Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday. Pappaw brought oyster stew over for breakfast yesterday morning and then about 5:00 Mammaw and Pappaw came over for dinner. Oyster stew is a Baldwin family tradition, we have it every Christmas. For dinner this year we had Roast Beef, (or as Bethany and Daniel call it, Roast Beast) mashed potatoes, Gravy, Salad, Rolls, and 2 kinds of Jello salad. We were going to have carrots and peas too but mom accidentally turned the wrong burner on the stove on and burned them. We had pumpkin pie for desert. We decided to skip the normal turkey and ham since we are having that with the whole family Saturday. After dinner Mammaw, Pappaw, Mom, Dad, Zach, and I played a few games of Rook. We had a good time. Mammaw kept getting bad hands so finally she switched seats with Dad and got a GREAT hand. I mean she got an excellent hand. Anyway we had a good time. Today we spent most of the day cleaning the house as the Cox's were supposed to be coming to visit tomorrow. Something came up and they will be coming Friday instead. So we will be doing our cooking for the family dinner tomorrow and our visiting with the Cox's Friday. We are so excited about their visit. Tomorrow I'll be at mammaw's cleaning house then I'll come back and do a little cooking for Friday and Saturday. Anyway I need to go. I should have a few stories and maybe Pictures if I can get them to work next time I blog. Goodbye.

Hey everyone I'M POSTING!!!!

Hey everyone, I'm back. Sorry I haven't written in such a long time but no one reads my posts anyway so who cares! Though this time I might actually come up with a pretty good excuse. (or excuses?!?) How were every one's Thanksgivings? (which brings me to my first excuse....) We went to Florida for Thanksgiving and had a great time with our dear friends the Cox family. It was a lot of fun except for the fact that Abby, Ruthie, Francie, Noah, and Caleb all got sick in one form or the other. Noah had it easy he only got a cold. The last night we were there, Beau, Josh, Zach, Daniel, and I finally succeeded in pulling our often futilely attempted all nighter!!! (ok so we stayed up till all dedicated farmers and hunters are up, 4:30) Oh yeah you know how I said all the little ones got sick while we were there? Well, Bro. Jerry and Josh were sick the day we left. Then Nathan was sick the following Sunday so everyone got sick except for Beau and Sis. Betsy. We arrived home 5:30 Tuesday morning. We tend to leave late and drive all night. We did school Wednesday then Mom and Dad and micah went to Richmond for an orthodontist appointment Thursday. The rest of us kids stayed home and did school. Mom and Dad got home fairly quick and my dad told us that he had just got a call from my pappaw. My dad's oldest sister, Diane, had just passed away around 11:30 that morning. That ended school for us for a few days. We went right over to my grandparent's house to be with them then Mom and dad and mammaw and pappaw went to Richmond to be with David and the kids. Friday the family all started coming in and the family night was saturday and the funeral sunday. We had family around till the following tuesday. (That's excuse number two) Tuesday we had to go to Richmond for another ortho appointment. We did school wednesday then Thursday everyone went to Richmond except for daniel and I. Neither one of us was feeling very good, in fact I was feeling down right sick! I still felt pretty bad friday. (that's excuse number three) I'm feeling better now except I'm congested. We have all been practicing for our church play. The play is Sunday evening. Our church Banquet is saturday afternoon. It's going to be different this year, we're having Fried chicken instead of turkey or ham! (you might be southern if...) Well i think that's a fairly nice, fairly long, fairly newsy post don't ya'll? well I'll post again later when I get a chance.

No Ladies Retreat

Yes, it's unfortunately true, Ladies Retreat in VA/WV was cancelled. Bro. Carter's mother passed away and the funeral is this weekend. So many of the people involved in making the Retreat happen need to be at the funeral so they decided to just cancel it. I'm disappointed but I understand. Since there is no Ladies retreat this weekend Pappaw prolonged our Revival another night. We've been having a good revival. My "surgery" went okay. I was in some pain for a few days but that was normal. I slept most of the weekend. I told mom "I don't think I've slept that much since I was a new born." She said that I might have slept more than when I was a baby because I wasn't waking up every two hours crying to be fed! I certainly got a lot of rest. There's not a lot to say really I've been busy between recovery, Revival and getting ready for Sis. Betsy to come back to our house after the Ladies Retreat ended. Which now is not going to happen. I know that God has a purpose and a plan for everything that happens so I'm just going to put it in His hands. Anyway I'm rambling so I'd better go. Later. - Charity

Youth Retreat!

Youth retreat was wonderful! We thoroughly enjoyed all the fun, food, fellowship, and teaching. Not to mention the wonderful sermons brought to us by Bro. Jared and Tim. Bro. Jared preached on "Get up and win the race." It was a good message. Tim preached on "We have a Great God and that is why we can finish the Race." Of course those might not be the exact titles of their messages but that's just my interpretation. Mom's class was "Racing to Glory in the Fear of the Lord." Sister Ginger's class was "Running in Holiness." They went along together really well. We didn't have a very large group this year. I counted 29 including the staff. (only the ones who stayed overnight.) That was kind of nice. Everyone was together all the time and everyone knew each other and was comfortable with everyone else. We didn't have to waste time getting comfortable with one another. We played Basketball, Four square, Volleyball, Football, Cranium, Apples to Apples, Scrabble, and Catchphrase. Cody Haffley is the King of catchphrase. Anyway There are many stories that could be told but I prefer to talk rather than type so I don't think I'm going to tell them on here. It would be really neat if there was this machine that you could talk into and it would type whatever you said. Maybe I'll get better with electronics and invent it. HMMMM....... Ok I'll let you guys get back to your lives now. Oh, Pray for me on Friday morning I'm getting my wisdom teeth cut/pulled out.

A Visitor

I told my sister, Bethany, that I needed to tell everyone about our visitor and she said which one, the strange man who came and spoke or the bird. Okay I'll start at the beginning. The "strange man" was the Gideon man he came to do a boost on the Gideon work and we gave him an offering. I was talking about a little bird. We had a wren come into church at the beginning of sunday school. He sat on the window sill and watched us during sunday school. After Sunday School ended he flew up to the front of the church, behind the pulpit. Dad was the sunday scool teacher this sunday and he said that the bird was one of the best students he's had. He didn't hear a single peep out of him the whole service. :-) After the Gideon man spoke Pappaw preached. While Pappaw was preaching the bird started hopping around behind him. After a while it got up it's courage and started flying. He "buzzed" Pappaw while he was preaching. Pappaw just made a joke about it and kept preaching. Dad said the kids eyes never left the front of the building it was one time they've never been told to face forward. And absolutely no one fell asleep. After church we helped the little bird find it's way out. In other news Zach had his wisdom teeth out Friday morning. He came through the surgery fine. He's doing pretty good though he does have some swelling. This weekend is ..... YOUTH RETREAT! We are all looking forward to it. Mom is studying. She has to teach a lesson this weekend on the Fear of the Lord. How does it relate to the Finish Line racing to Glory? We can't even start the race without the fear of the Lord. Well, I'd better get going. I'll post again later. If I have anything to say......

Counseling Seminar

Hey everyone! I'm back!!!! I had a really exhausting week but I can truthfully say that I learned a lot. We had to get up by six every morning but mom always set her alarm for 5:45. When it went off it always woke me up and then I couldn't fall back to sleep before I had to be up! We had a very full schedule. We were in class most of the day. We got meal breaks and that was pretty much it. Curfew was at 10 but most nights we didn't get out of class till just before 10. By the time we actually made it to our rooms it was usually after 10. Then we would get ready for bed and study for the big exam on saturday till 11 or 12. Then start over again the next day. We had the exam on Saturday morning and........ I passed! Yay! I didn't think I was going to pass when i first turned my sheet over but I prayed and God brought things back to my memory. While we were at the seminar Mr. Gothard told us a funny story. He was driving down to the Counseling Seminar with a bunch of his headquarters staff and they stopped at crackerbarrel for lunch. As they were being seated Mr. Gothard noticed a young man across the room. This man had long hair and at first Mr. Gothard couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl. He had tattoos and piercings all over his bod and was wearing jeans that were really tore up and a black leather jacket. As Mr. Gothard noticed this he thought to himself that young man could really benefit from going to a basic seminar. Just about that time the man looks up and sees Mr. Gothard. He stands to his feet and runs over to him yelling excitedly, " Bill Gothard! You changed my life!" As the young man talked to Mr. Gothard he told him that he had attended 10 basic seminars and was now a youth pastor at his local church. We all thought that was so hilarious. Mr. Gothard told us that we can't judge a book by his cover but man does and we should always have an appearance that would bring glory to God. We stayed overnight with Brother and Sister Buckner going and coming and went to church with them on Sunday morning. Then we drove home Sunday afternoon and made it in time for church at Farmville Sunday evening. Today we started back up on our school schedule. Burkeville CoGoP is having a revival this week. An old friend of our family is the evangelist and we are going over there tonight. Tomorrow is VLB service we are still showing the assembly dvd's. Last week we had a business meeting. I have a new assistant. Sister Gayle Sandy. I think Pappaw said he was going to appoint Tonya to jr. VLB's and gleaners. I still have all the responsibilities I had last year. Dad is now the local CPMA leader. And the boys and dad are all ushers and Dad and Bro. Tony were appointed assistant pastors. Anyway that's about it for now except that Tomorrow is Noah Cox's Birthday and Saturday is Micah's Birthday. Anyway I'll probably have more tomorrow or maybe not!

Happy Birthday Mama!

Sing with me, "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Mama, Happy birthday to you." Of course you guys can insert something else in there in the place of Mama! :-) Mom is the big 50. So Happy Birthday to Mama!

Update!

Hey everyone. We had Minister's Convention last week-end. It was wonderful. The Spirit was there in a wonderful way. Our theme was "I'm Having a Revival! How About You?" We were encouraged to have revival in our own hearts and lives and then challenge others to allow God to work a revival in them. Now if we all take that home with us.... think of all the wonderful things that God can do this year! Guess what! My birthday is Saturday, I'm turning 18 this year. Next week Mom and are going to Indianapolis for a seminar that I need for our home-school program. If I want to take advantage of any of the college courses or ministry opportunities I have to have this seminar. It's called the Counseling Seminar. It's supposed to equip you to work with others. Anyway I'll be gone all week. The only problem is I have to miss Apple Butter! It's so sad. Dad and the boys and Beth will get to go to Apple Butter though. I'm going to try and post the latest pictures I actually have on the computer. Some of them anyway. They are from February when we went to see the Cox's. Everyone's grown some since these pictures were taken.

Pictures (Hopefully!)

(TJ, Eric, Chelsey, Megan,Kaitlin, Isaiah, and Allen)
(TJ, Allen, me, Megan, Chelsey, and Eric)

Hey everyone. I'm posting again. TJ Orcino sent me a couple of pics that he took of the IYC crowd at the Assembly. These are just some of the young people that were at IYC. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics except these. Kaitlin didn't attend IYC but she visited one night with Bro. Carter. Apparently everyone was looking for me and couldn't find me that's the reason I'm not in the first picture. Isaiah had already left by the time they took the second picture. Wow I actually successfully posted a picture. In fact 2 pictures! Ha! With this triumph I shall retire for now. Goodbye!

Surprise! I'm posting!

Hey everyone! I'm posting! Now isn't everyone proud of me? You think with a grand total of 1 hr. of computer time every school day I would find some time to blog. No instead I go and blow it all on sending personal e-mails to my friends. You think I would have figured out by now that the best way to communicate with everyone is to send a group e-mail or a little note saying "Go look at my blog." But no I just can't be impersonal like that. I have to go and spend 45 min. responding to 3 (count them 1, 2, 3) e-mails. School has gotten started (obviously) and we are on a schedule. My only complaint is that I only get to talk to my Canadian friends on the weekend because of time differences. I have a pretty light load this year for school. I'm just finishing off a few things and I'll graduate this spring. I don't know what I'm going to do next though. I do feel a burden for our young people and little ones. So many of our young people need training and not just training but a real relationship with God. I want to see some of the things I've heard my parents and grandparents talk about. I want to see people healed. I want to see the Spirit of God come on the place so strong that no one is able to stand before Him. I want to see sinners walk in the door and conviction hit them so hard that they run to the altar right then. I want to see children seeking God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. I want to see the Church moving forward toward perfection. I want to see the latter rain. I want to see the Lord pour out His Spirit like He promised that He would. Sorry for preaching at ya'll. As Josh says to me, "You're not a preacher but sometimes you get to teaching pretty good." Anyway Micah started guitar lessons last Wednesday. He learned four chords came home and started picking out songs by ear. He can play Psalms 100, Amazing Grace, and How Great is our God. He has even showed me how to play several chords. I'm happy with that because as some of you know, I have secretly wanted to learn how to play the guitar for several years. My Grandma Miller played the guitar. She was really good and I have memories of standing next to her and singing with her while she played when I was just a little girl. She went to heaven 10 years ago and every time I hear a guitar it reminds me of Grandma Miller. Anyway I rambled long enough. G'bye everybody.

A wonderful Assembly

Hey! IYC was great! I made new friends and spent time with old ones. The workshops were great we got a lot of good teaching and training. I loved it. I felt like I was actually learning things that were applicable to my life. I learned new things. At regular camp you mainly get milk in the services and in the classes at IYC we were fed meat. The Assembly was wonderful as well. This year there was a spirit of unity that has not been there in the past. Sunday after IYC and before the Assembly I spent the day with the Cox's untill Mom and Dad got to Cleveland. It was great spending ime with them. The little ones were so happy to see me. They were literally fighting over who was going to sit next to me or hold my hand. I felt like a celebrity or something. I love those kids. The baby is getting so big. Soon she won't be a baby anymore! It was great hanging out with the boys too. Just about every night after we got back to the hotel we would go to the lobby and play Dutch Blitz. Aaron Brooks and the Williams kids found their way to the lobby by the end of the week. One night we had like 3 decks of Blitz cards going. It was crazy. I enjoyed seeing the kids from Midway, SC and the friends I had made at IYC like Megan Mack, Joleesa Nowling, Isaiah Peters, and TJ Orcino again. Megan and TJ worked in the Children's Assembly as ushers. I got to see them often. I was really busy this year at the Assembly. The VA/NC choir had to sing several times and our family sang plus I was in the IYC choir and involved in the Parade of Nations and the Children's Assembly. I really enjoyed the messages this year. I just enjoyed the entire Assembly. Every bit of it. The only problem is that it went by so fast. Anyway I have to go. Later.

Home! (Only for a week-and-a-half)

Hey everyone! I'm home again! The homeschool conference was great. I worked as a teacher in the children's program. It was originally created for 6-12 year olds but we used it for 4-7 year olds. We did a lot of changing in the curriculum to fit the ages of our kids. It was great. I always learn a lot from working with that age group. This year I learned how to deal with kids who cry when they don't get their way.... ignore them but first explain to them that if they cry you aren't going to pay any attention to them. I had one kid who cried almost constantly the first day but by the last day he had gotten a lot better and only cried once! There is actually more to it than that but i am really not that good at explaining things to people! This year at the conference I received a Presidential Award for volunteer community service. I was also in the Congressional record for service overseas. I got to see 3 of my closest friends from the Asia mission team that I was on last summer. It was really good to see them again. Anna and David Beaulieu and Brianne Norcross. Anna saw me the first day and found out I was a teacher in the Children's program and requested that her brother be put on my team. I saw her name as a teacher in the program bethany was in so I requested that Bethany be put on her team. Bethany asked her if she was friends with me. She replied, " Well what do you think? I asked for my brother to be on her team and she put you on my team." I only saw David a couple of times and we really didn't have a chance to talk much. I got to talk to Brianne a number of times. Surprisingly she never ran into Anna or David. I was the only one any of them saw. Except Anna and David of course saw each other. We did get to see our Canadian friends. We spent all of our time hanging out with them. Their last name is McMillan. They have 3 sons. Josh is my age, Seth is a year older than Micah, and Nic is Bethany's age. It was nice to see them again. We kept up our old tradition of trading kids and then getting lost. We wandered around Indianapolis for our whole supper break one night trying to figure out how to get to the place we were having the conference. It was a mess. It was also funny. Well that's about it. I am going to spend the night with my Mammaw tonight cause Pappaw went down to visit his sister and he doesn't like to leave Mammaw alone. If any of you guys know of someone who is interested in working as a Children's Assembly usher please let me know. Our family is in charge of the Children's assembly ushers this year. Next Tuesday I am leaving for Roanoke. I'll spend the night with some church folks there and then the next morning early Chelsey and I are riding down with Tim to IYC. So I will see a bunch of you guys at the Assembly. Bye Bye

Home from Camp

Hey everyone! I'm back again. Camp was good. We had a lot of fun. It seemed a bit different to me this year, but maybe I was just out of it. We had Over 90 people including staff at camp this year. It was cool. The weather was perfect. We had like 0 humidity. That is amazing for VA. One night a little girl testified and said that she had been "Sanitated." She meant sanctified. It was funny and she was so cute. One day this guy nearly walked into girls swim time accidently, he was stopped just in time. (Names are purposely being left out so no ones reputation gets ruined.) :-P Another day 3 guys had to drink baby bottles in front of everyone at camp. Someone else was proven to be a big monkey. And someone else will forever be known as "Traitor." Lots of things happened. Bro. Jared is a good baseball player. He's an awesome fielder and if he ever hits the ball it's going somewhere. Sister Connie Wilson preached the 1st night. She did a great job. Brother Levi Stephens preached the 2nd night. He did a great job. He is a good preacher. Brother Justin Lott, from Georgia, drove up to be the boys lifeguard and he preached the 3rd night. I really enjoyed his message. Brother Tim Cox preached the last night he had a skit at the end of his message that was funny and made a point. It was good. The last night we were at camp the older kids were allowed to stay up late. We were all up till just after 2. Justin, and this guy named Angel that he had brought with him, left around 2 a.m. to drive 10hrs back to GA. They didn't even take a nap. They played Basketball and Torpedo ball all night. I hope they made it home all right. Tyler and Seth got into trouble with some nail polish. They did Tim's fingernails and Steele's toenails and started on Cody and he woke up so they tried to get Justin (from Marion) and he woke up. They had to clean the boys bathrooms by themselves the last day. Guess what! I was selected as 1 of the IYC representitives from VA/WV. I was completely shocked. I thought for sure it would be Eric Hogan this year. Tyler Sheets is the other Rep. and Chelsey Anders and Eric Hogan were selected as our alternates. Anyway I need to go now. I'll write more later.

I'm Back!!!

Hey everyone. I'm back! VBS went great. We had around 20 kids. Not counting workers. We had songs, stories, lessons, Bible verses, and skits. It was demanding but a lot of fun and definately worth it! There is a family that goes to Palatka church that have 5 kids. Their name is the Muse family. They live over an hour and a half away so they only came Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They stayed at the Cox's home with all of us. It was a lot of fun. There were 24 people staying in one house and 18 of them were kids! That was awesome! While they were there someone went a little crazy with markers.... Beau, Josh, and I were going to get Bethany, Mary-Frances, and Brittany Muse with markers but Josh knocked a cup of milk over and when he was cleaning it up Brittany woke up and got suspicious because Josh was right next to her head so she wouldn't go back to sleep and we gave that up for that night. The next morning we come to find out that Noah, Zach, Josh, and Nate had all been drawn on! Little Aaron, Caleb, Micah, Daniel, and Beau didn't get touched. They were naturally suspects but it wasn't any of them. Zach and Josh did it and did themselves as a blind! The next night the girls turn came and Beau, Josh, and i carried out our plan! It was great! People kept marking on other people the rest of the time we were there. Beau never got it cause all the kids knew he would get them back good! I never got it either untill one night when Beau wasn't there. Then all the kids except for Ruthie and Abby got it. They were using washable markers so it wasn't that big of a deal. All the parents thought it was funny. Nate kept getting Zach so the last day Zach got Nate good! He wrote PAYBACK! and MARKER BOY! on him. It was hilarious! Nate thought Daniel did it so he wrote Got YOU BACK! andMARKER MAN on him. Then just before we left we were playing Dutch Blitz and Zach called Nate Marker Boy. Nate's eyes flew wide open and he jumped to his feet then he realized we were still playing so he finished the game. It was a lot of fun. Sister Betsy kept saying this is just like family camp! We didn't get away till 7 something Thursday evening. The Cox kids kept trying to hide in our van. At one time we had 4 or 5 of them in there. Beau and Noah had the best hiding places and no one would have known they were there if one of the little ones hadn't given them away! Their crazy antics kept us all laughing so no one cried this time. Untill after we left. Now all of us are looking forward to the Assembly... Next weekend is our regional Convention. I wonder what it will be like this year. I guess we will find out. That's about it for now. Goodbye!

Picnics and Sunburns

Hello everybody out there in blogdom! The Church picnic was great! The VLB's played lots of different games including, football, kickball, softball, badminton, volleyball, and croquet. We are getting ready for camp! I got slightly sunburned at the picnic. It doesn't hurt though because I'm Cherokee and it eventually turns into a tan. (reddish though that tan may be) Beth had her eye appointment Wednesday morning. Then that evening it was VLB service. It was Arise Shine day so I did a short commemorative program and then we had some games. I had originally planned it as a game night and then I realized it was June 13th so I gave everything a Church of God slant. Our sword drill was made up of familiar church scriptures such as the Spirit and the Bride say come, and My Dove my undefiled is but one, and others like that. It was interesting. Afterwards we had a time of fellowship and then we attempted to practice because our VLB's are supposed to be singing at the convention. It's impossible to practice unless Dad's there to make people behave. So we only attempted to practice.... Sunday evening or Monday morning we will be heading south, though not for the winter.... We are going down to FL to do the VBS! YAY! YAY! YAY! We are really excited and so are the Cox's. How many people get to go and spend time with their best friends and call it ministry? We do and it's going to be great! I guess that's about it we are really busy getting ready with VBS stuff and getting ready to go. G'bye

Going, Going, Always Going

Do you guys ever feel like you're always going? Going here going there going somewhere? This week has been one of those weeks. Mom and Dad were in Richmond on Monday. Then Wednesday we had Dentists appointments. They want to pull my wisdom teeth out. then Thursday we had eye appointments and piano lessons. I remember when I first got glasses I used to forget about them and leave them all over the place. At camp, by the end of the week my councelor would ask me, "Did you remember your glasses?" I kept having to ask for permission to run back to the cabin and get my glasses. I'm so glad i got used to wearing them and don't forget them anymore! Piano lessons are now officialy over for the summer! YAY!!! Then Friday we went to Richmond again this time for my cousin Kennon's graduation. We were there all day and it was HOT! And Humid, and sticky, and miserable, and it's only spring! Today Dad, Zach, and Daniel went to Richmond to the convention center to work at the ALERT booktable at the homeschool bookfair. Then this evening Micah has a baseball game. His team is undefeated this year. Tomorrow after church is our church picnic. We have one every year. We go out to Bro. Earl and Sis. Dot's and have it out there. We have fun and it's a great chance for fellowship. Next week the older boys and dad are going to Jamestown area to work as crowd control. It's the big homeschool celebration at Jamestown next week and they asked the ALERT cadet fathers and older sons to come work crowd control. Then the week after that.... We are going to do the VBS in FL!!!!!!! That's about it. G-bye.

You make me sick!

Ok so it's not you that make me sick. In fact I'm not the one who is or was sick. Zach is the victim of the fiendish bug. Ok I'll start at the beginning. My mom and my sister and I went down to SC for my cousins graduation. We went down Friday morning and were planning on coming home Monday evening. Yeah Right! Beth got sick on Monday and we didn't come home untill Wednesday evening. Beth was feeling perfectly fine and normal Wednesday so we thought we were out of the woods and started home. Who would have thought that she was still contagious? Anyway we got home really late Wednesday night and went to bed. Everyone was fine Thursday and Friday untill... Friday night came. Micah, Zach, and Daniel share a room upstairs. We have 2 bunkbeds in their room, Daniel and Micah share one and Zach sleeps on the bottom bunk of the other. Micah sleeps on the top. Micah wakes up in the middle of the night and just starts throwing up over the side.... right on top of Daniel. Daniel gets mom and dad and Mom cleans the carpet and gets Micah cleaned up and Zach runs into the bathroom and starts throwing up. While he is still in there Micah runs in and says hurry up hurry up. Let's just say the rest of the night was pretty hectic. Bethany and I are completely oblivious to all this fuss untill the next morning. We had piano recital on Sunday and Saturday was the rehearsal. I had 3 songs and 2 of them were played with Zach so when he couldn't come Saturday I was suddenly left with one song. Anyway, Zach didn't look very good so I asked if he wanted a drink of water. He said yes so I hurried off to get him one. He said it tasted weird and asked for tea instead so I went to get tea. Upon opening the fridge I was amazed to discover we had 2 types of juice in there so I asked if he would like juice instead he said yes. So I went to get him juice and poured a little in a glass for him to try. He tasted it didn't like it so I went to get him apple juice instead. I put the other juice away and was just getting the apple juice out when the other juice got knocked out of the fridge hit the side of the cupboards and the lid was knocked off. Horrors, this red juice was pouring all across the kitche floor. I quickly picked the bottle up but not before it managed to spill under the fridge and stove. So I cleaned the mess up, Pulled the fridge out cleaned under there, pulled the stove out and cleaned under there. What a mess!!! Then I poured Zach some apple juice and took it to him. Now I know why Jesus said if you give someone a cup of water in my name you will not lose your reward....... because he knew that sometimes it can be incredibly difficult to give someone a cup of water! After beth and I came back from rehearsal I was talking to Zach and we called the Cox's to see how far they had gotten. Anyway Zach told Sister Betsy that Bethany makes him sick! HA! Here Zach is feeling terrible and he still can't help but make a joke. Thankfully he felt well enough by Sunday afternoon to go to the recital if he stayed away from people so he went and we were able to play our songs. Yay! Everyone is feeling better now including Micah. There are no stories about him on here because he slept the entire time he was sick. Anyway thats about it except it's only two weeks untill we go down to FL and do the VBS! Yay! We are all so excited! We are going to visit with the Cox's again and have a ministry at the same time! What could be better than that?

Busy, Busy, Incredibly Busy....

Much, much too busy to blog! Ha yet here I found myself once again quickly typing away. It's strawberry season! Yay! We picked 12 baskets of strawberries this morning and worked on standardized tests! Hah! I feel like I got something accomplished! Now I have to clean and cut and freeze strawberries. Lots of strawberries...... Mom and Dad are in Lynchburg right now. Sis. Betty Bowlin, our lady at church who is terminaly ill with cancer, fell and broke her hip at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. It's been hectic running back and forth to visit her and finish our testing. I've also been working on VBS stuff. We are going down to FL to do one at Palatka. It's going to be fun but right now I've got to get the work out of the way so that i will have time for fun! I've really been boosting Youth Camp to my young people this year and I think we might have a crowd from Farmville. YAY! This weekend Mom and Beth and I are going down to SC for my cousins graduation and to see the new baby and all of my mom's family. It's going to be nice. Anyway, I hear strawberries calling my name so I'd better run.

Hi Everyone

Ok so I did it again, maybe I'm not so hot at this blogging thing after all. :-) I'll do my best to bring ya'll up to speed but I really am incredibly busy. We had a good crowd on Resurrection Sunday. We must of had around 100. Lot's of kids. Huge Children's Church class. Dawn and John came over after Church and we played games and worked on an idea for VLB posters for the youth march at youth convention next weekend. We raised $200 dollars for the banner program from the eggs that we made. Lots of work trust me. Wednesday we had VLB service we started working on Posters. Then Friday Lynchburg Church had their lock-in. It was a blast! I'd never been to a lock-in before so it was a new experience for me. We enjoyed it immensely. Tonya and TJ came too. TJ seems to fit right in with the guys. Tonya is starting to get more comfortable with everyone. It's going to be tougher for her because she grew up in the COGOP and has lots of friends that are still in the COGOP and she doesn't really know anyone and she's trying to fit in. Sunday was Church again then I'll have VLB again on Wednesday. WHEW!!! Pray for me! We are going to work on Posters again tomorrow night. My cousins wife had her baby! It's a girl her name is Chloe Sienna Miller and she weighed 8lbs exactly. Pretty big for a first baby. That's about it so I'll say goodbye untill the next time I get a sudden urge to blog!

Sorry....

I'm sorry everyone for not being a better blogger. I ought to be kicked out of the club ( if I was ever in it in the first place..) All I can do is humbly express my sincere apologies and hope to do better next time before I make you totally forget there was anything to be forgiven with my wonderful news!!!!! I have been incredibly busy lately. My Mammaw is making Easter eggs to sell for church and I am being taught how. Then of course we have to sell them. We went to S.C. over the weekend two weeks ago for my cousins baby shower. Number 1 for my cousin David ,the former marine, and his wife Katie. They are so excited! While we were there we were able to visit the Midway Church. It was so nice to walk into that Church and feel the love you always feel wherever you go in the Church. The people there are very friendly. I'm so glad we have somewhere to go when we visit family! Ok now for the good news..... We had another awesome service. God is so good! In those two services we had 1 saved, 3 sanctified, and 1 filled with the Holy Ghost. We just had our District Convention Saturday which was very good. The Sandys came and really enjoyed it. Bro. Tony stayed up praying all night Saturday and, drumroll please, Sunday morning they, the whole family, joined the Church! We have our 10% increase! Not to mention, we also have a 50% increase in our VLB band! That's right Farmville now has 12 VLB's! Tonya and T.J. and Autumn and Jennifer. Two were gleaners that turned 12 this year but the other two are new! Yeah! Wow I caught you guys up fast.... I guess that's it. Goodbye!

"O what singing, O what shouting..."

The observation has been made that every time the Baldwins go to Florida we have an awesome service the Sunday after we get back. It's only happened twice but it seems to be true. Sunday morning we came back from the nursing home and as soon as you opened the door you could hear shouting and singing. It was great. Sunday School was evidently not even dismissed. We have a very annointed teacher in our adult sunday school class and we've really really been enjoying our lessons this quarter. Anyway she was teaching and then she started preaching and God started moving and there was a message and interpretation given and the Holy Spirit started convicting some of the folks that come all the time but aren't saved. One of our member's daughters who was raised in the church but hasn't been serving God for years was saved. She was so happy she was just laughing and crying and saying, "Bro. Frank I'm back!" It was great! I mean we really had a time. We even had a Victory March. It reminds me of that song heaven's jubilee. I remember some of our older members testified saying it's like old times! Now for a cute kid story as I promised.... The first night we were at the Cox's, Ruthie and Mary-Fran were fighting over who was going to sleep with me. Mary-Fran said, "I'm gonna sleep with you" so I said, "who's gonna sleep with Bethany?" She said, "Ruthie can." Ruthie interjects at this point, "No I'm gonna sleep with Charity!" Sister Betsy says, "Mary-Frances why don't you want to sleep with Bethany?" Mary-Fran replies, " I wanna sleep with Charity cause Charity suffereth long and is kind." That was their memory verse for that week and let me tell you I got the full effect of it! The guys are all like "Yes! we can do anything we want to to Charity and she won't do anything about it cause she suffers long and is kind!" I'm sure there are lots of other stories I just can't remember all the details. Oh yeah Caleb came to me when I was changing Abby's diaper and said, "Did you know, I didn't know this, but did you know that when Abby was born she was born with finger nails and toe nails?!" I thought that was hilarious he is right though it is wonderful that God creates babies with all their finger nails and toe nails! O that we could see through eyes of wonder like little children do. They can always see there is a Creator because their eyes behold the wonder of the creation! No wonder Jesus said of such are the kingdom of heaven! Well I'll write more later. Beth is wanting to use the phone.

Home Again

I am home in good ol' Virginy. Florida was great and we would have loved to stay longer. However, we have certain responsibilities at church this Sunday which we need to complete so we had to leave, amid much lamentation, and come home. March is World Mission Month and we have to get started on our missions drive. March also happens to be when our young people are responsible to hold Sunday services at the local Nursing Home. Anyway, we had a great time with the Cox's. We arrived just after 7:00 Thursday night and said our hello's and the next thing I knew I was hiding in a bush telling Francie to be quiet or the big boys would find us. War had broken out. I really don't think it was quite fair. Zach, Beau, Josh, and Daniel were on one team and Micah, Nate, Caleb, Noah, Bethany, Francie, and I were the other team. We had the bigger team but there were a couple of problems. Beth and Francie would scream at the top of their lungs whenever we saw the big boys which directed their attention to us, Caleb talked the entire time we were hiding, and when Noah got caught he would show them where we were hiding. Thus it was really Micah, Nathan, and I against the big boys. It was still pretty fun and the 3 of us made a deal that we would never give up. We ended in a truce. We went to St. Augustine the next day and had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit. We went to the Spanish Quarter, Fort Matanzez, and The Old Florida Museum. Saturday we rested up and Sunday there was a dinner and singing at the Palatka Church. After the dinner we went to the hospital and visited a couple of the members. That evening it was VLB service. We played a Bible Trivia game, we won by the way, and then Beau had a short devotional and alter call. I really enjoyed Beau's devotional he had a great visual aid. Zach, Beau, Josh, and I learned Amazing Grace on our respective instruments and played together. It was a lot of fun. I taught all the Cox kids, except for Abby, the Bright Arrow Song. Beau and Josh weren't too keen about it but they learned it anyway. The rest of our visit was filled with Basketball, War, Spotlight, Dutch Blitz, and lots of talking, laughing, and joking. We also made one more trip to St. Augustine and visited the Castillo De San Marcos. That was very interesting. We also visited a quiet and deserted strip of the beach and played Frisbee, built sand castles, and got our feet wet. Friday was a sad and dreary day. It was raining and that made everyone feel even more gloomy. The older kids had discussed the possibility of pulling out a spark plug or something similar to that but we decided we would get in big trouble so we were good and didn't do anything. That's about it except for details and other things that make up our inside jokes. We finally arrived home early this morning. In other news Hailey's test results have come back and she tested negative for Leukemia and everything else they tested her for. Praise the Lord! She is still having all the symptoms that I mentioned before and has now been running a Temp. for almost a month. Please keep her in your prayers. The doctors have no idea what this is and it is stressful for Vanessa and Jacob. Pray for them also that the Lord would give them perfect peace and comfort in this trial.

Getting Ready to Leave....

......Not this world though that's true too. We are getting ready to leave for the land of sunshine and warm weather- Florida. Yippee! We are all really excited including mom and dad. This isn't going to be very long I just wanted to let everyone know I am still on this planet. I don't think I'm really going to have a chance to blog while I'm gone so you guys will hear from me when I return home. I should have plenty of cute kid stories to share too. One thing If you guys would be in prayer for my little cousin Hailey I would appreciate it. Hailey has been running a slight temp. for a couple weeks and has been having more than the normal count of white blood cells. She is less than a year old and has never been in perfect health. She died before she was ever born and the whole family started praying and when my cousin Vanessa went to the Dr. for something else he asked her if she had a praying family she said yes and he told her "This baby was dead two days ago but it is alive now." Anyway, the Pediatrician told her he didn't know what was wrong with Hailey so he's sending her to a specialist. There is a possibility it could be Leukemia because she is showing all the symptems. So please pray for her and please pass this prayer request on.

Sing unto the Lord a new song...

Happy Valentines Day to all of my friends and anyone else who may be reading this. (with a blog you never know.) Well, Micah is up and about. Not a lot has been happening lately other than school and piano and church. Have any of ya'll seen Facing The Giants? It is a good movie. It's made by a baptist church down in GA. Dawn and John have it and they brought it over to our house a few days ago and we all watched it. After seeing it Dad went and got it for us. Saturday, Zach and I went and took CPR and First Aid. Mrs. Bloss was the main instructor. There was 2 classes going on one for community and another for poeple who were going to be life guards or on the squad. Mr. Bloss taught the community one so he was our classroom instructor. I've been told we passed. We just have to wait for our certification cards to arrive and it will be official. Sunday after Church we had a dinner and singing. We took up an offering for the dinner and proceeds went to the VLB's we're still deciding what to do with it. We had a grand total of $152.50. Pretty good if I do say so myself. Anyway we had to sing during the singing. We sang "Jesus the Way Maker," "I'm not Looking for a City Going up but the one That's Coming Down," and "If you Believe." The first 2 were fairly new ones but I think we did pretty good. I also worked with the Gleaners on a new song. They learned "Behold What Manner" they also sang "Bright Arrows" which they already knew. They did a good job I was proud of them. We started out with 12 and ended up with 4 but they sang so loud they sounded like the whole 12 were there! The Sandy's were there and all 4 of them sang. T.J. sang a song that I really liked. I think it was called "He'll Take you Through the Fire Again" but I'm not sure. I had heard it before. The chorus starts out "He never promised that the cross would not get heavy or the hill would not be hard to climb, He never offered out victories without fighting but he said help would always come in time. So remember when you're standing in the valley of decision and......(I can't remember this part)..... He'll take you through the fire again." Sister Gayle sang "I know that He'll Deliver Me." I really enjoyed those 2 songs in particular. They reminded me of the VLB theme this year. Tim was there and I told him if he was coming he had to sing, so he sang "Keep the Flame Burning in my Heart" and another song which I can't remember at the moment. After the singing ended we went home and Dawn and John came over to visit. The Sandys had to leave the singing early because Bro. Tony and TJ had to dig a grave and Tonya had to work, but Bro. Tony and TJ came by our house for a while after they dug the grave. We had a good time. That's about it except in less than 2 weeks we are taking a vacation. (Kind of) Our vacations are always visiting family or friends. After Christmas this year when we didn't get to see the Cox's Bro. Jerry and Sis. Betsy kept after Mom and Dad to come for a visit them so we are going to go see them. Yeah!!!! We were only going to go for a weekend but Sis. Betsy has talked Mom into staying for a week. We are driving down on the 22nd. Yeehaw!!! We are going to have a lot of fun! The kids are counting down the days. We are all really excited. There are a few folks in this world who you can just let your hair down with and the Cox's are some of those poeple. Fortunately they feel the same way about us. ;-) We are going to have so much fun. (I already said that didn't I?) Anyway that's about it. I'll talk to everyone later. G'bye

Can you believe it I'm actually posting!

Hello everyone. I'm back again to aimlessly bore you out of your minds with news such as, "No it's not broken only sprained" and other such trifles. I should probably back up to last Friday and catch everyone up on my nice, quiet, sane, (yeah right) peaceful, (if you don't count having trouble with the police every time I turn around) existence. Last Friday morning I was getting dressed and ready for the day when suddenly I couldn't see. (ok maybe I could see but everything was really blurry) I realized that one of my lenses must have popped out again so I calmly and rationally start looking for it. (maybe I should say feeling for it hmm...) I find it and somehow manage to grope my way down our very steep stairs and through the mine fields of the living room and dining room into the Kitchen where Mom is. I of course am unable to fix my glasses when I can't really see so I carefully hand my glasses over to Mom to work her magic on. Mom starts working with my glasses and suddenly a question is asked which fills me with utter terror, " Where is the screw?" "The screw?" I manage to squeak out. I had no idea where the screw was. I covered my path from my room all the way to the kitchen on my hands and knees desperately and blindly feeling about for the screw but to no avail. Needless to say my piano lesson was cancelled and Dad and I ran into Blackstone to see the eye doctor so he could fix my glasses. Those of you who wear glasses can empathize with me. The next day was our long awaited snow tubing trip. Our general plan was to leave by 4 a.m. Saturday morning. Tonya was going to come and meet us at our house by quarter to 4. However unexpected difficulties in the way of faulty alarm clocks, lack of fuel, and slow pesky deer prevented us from leaving until close to 5. When we finally hit the road we were exhausted and excited. When we got to Prospect we missed Amber's road and had to turn around and go back. Then we settled in for a long drive. We arrived a little late but we enjoyed our snow tubing experience immensely. Tonya and Amber got to know one another fairly well and had a grand time. There are many stories I could share but then I'd be here all day. However I think I will share one with everyone. The tubing lanes went down the hill in steps and then at the end of the lane it went up a hill to slow you down and stop you. After the lane ended there was a little slope down into a net like fence that kept you, if your tube went too far, from going over a big embankment into the road. Several of our group hit the fence and bounced off and it became a matter of pride if you could hit the fence. Well poor Tim tried all day to hit the fence and he just couldn't manage it. I mean he studied the slope of the hill and calculated the best way jump on his tube and how much of a running start he needed and he could never hit the fence. Well when we went up for our last ride this little fellow jumps on his tube and goes all the way to the fence and bounced back. So Tim thinks if he can do it so can I. So he jumps on his tube and goes down the hill and stops before he even gets halfway up the hill. You guys should have seen him he was clawing at the snow with his hands desperately trying to pull himself further up the lane. It was my turn next. I was going really fast and saw the end of the lane coming up fast and I had no desire to hit that flimsy little fence and maybe go sailing out into oblivion or worse yet land in the road and maybe get run over by a car so I drag my feet and throw myself half off the tube before finally coming to a stop on the top of the hill inches away from going down the little slope into the fence. Amber was next and she did exactly the same thing I did. Then Micah was up and he slammed into the fence and bounced off sure enough. Tim didn't think it was very fair that he had been trying to hit that fence all day and hadn't done it and that we had done our utmost to keep from hitting it. So snow tubing is over and it was fun but I have more adventures to relate to ya'll. After dropping Amber off we made it back home at about 9:15 and the Sandy's arrived to pick up Tonya at about 9:30. Tonya had just managed to put her stuff in the trunk and climb in the car and they were getting ready to pull away when to our surprise a police car pulled up with his lights flashing at 9:30 in the evening, to tell us that we were breaking the law by parking in the middle of the road! They hadn't been there for 2 minutes and all they did was put her stuff in the trunk and let her get in the car! On top of that there was no place within half a block for them to park! I would like to remind everyone that this was within a residential neighborhood in a small town of maybe 2,000 people and that this road is rarely used except by people who live on it! On top of that the cop was making a big disturbance and parked in the middle of the road himself. I'm telling you guys I really miss our old cops. I wish they would stop bringing in these big city cops into our little tiny town! Our neighbors couldn't believe that cop either in fact they made a complaint about him to the mayor, and the police chief, and the town council. I have a feeling that cop won't last long around here. Rumor has it that we aren't the only ones he's picked on lately! Ok I know everyone is dying to know what I meant by "it's not broken only sprained." Micah was playing two hand touch with Dad and the older boys and somehow ended up getting sideswiped by both Zach and Daniel and knocked onto the ground with his leb bent beneath him and Daniel on top of him. Mom and Dad took him yo the emergency room and everyone thought his leg was broken for sure. The doctor was surprised when he read the x-rays that Micah's leg was not roken only badly sprained with a contusion on his knee. He is not allowed to put any weight on it and is wearing a leg brace and using crutches. That was the big excitement this week. Other than that my weeks has been quiet and uninterupted by anything else except.... SNOW!!!!! We had snow.... kind of. We got less than a quarter of an inch and it was all gone by the next day but for that one day it was beautiful! I hope we get more but I seriously doubt it. Anyway that's about it. G'bye

Snowtubing Bound!

Hey everyone! In less than 48 hrs I will be happily whizzing down the the slopes on a tube. Yeehaw! I can't wait, neither can anyone else in our family! Maybe I should have said neither can anyone else I've talked to! We are leaving at 4 a.m. Saturday. Fun. I hope we survive the trip. On the way home people will probably be pretty cranky. But it will be worth it! The boys will be in a different vehicle so we won't have too many cranky folks in our van. (Teenagers don't get cranky when they get tired they get silly, and goofy and crazy.) We are going to have fun... just as soon as Tonya and Amber get used to each other. That shouldn't take too long hopefully. :-) After tubing the plan is to get lunch together. I don't know if we're going to find a restaurant that will have enough room for all of us. Sister Tonya said that 50 or 60 young people are going. You guys can all tell what is on my mind today. I'll write some more later after snow tubing.... :-)

Hello

Hey everyone. Ok so my life in the past week. (Some people are just glutton for punishment!) LOL. Anyway, I enjoyed my quiet Saturday last week and am enjoying another fairly quiet Saturday this week. Sunday we had a good service at church. That evening the Sandy's were back again. Tonya and T.J. came and spent the night with us. We had a good time. The public school kids didn't have school Monday or Tuesday. Monday was Lee/Jackson/MLKJ Day and Tuesday was some sort of teacher work day. When we got home from church Sunday night we decided to pull out the glow in the dark football and walk the not quite a block to the Libray field and play a game of football. It was just after midnight but no one had school the next day and we were very quiet. We didn't talk except in our huddles and then we whispered. Anyway our team, Zach, T.J., and I, just got the kickoff and Zach ran it back for a touchdown. The other team wasn't happy with that so we were going to kick it off again when suddenly our eyes were blinded by a bright light. A policeman was standing there holding a light almost directly into our eyes so we couldn't see anything. He then said, "I was just checking to see if you had an adult with you. Because if you hadn't you would have been in big trouble with me!" We used to have nice policemen in Crewe that were actually from our area and could connect with the people. Now they have started importing foreigners that don't know anyone. When we had first started playing I had seen a car drive up and sit in the parking lot for about 5 min. before they drove off. Dad said they must have been the ones who called because none of the neighbors complained. We went home and played quieter indoor games untill we finally headed off to bed. The next day we had a good time playing cards and hanging out. Later that afternoon we went to the baseball field and hit and fielded the ball for a while. I'm usually not too good when it comes to baseball but I actually did really good that day. When Bro. Tony and Sis. Gayle picked the kids up they stayed for dinner. Then we played games and laughed and laughed together. We always laugh when we get together. Anyway Tuesday we had to go to Richmond for an Ortho appointment. We did some shopping and errands that needed to be done. Then Wednesday we had VLB service. I used the title " It's time to clean house!" It went pretty well over all. Then Thursday I had to work at Mammom's. We got cell phone upgrades in the mail that day as well. The new cell phone is really cool. It has a camera and bluetooth technology. It's pretty neat. I do like our old ringtone better though. Friday we had piano lessons and I did fairly well. Today I am having a quiet restful day. Tomorrow I have to teach Children's Church and then the young people are going out for pizza. We are going to have fun. One last thing... Only one week till Snowtubing!!! Yeah!

Too Busy to Blog

Hey everybody! I know all of y'all are probably thinking ok what's her lame excuse for not blogging this time but, I actually do have a pretty good excuse for not blogging. I simply haven't really had time. Of course there is also the fact that Beth and Micah have discovered some kids site and are on as often as they can get permission. Then there is the fact that dad has been downloading something again and you really can't do anything when dad's downloading. It all adds up to a very poor excuse for just being too busy to blog. Someone not too long ago remarked to me, "Blogging is supposed to be about your daily life." Well my comeback is this, "I Charity Baldwin in my full senses and right state of mind, if any state of my mind could actually be right and some people could argue that I probably haven't be in my full senses for years, nonetheless, do hereby initiate a new state of blogging, WEEKLY BLOGGING, or more often if I have the time and actually want to use it blogging." How does that sound? O.K. so I might not post for 2 weeks or so every now and then but weekly is a whole lot easier than daily. You mean old person who insisted that blogging was supposed to be daily. You know who you are and you have no room to talk! Anyway with how busy I've been I don't really have much to say except that I've been bugging all of my VLB's about going tubing and guess what it's paid off! I sent in the form yesterday, and we had 10 names on the list. YEEHAW! Moreover they are excited about it! Of course you guys know that we make up 7 of the names but that is still 3 more than we usually get. Tonya and T.J. Sandy and Amber are coming! Yeah! Oh right, I also spent several hours being walked through uploading pics by a friend of mine and it was to no avail. At least now I know that it wasn't my fault. My computer is kinda messed up so I can't download pics until my friend figures out what could possibly be wrong with it. Thanks anyway, Josh. In other news I had piano lessons today and they went over pretty well. Oh yes, yesterday we had some Bible study during school and I am totally convinced as to the usefulness of my study Bible. It has a strongs numbers next to main words in each verse and in the back it has a strong's dictionary and a lexicon! Not to mention several other study helps! I love it! It has everything together and makes studying more convenient. Anyway studying the words in the original languages really makes the meanings clearer. For instance We were studying Matt. 5:1b-2 and I decided to look up what I thought was a fairly small word because it happened to be underlined in my Bible. The word was came. Pretty straightforward right? Wrong. In the Greek language the word meant and implied, "to come to worship in one mind and accord with the one you are coming to and the other worshippers." It implied several other things as well that simply amazed me but I can't remember everything now. I was certainly glad I didn't pass that word by because it was small. It opened up a whole new understanding to the meaning of the verse and made it a lot clearer. I would encourage every one to get a Strongs Concordance and a Hebrew Greek Lexicon if you don't already have one. They are very valuable to anyone who enjoys studying the Word. I guess I started teaching there. Well anyway I need to go. I was going to go with Daniel to hand out tracts. G'bye.

Happy New Year!

Ok so it's kinda late to be saying Happy New Year, I mean it's the 5th already, but I'll say it anyway! Happy New Year! Ok so this might be another late past-due post that I frantically write away at hoping somehow to redeem myself from my positively hopeless state of non-blogging. But if it's anything I hope it's interesting if not somehow somewhat entertaining. :-) Please forgive all use of improper punctuation and spelling. Grammar is definitely not my strong point! Though I have to say that I'm getting a kick out of this new spellcheck system the new blogger has. It's a lot more convenient than it used to be. Anyway to stop this aimless rambling and terrible waste of time, how did your New Year's go? Ours went well. We had a Watch Night Service at Church. It went really well. We had 3 sermons, a lot of singing, several testimonies, and even a couple of auxillary boosts! Grandpa called Sunday afternoon and told Mom and I both to get a boost together for WMB and VLB. Not fun. I must have looked pretty funny up there behind the pulpit, my hands gripping the edges of my new study Bible so hard my knuckles were turning white, stumbling over my words, while my knees knocked fiercely together. Yep a pretty entertaining sight! Though I have to admit that I must have done a pretty good job of hiding my nervousness as no one seemed to notice. Amy, I did get pictures of our service but as usual this terribly dense, when it comes to computers, girl once again could not get her pictures up. I followed the directions exactly crossed all my t's and dotted all my i's but still it doesn't want to cooperate! I think that computer geek that Becki Horne is always talking about is up to his old tricks again. Or it could be that I am even dumber than I myself comprehend. Somebody please help me! I really really want to post a picture but this computer won't let me! Someone should give me simple step-by-step directions that anyone can understand so I can at least figure out if it's me or my computer! Ok I'll calm down now. Anyway back to New Year's. After the service we had snacks and fellowship. The Sandy's were there. We had a great time. Tonya came home with us and spent the night. The next day New Year's we had a big supper. The rest of the Sandy's came and Pappaw came. Mammaw wasn't feeling to well so Pappaw carried a plate home to her. We had a great time with the Sandy's we hadn't had them over in a long time and we used to get together all the time so we really enjoyed our visit. (Wow, talk about a really long run on sentence. What can I say I have a gift for it!) Anyway they didn't leave till fairly late. Wednesday was VLB service but our pastor decided to send everyone up to Lynchburg instead. Brother Carter was there for a 2 night revival before Men's Retreat. I have to confess that since I was appointed as the local VLB leader I've only conducted one VLB service. That sounds terrible but it can't be helped. We didn't have service the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, then in December we had play practice one night and I was sick the next, then this Wednesday we went to the revival. Everyone was very happy to resign my teaching for Brother Carter's annointed preaching including myself! Brother Tony and T.J. drove up with Pappaw to the revival. They seemed to enjoy it. T.J. of course sat with us kids. He seemed to enjoy the service. Now I found that I'm repeating myself. Anyway I had a not too bad but I've done better day at piano lessons. This afternoon after I finished School and before I left for piano I mixed up a batch of cookies for Dad and Zach and Daniel to take with them to Men's Retreat. I should have had just over 4 dozen but when we packed them up to send I found there were only 31 cookies. I'll I have to think a while to figure out how that happened. hmmmm :-) I didn't have time to make more so the boys only had 31 cookies to take with them. Oh well, they'll have plenty without the cookies. Micah is excited because he is the "man of the house" and gets to take care of us girls. It's pretty funny. You think he would feel left out but he couldn't wait for them to get out of the house. Anyway this weekend it's just Mom, Beth, Micah and I. It seems really quiet without Zach continually blowing his trumpet or his harmonica. Or Dad and Daniel coming up behind some unsuspecting victim and tickling them and poking them. I kind of like the relative silence although the I would miss them if they were gone any longer. I remember what Daniel said before I left for Ladies Retreat when Mom and Dad were gone. He said, I'm going to miss you Charity." I asked him why and he replied,"because Bethany can't cook very good yet." Today he says, "I'm glad we get to get away from all these women." I think he would miss us if we weren't around. Anyway, I probably need to let everyone get back to there normal every day lives now. Oh yes, curiosity compels me to ask who all is coming on the youth snowtubing trip the 27th? We are all planning to go. I hope it works out. It's going to be a lot of fun!