, insane behavior of the past years began to unfold. On another street, unbeknowst to the neighbors at that time, the woman's husband had been pulled over with a vehicle search warrant for drug transportation. At the same time federal agents were pulling lunch pails out of the woman's trunk in this neighborhood, two blocks away they were ripping the seats out her husband's truck and pulling out pound upon pound of illegal drugs.

A memory arose of an earlier incident where the woman and her son got into an altercation one day. In livid rage, the woman attacked her son with the same tire chain, with which she had killed her pet. She used that same weapon to rip a huge, gaping gash, from forehead to chin, down the right side of his face. From that time forward, the son began to rebel strongly against his mother. He would attempt to protect his small sister, but many times would be viciously abused in the process. Back to the present, in horror the individual and neighbors found that these lunch pails were being sent with the woman's children as an alternate route for her to deliver her hideous, illegal substances to patrons through their children. From that day forward Social Services took control of the woman's two children and they were never seen around the neighborhood again.

The neighborhood thought that things would finally calm down, now that the woman had been arrested for the distribution of illegal substances. However, the woman was bonded and was released on bail; then at sentencing, was only sentenced to a number of years on parole. Upon hearing this the neighborhood was horrified and could not understand how the sentencing could be correct. Later, the news was released that the woman had become a police informant in a plea bargain to have her sentence reduced. That, however, did not keep her from going right back to dealing, nor terrorizing the neighborhood. People's fences in their yards were attacked, children were threatened, neighbors feared to step into their yards and things continued to escalate once again. One day, in the midst of all the incidents,the home of the individuals family went up in flames with a wall of shotgun shells shooting in all directions under the heat of the fire. A family member's life was threatened in that fire; however, through the mercies of God that person's life was spared. A neighbor later came forth with photos showing the insane woman pouring gasoline along the edge of the garage wall where the ammunition was stored and setting the fire. The woman still was not arrested and never did serve time in jail for her offenses. Eventually, the individual and their family moved away to a safer environment after restoring their home and selling it. To the individuals knowledge the crazy woman still lives in that neighborhood to this day.

Many times one experiences situations over which they have no control. Such situations can create victims out of once ordinary people. Such situations can also strengthen, or weaken, the core values that each person has the opportunity to birth and nurture in a lifetime. When such instances arise, although one has no control over such circumstance, they do have control over their response to those circumstances. One could assume that everyone, most likely, has a story to tell of some momentous event in their life. Each one of us could tell of a life event that could have strengthened us and created a strong, overcoming mentality within us; or how we could have allowed that same event to turn us into a bitter, hurt, mistrustful, and weak victim of our past. When one experiences any type of threatening event the flight or fight nature of humanity takes over. That is a simple fact of life; however, what is not so simple is when one gets stuck in the flight pattern and can never face the past, nor dominate it. Living on the run, is truly no living at all. Fighting through the ugly stuff and becoming victorious over it is one of the most exhilarating feelings an individual can experience.

The individual of this story overcame. They could have felt mistrusting, threatened, racist, and bitter over all of the things that happened through the 17 years they lived in that neighborhood. Instead, they determined that they would be kind, courteous, compassionate and would treat all people equally. Most importantly, they determined they would not only go on with life, but that they would have a wonderful life. And, they have! How will you respond to your situation when your story comes to pass?

~II Timothy 2:3 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
~Romans 8:31-37 " 31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I love photography, I love sunsets, and I love when each cooperates with each other to create beautiful memories..........

My middle nephew Mitch, and I have always had a special relationship. When I first moved to Colorado he was 6 months old. He and his Auntie bonded strongly! The family would take country drives in the mini van and I would hold his hand, rub his knuckles and sing to him as we drove along. "Jesus Loves the Little Children" was one of our favorite songs! As time went by, we had our own little special love language. He would come and snuggle up by me as he grew and would take my hand and rub my knuckles. Scared, cuddly, loving, distraught, insecure, unsure, happy....no matter the occasion, if Auntie was nearby, it was a knuckle rubbing party.

Sometimes, I try to take a niece or nephew one on one and have special time with them. We talk, we go do something they enjoy and we just spend time together. When I go with Mitch, it's like the sun lights up in his eyes. He loves to tell me about things going on in his world, about his newest gadget, about something silly or funny that he and his buddies have been up to, or about his fun times spent at Grannie B's for middle child week with his cousin Taylor. He loves his family! His Dad and Mom center his world and his siblings, well despite the normal sibling moments, he would probably kill or die for them. He is extremely loyal to his cousins, his aunties and uncles and his grandparents. He can pinch a penny til' it screams, but can also con you out of $10.00 and make you think it's the most logical, reasonable donation in the world! He can take a gadget apart, sort the million pieces and put it all back together simply to appease his curiosity about what makes it tick. He'd give you the shirt off of his back if he thought you needed it and sheds sensitive, tender hearted tears over the plight of those less fortunate than himself.

We had our ladies fall tea this past Friday night. It turned out absolutely wonderful for being planned, coordinated and put together in two weeks time; not to mention, being held the week after the craziness of the State Fair. We had guests from our city, our daughter work in Pratt, and from Garden City.

Our special speaker was Sis. Lori Elder from Pueblo, CO and what a wonderful job she did of ministering to our hearts. Her thought was "Falling in Love with the King" and was built around the lives of Abigail, Bathsheba, Esther, Mary (the Mother of Jesus), Anna (The Prophetess), and Mary and Martha. She spoke of how these women, despite harsh circumstances came to a place in their life that they could have rebelled, allowed bitterness to rule, and became utterly hopeless; but rather, they submitted to their king and love grew from that submission. As a result, Abigail's life and the life of her people were spared and she became a beloved wife to the king, Bathsheba's children were blessed, Esther's people were saved, Mary birthed the King of kings and was a part of history in the upper room, Anna's hope was restored, and Mary and Martha's dead relative was resurrected. Each of these ladies lives were dramatically changed simply because they all fell in love with the king.

The bible talks about how Abigail's husband was a drunkard and a fool, Bathsheba was forced into marriage with the King after he had her husband killed, Esther's life and the lives of her people were threatened; she had to put her life on the line by approaching her king uninvited, to contend for the lives of her people. Mary was scoffed because she was bearing a child unwed and then that child would be crucified for the sins of the world. Anna was a widow who spent her latter years marking time in the temple longing to see the Messiah. Mary and Martha's brother was dead and it seemed their situation was without recourse. Abigail, Bathsheba and Esther fell in love with their earthly kings, while Mary, Anna and Mary and Martha fell in love with The King of Kings. Sis. Elder admonished us that when we fall in love with the king, (Abigail) he will work out our situation whether it be an abusive relationship or an unsaved spouse; (Bathsheba) he will bless our children, (Esther) he will deliver us, (Mary) he will save us, (Anna)he will restore our hope, and (Mary and Martha) he will bring our (spiritually) dead loved ones to life. The more that I think on this subject how it grows and becomes more real to me. My life's goal is to be completely in love with and to see the King of all kings.

Our Tea theme was "Falling in Love with Jesus" and the songs and speaking came together so beautifully. The decor was fall themed with alternating fall colored table cloths of chocolate brown, autumn purple, forest green, amber, burnt orange, cafe latte, and harvest gold on the tables. Gorgeous fall mums, which were also used as door prizes, were the centerpieces for each table. We filled glass globes with coffee beans and put candles in them for the candle light accents on each table, which gave off a wonderful scent in the room. We then accessorized with fall leaves spread across the tables.

The tea delicacy and dessert tables were clothed in vivid fall orange with beautiful autumn centerpieces made out of decorative glasses filled with coffee beans, and topped with a gorgeous autumn candle arrangement. We accessorized these tables with fall gourds, leaves and elegant decorative pumpkins. All arrangements and decorations were from The Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby. The ladies of the church brought delicious treats attractively arranged on their nice trays. We provided hot tea of many different delectable flavors, as what would a tea be without tea. :)

We had many promotions and door prizes with great give aways such as the decorative pumpkins on the treat tables amongst other fun, autumn themed prizes. Our categories for prizes were: the most unique tea cup, the tiniest tea cup, the oldest mother, the newest mother, the sister who has been in church the longest, the newest sister in the church, and two more. We set up a table of Single Shoes belonging to Sister's in the church and the ladies could guess who they belonged to. Then our drama sisters came up with a great skit sharing tidbits of life that anyone who is a lady could in some way relate to. Many laughs were exchanged, some to the point of hysterical tears. Those ladies are crazy!!! The night ended with the warm glow of friendship, fellowship, apostolic sisterhood and the sweet presence of The King in our midst.

The tea committee cleaned up then pretty much collapsed for the night. :) These things are fun even if they are hard work! As the leader of the committee, I was blessed with a wonderful team of ladies that worked together to organize, delegate tasks, request donations, entertain, set-up, and clean up. These women of God are committed, faithful and quite simply put "they rock!" Thanks to all of you who came, who helped, and who brought guests. Next year will be here before we know it! :)

Someone told me yesterday that the teachings of Jesus were based more on Socialism than Capitalism. THAT turned out to be quite the interesting discussion! This premise was their biblical justification for Big Government. They went on to state that Capitalism equals Narcissim. Their theory proposed that Jesus said "to love thy neighbor more than thyself;" therefore, government healthcare was a biblical obligation to all of those who considered themselves to be believers.

I'm extremely interested in hearing the thoughts, inputs, opinions and scriptural references about such from blog readers. Thoughts or Comments????????

Do You Think the President, Congress and Senate Should be Required to take the Same Health Care as You? If so....go to http://fleming.house.gov/index.html and sign Congressman Fleming's petition. This is a live site. I just signed the petition and it does work.



On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment, courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn which would require all Members of Congress and their staff members to enroll in any new government-run health plan. Congressman John Fleming has proposed an amendment that would require Congressmen and Senators to take the same health care plan that they would force on us. (Under proposed legislation they are exempt.)Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go to his Website and sign his petition. The process is very simple. I have done just that at: http://fleming.house.gov/index.html

Senator Coburn and Congressman Fleming are both physicians. Regardless of your political beliefs, it sure seems reasonable that Congress should have exactly the same medical coverage that they impose on the rest of us.

Please urge as many people as you can to do the same!

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