Archive for October, 2009

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Happy Birthday, Jovan Marie!

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

Jovan is turning 23!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl and amazing mommy.  Happy Birthday to the one daughter God gave me who was not a moment of work for me: just a gift!  Happy Birthday to the wife of my son’s youth, the daughter-in-law, who like Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth in the Bible, is better to me than seven more sons could ever have been.  I am blessed among women.  I am blessed that you are mine by the choice my son made.

I am so pleased with you, Jovan, so proud of the young woman you are becoming.  I know God chose you from way back when for Rocky.  And though I did not give you birth, you are my beloved daughter.  I thank God for you and I am so glad He chose you for our family.  I love that you say you wanted to marry Rocky since you were 14.  I love that the long, winding road of life brought that to pass.  I love that the two have you have brought us Averi and soon her sibling.  You are a life-giver in our midst!

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In thinking about your birthday, I got to remembering that about 23 years ago I was asked to join this sweet group of people (the band, Parousia) as a vocalist.  They played at Catholic masses, community events and on college campuses around Nebraska.  The the first song I did with them was by Wayne Watson and it got a lot of play.  Rocky was just a little guy at the time.  He was climbing walls and sliding down banisters and making life exciting.  And I was asked to sing this song frequently and I think the reason it was very well received was because when I’d sing it, I would purpose singing it over my own children and it was a prayer of my heart.  So, in a way, before I ever knew you existed, I was singing this song over you, too:

Somewhere in the world today
A little girl is going out to play
She’s all dressed up in mama’s clothes
At least the way that I suppose it goes
Somewhere in the world tonight
Before she reaches to turn out the light
She’ll be praying from a tender heart
A simple prayer that’s a work of art

And I don’t even know her name
But I’m praying for her just the same
That the Lord will write His name upon her heart
Cause somewhere in the course of this life
A little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are

And often I’d change the words the last time through:

Cause somewhere in the course of his life
My little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are

And Jovanie?  I know for sure that God heard that prayer and began even then to prepare you for our family, to get you ready to be one of us.  You were born to be a Rhoades, sweet girl, my daughter and my friend.  And I love you so much.

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Jovan loves her sweets…and so does her daughter and her nieces and nephews (the five little monkeys)!

Twenty-three wishes for Jovan on her 23rd Birthday:

  1. Look at the sun shining today!  It is for your birthday. It is so you can have a happy, happy day!
  2. I wish for you to have a great pregnancy all the way until baby-number-two is born.  I hope these months will be full of fun and laughter and anticipation and your memories warm and happy of these days.  You are so cute pregnant, girl!
  3. Enjoy crazy-romantic-love with your man.  These are baby-days and busy-days, but keep the fires burning.  May Rocky love you like a real man should and may you receive it with unabashed joy!
  4. I wish for lots and lots of happy mommy-daughter times with Averi…Gilmore Girls reruns and Cinderella watching!
  5. Jovanie, I pray for you to know Jesus in a closer way than you ever have.
  6. Let this year be a year of discovery: finding out who God really created you to be and what He has really called you to.
  7. I am wishing for a gazillion kids, but no multiple births, as you wish.  But you guys make beautiful babies!
  8. May God enlrage your heart with an even greater capacity to love and be loved.
  9. I am praying for deep relationships for you.  I am praying the connections and relationships you have, both friendships and family, will develop and grow and be life-giving and true.  And I pray God sends you many new friends and puts people in your path both to bless and be blessed by.
  10. I wish sweet times of scrapbooking for you.  Those will be hard to come by right now, but I am going to wish for suprise pockets of time for it, anyway.  I know you love it.
  11. My wish for you is to find your own beat and to be unapologetic about marching to it.
  12. Jovan, I hope you will understand that you were called to us and will never be afraid to change us and impact us.  That is why you’re here!
  13. I am believeing God for financial blessing.  They always say you can’t get rich in ministry, but the Lord is your Provider and you guys are rich, but I pray for sufficient funds for planning for the future and raising your family.
  14. I want you to get the house you want, too!
  15. May your creativity continue to blossom and sprinkle color and light and life on everything you touch as you create home and memories for your little family.
  16. I wish for those traveling adventures that you and Rocky love so much to happen a lot over the next year.
  17. I also wish for special days, holidays, holy days and romantic nights to be festive and memorable.
  18. I pray you’ll find the ministry you were born to do and that the ministry things you and Rocky were created to do together will be fulfilling and sweet.
  19. Girl, let me hang with your babies so you can go out without a diaper bag sometimes!  Shop.  Or whatever you want.  I love Averi!  Can’t wait for the new little bundle!
  20. Happy Birthday, Jovanie.  May there be great and growing  joy-of-the-Lord in your heart.  It will be your strength!
  21. I am wishing for long nights of sleep, and happy days of rejuvenating living for you.
  22. I am praying for the enemy to have to flee as the perfect love of the Lord drives out all fear and trepidation in your life.  You are strong, Jovanie, in the Lord.   Don’t be afraid.
  23. And? May heaven hear and answer your prayers as you call out to the God who loves you greatly.  You have His ear, my sweet.  He is attentive to your heart’s cries.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Jovan.  You know I love you, right?…Mom (Jeanie)

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Chicken and dumplings at Jovan’s family party, her request.  Stef and Gemma, 2 pinkies in the pink and white decor; the pumpkin spice cake with 23 candles.

NOTE TO SELF:  Me.  Jovan.  Creating our legacy books with scissors-in-hand, tape and glue and piles and piles of photographs.

About the party from Facebook:

Tara Powers Status Update:  Truth or Dare for Jio’s bday tonight [using Rocky's I-Pod Touch]. Outcome=Rocky tasting soap, Dessa talking for 3 minutes straight, Steph trying to tell each person one good and one bad thing about themselves {editor’s note: she kinda chickened out – it was her great chance in life to really get us all and she couldn’t do it!}, Tristan speaking with an Italian accent, Jovan describing her first kiss with Rocky, Stormie wearing items from everyone, Mom acting out… Lion King, Me NOT sitting on Rocky’s lap, and Dave telling everyone who he would marry in the room..ME=)

Stephanie Rhoades Kelley: You forgot the best part – when Tristan HAD to kiss me – thank you Lord that I was sitting on his right and not someone else!  *smile…

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Posted in Birthdays/Anniversaries, God's Word, Stuff I actually think | 8 Comments »

Snow Daze

Friday, October 30th, 2009

youtube.com: “Snow” from the movie White Christmas;  daughter Stephanie quoted this song on Facebook the other day and reminded me how hilarious the words are. 

“I wanna wash my hands, my face and hair in snow.”

Thank-you, Jesus, the snow has finally subsided and the meltdown begins.  By 4 pm today huge sheets of thick, heavy, wet snow were sliding off the roof in loud splats, scaring my big-fat-chicken dog.  The sun re-emerged and made me very happy.

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I never heard the official numbers for my city, but my own {highly scientific, I am certain} measuring says we got 13 1/2″.  I know this partly because I left my 12″ ruler in place at 10 pm the first night where the measurement said 9.25″ and the next morning, it had disappeared.  I had to pull out a yard stick.  Dessa’s neighborhood got more than a foot and a half of snow.

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If some one really is excited, as the song says, “to see a great big man entirely made of snow,” now would be the time.

pictured: snow measurement first thing Thursday morning; a huge pot of chicken and dumplings which Jovan had fortuitously requested for her family birthday party meal, as well as a balloon snowman Tredessa fashioned and Averi enjoying a piece of the very moist and dense triple-layered pumpkin spice cake with that cream cheese icing you could just die for.  Hot comfort food on cold days: good!

Previous snow update

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Posted in Birthdays/Anniversaries, Garden/Food/Seasons, Grandkids, Keep Christmas, Mi familia, Photos of the Fam, Stuff I actually think | 2 Comments »

History Makers

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

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Family Soundtrack

For the past 15 years or so, Delirious, a British group, has been impacting the musical landscape with some of the most powerful songs (secular or Christian) anywhere.  I heard once that the original 3 of the 5 guys were married to 3 sisters and that the bass player is the sisters’ baby brother.  So they are family, then, which explains a lot! 

Our own family became huge-devoted fans while Tara was a senior in high school when some one gave us Delirious? Live and in the Can.  They changed everything about Christian music and influenced my kids, who were all teen-agers at the time and deciding for themselves how to follow Jesus, deeply.  This group has been the Rhoades family soundtrack for these last exciting 12 or so years as my children grew into passionate pursuers of the Presence.

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Their songs have become classics.

“I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” and “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble” are unquestionably songs that define our spiritual times.  Their call to social justice because of loving Christ, not to garner His love, has broadened the church’s reach, made Christians more aware of a need to get out into world and make a change.  There is “Majesty (Here I Stand),” and “My Soul Sings,” which have taken us to places of deeper worship.  When Martin quoted the words of the 1834 lyrics of “The Solid Rock” through a megaphone at their final appearance in Colorado a couple of weeks ago, I was struck by the power of the classic hymn as well as how musically sophisticated and cool Delirious has been.  It was almost a rap, but with that English accent.  They definitely experimented and we are the richer for it.

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Stormie took lots of pictures of the bass player.  She even has a shirt (her very own design) that says “I wanna be just like Jon Thatcher.”

Their song, “Obsession,” (“…and my heart burns for You…”) expressed the haunting question that kept one of my daughters returning to God when the enemy of her soul tried to dissuade her.   Another daughter encouraged me through some of the darkest times with the lyric from “Every Little Thing”:

When it’s all falling down on you
You’re crying out but you’re breaking in two
When it’s all crashing down on you
When there’s nothing you can do
There is someone who can carry you

Every little thing’s gonna be alright
Every little thing’s gonna be alright

And when some one broken has come to me for a word to soothe, I have often put my arms around them and sang those words softly in their ear, because I do know Who can carry them, “…every little thing’s gonna be alright…”  It is a promise we can take to the bank.

There is “Rain Down,” “What a Friend I’ve Found,” and the classic, “Oh, Lead Me.”  The Monkey-esque (in the best possible Davy Jones way) song from the Mission Bell album makes you want to run right out and “paint this town red with the blood of Jesus.”  And I don’t know if there is a song about the indisputable power of God that I love more than “My Glorious.”  He is all in all and “greater than the air I breathe, this world we’ll leave.  And He will save the day and all will say ‘my Glorious…’”

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The Delirious? Challenge:

But the song that seems to wrap up their message in a nutshell, the one they’ve been singing for ages and sang again just the other night, is “History Maker.”  And Martin Smith and the band challenged everyone there to understand that they can shake this nation and impact this world.  And my kids were there, hearing it and accepting it and I am so blessed to watch them becoming History Makers in their worlds.  We have always told our kids to live in a way that could bring them an epitaph like David’s: “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep…”  That is the whole goal, to fulfill God’s purpose in our times, for our times.  That is the message of “History Maker.”

Is it true today that when people pray
Cloudless skies will break, Kings and Queens will shake
Yes it’s true and I believe it,
I’m living for you

Is it true today, that when people pray
We’ll see dead men rise and the blind set free
Yes, it’s true and I believe it
I’m living for you

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I’m gonna be a History Maker in this land
I’m gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I’m gonna stand, I’m gonna run
Into your arms, into your arms again

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Well, it’s true today that when people stand
With the fire of God and the truth in hand
We’ll see miracles, we’ll see angels sing
We’ll see broken hearts making history
Yes it’s true and I believe it
I’m living for you

I’m gonna be a History Maker in this land
I’m gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I’m gonna stand, I’m gonna run
Into your arms…

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Thanks, Delirious?

I have loved Delirious? for years now and will be listening to and loving their music for a long time to come.  They are just so cool!  I am blessed because my kids use their stuff (some one once told me that nobody can cover a Delirious? song as well as my son Rocky, and oh, how I agree) and they will be releasing their final album on November 9 (“History Makers Greatest Hits“).  Thank-you, Delirious, for what you’ve given, what you have stirred up, the integrity in which you have walked and for unleashing History Makers around the world.  Your song will go on!

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From a thankful mama…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Buy Rocky the Greatest Hits 2-CD/DVD set as a late bithday gift.

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Posted in God's Word, Mi familia, My most unforgettable people, Stuff I actually think, Worship | 4 Comments »

Snow Day

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

This is Gavin in our yard a couple of days ago.

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BTW-Gavin’s grandpa bought him a leaf-blower, an apparatus I have always spurned in favor of an old-fashioned rake.  But maybe I’ll end up actually liking it.  I know Gavin does.

This is the same yard today.

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Pictured: left, from the front door (inside the house!); right, out the back sliding glass door (from inside the house!)

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Early afternoon update: looks like we have about 6″ and they are saying it will double before it is over.  Other areas of the city already have 12″ or more.

Schools are closed.  Wal-Mart is full of frantic people buying  milk and toilet paper.  I called Tredessa to make sure she had everything she needed to be snowed in for 2 days (which is what they are “promising,”) and her reply was, “Yes.  I just got some movies.”  I laughed because I was more worried about food and she just wanted to be sure she had enough entertainment to get her through.  FYI, The Westword published a list of the best snowy movies to watch on a snowy day, which you can view here.

 

My main complaint.

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Pictured: out the back door.

The weather guys are telling us to anticipate a crazy, snowy winter during this El Nino year.  Which is fine, but I am going to complain ahead of time that today is a beautiful, snowy-Christmasy-type-day and on Christmas, it will probably be 63-degrees and sunny, as it so often is in Denver in December.  I don’t have to like that.

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My secondary complaint.

I just got back from 8 rainy days in Missouri.  I needed my Colorado sunshine!

I should just shut up about it.

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Pictured: from the front porch (I actually stepped outside!)

I know.  I know.  Everyone else in the snowy-universe is thrilled.  Tredessa has her movies.  Everybody is making chili and Tara is baking her very first ever pumpkin pie from scratch (even baking her own pumpkins!).  So, the world is joyfully on hold, the kids are out of school, the snow continues and I will live.

1-3 Feet of Snow Possible according Denver’s Channel 7

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Posted in Garden/Food/Seasons, Grandkids, Home, Mi familia, Photos of the Fam, Stuff I actually think | 7 Comments »

Delicious Autumn

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
~George Eliot

I am visiting my parents in Springfield.

Two days ago I watched my backyard Aspens flutter dark green to yellow in one day.  I swear it.  The leaves were turning that fast, hourly lighter and brighter in color.  Today it is snowing in Denver, really snowing, they say.  By next week the naked branches, up to their knees in brown crunchiness, will glare at me as I attempt to rake up the once-glorious leafery.

But I?

I have chased autumn into a Missouri mood that lingers like musk on my skin.  I have escaped to turning-leaves on proud trees and the deep intensity of autumn colors that hold both the memory of exuberant youth with its’ fresh, green-spring growth, and the exploding red-to-the-core ripeness of the late summer tomato, now seasoned to a complex beauty, indisputably  richer and wiser for the aging.  The blazing urgency of the season, so much to experience before it all passes into winter, is salty on my tongue.  I inhale the cinnamon-scented air, and taste the pungent, spicy and intangible gift of the equinox while the crickets sing that haunting song I have always loved.

Burnt sienna and ochre rustle restlessly as autumn falls and the cool night air sprinkles wet diamonds onto my keyboard and into my mouth filling my lungs with cool, brisk air and enduring toasted warmth at once. Haley’s Comet spilled burning  meteor fragments in the wee hours,  punctuating the night sky with light, a spectacle for late-night lovers young and old. 

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What is it about fall?  Not just nostalgia, so much sweeter.  Faded, yet more glorious.  Softer, yet stronger.  The taste? Lingering, commemorative, a celebration of all that has ever been with a watchful eye for all to come.  Delicious.

 I always hate to see summer end, yet the autumn is my life’s palette, the colors of my heart.  Even the heading at the top of this page gives ode to the falling leaf…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Grab the season with gusto, hold it close until the last leaf flies away.

pictured: a google image of Missouri and what I am surrounded by

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Posted in Garden/Food/Seasons, Memories/Melancholy, Mi familia, Stuff I actually think | 4 Comments »

My mom waxes poetic

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

My mom and I were drinking coffee on the deck this morning and enjoying the rustling leaves in their fall coat-of-many-colors.  Autumn is romantic.  This is from my mama’s heart and mind:

“The butterflies are taking one last dance across the meadow.

Please hurry back, I’ll see you in the spring…”

-Norma Moslander

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Posted in Garden/Food/Seasons, Mi familia, My most unforgettable people, Stuff I actually think | 2 Comments »

Delirious

Friday, October 16th, 2009

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It’s FREE now!  See you there?

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Posted in Songs I am singing, Stuff I actually think, Worship | 2 Comments »

Bag Lady

Friday, October 16th, 2009

NOTE:  Yikes…I WROTE THIS POST ABOUT MID-NOVEMBER 2008 – DON’T KNOW WHY I FORGOT TO PUBLISH IT??  DRAFTS FOLDER IS ALWAYS FULL.  JUST ANOTHER SPOT TO HAVE TO ORGANIZE.  UGH.

Written~11.08

Nora Ephron in I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman:

“If you’re one of those women who think there’s something great about purses, don’t even bother reading this because there will be nothing here for you.  This is for women who hate their purses, who are bad at purses, who understand that their purses are reflections of negligent housekeeping, hopeless disorganization, a chronic inability to throw anything away and an ongoing failure to handle the obligations of a demanding and difficult accessory (the obligation, for example, that it should in some way match what you’re wearing).  This is for women whose purses are a morass of loose Tic Tacs, solitary Advils, lipsticks without tops, Chapsticks of unknown vintage…tampons that have come loose of their wrappings…leaky ballpoint pens, Kleenexes that have or have not been used but there’s no way to be sure one way or another, scratched eyeglasses, an old teabag, several crumpled personal checks that have come loose from the checkbook and are coverd with smudge marks, and an unprotected toothbrush that looks as if it has been used to polish siver.

This is for women who in mid-July realize they still haven’t bought a summer purse or who in midwinter are still carrying around a straw bag.

…This is for those of you who understand, in short, that your purse is, in some absolutely horrible way, you.”

I picked up a bag from Target the other day (on clearance) in the questionable shade of green I tend to keep revisiting. 

It is huge.  My entire laptop and accessories, 3 days worth of clothes and all the hair products I own fit in it.  It is THAT big!  I was a little embarrassed until I leafed through Stormie’s latest copy of  Vogue to discover that the current trend in bags is to have one big enough you can camp in it – if ever the weather goes bad and your clothes get wet and you are forced to cover your entire existance with it. 

When I was young, I enjoyed the whole bag thing.  It was fun to have many of them and change often.  But now?  Not so much.

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pictured: left, my current bag in that “questionable” shade of green; right, Amy Jo’s bag-not-a-purse.  Those are not flowers in the pink and green camo on her bag-can you tell what they are?  That’s right: skulls! 

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Pictured: Vogue images from the current issue, December 2008 

Tote, carryall, pouch, pocketbook (my grandma’s term), billfold, handbag, wallet, sack…

I try to update at least seasonally now, but have been known to allow one handbag to go a little longer if it is holding up well.  And I now know, because I have compared myself to others who are better,  I am bad at purses.  Maybe it is the word “purse”?  It just sounds so – pursed.  Because as a verb it can mean to pucker, to gather or to contract into wrinkles.  I don’t like that at all.  Amy Jo says hers may be called a bag or a handbag or a satchel or whatever, but never, ever a purse!

What should we actually be carrying in these things, anyway?  What if I just quit using one?  I can’t. I carry a large personal bag AND a computer bag and I Still have other things to carry.  I am, unwillingly perhaps, yet nonetheless – a bag lady.

The yellow-green color is my guarantee that no one will ever steal it…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Watch the red one on clearance at Target – to hold my entire wardrobe…

 

UPDATE 10.09: I have since used both large and more compact in shades of teal, black, red, mimosa and back to black.  Ever on the search, though, for the ONE that will keep me organized and perfect and reflect the whole of who I am…do you have any idea where I might find such a bag?

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Posted in Stuff I actually think, TV, Movies, Books, and Entertainment | 5 Comments »

fluuuuhuuuuuhuuuu…

Friday, October 16th, 2009

That is me moaning and groaning. 

So Dave did test positive for type-A influenza and since it isn’t flu season here, they just go ahead and treat it like it is the h1n1/swine flu thing or whatever.  When he was about 2 days in, I started getting symptoms, but trying to pretend they were all just in my head.

They weren’t.  I am sick.  Very painful, achy, chills, an elephant sitting on my chest, headachy, miserable, feverish, delirious.  Don’t get this!

The cutest little girl sat beside me in the doctor’s waiting room yesterday thoroughly fascinated by the yellow mask they made me wear.  Her grandmother nearly yanked her away from me by the hair to get her across the room when she noticed.

Unclean.  Unclean.  That is me.  Dave is doing better now.  I expect to resume my life by tomorrow sometime, or else.

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Posted in Health, Stuff I actually think | 3 Comments »

The Convivial Occasions of October

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Last year I said October is Orange.  And it still is.  My church turned orange last fall, too.  I do love my house-of-worship-advertising sweatshirt with the bum logo (thank-you, sweet Katie!).

This October is craaaaaazy-busy-fun and occasion-filled!

Like, we have three family birthdays in October (mine, Hunter’s and still-to-come: Jovan’s!).  I turned 50 (shhh…there is no need to think about this, nor mention it aloud) with dinner at Cinzzetti’s~

outside Cinzzetti’s

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Pictured: Me and my baby, Stormie;  Patrice is telling me right at this very second that she is pregnant with their 3rd child!  Me, Pearl and Marilyn.  I screamed immediately following…

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DP nearly ate Cinzzetti’s out of mussels; me and the 5 grandbebes who were well-contained in our private room.

I have sweet friends (almost every single one of whom is younger than me, I noticed), and a lovely family.  Thank-you, everybody for celebrating my life even if I could have gone without noticing the new decade.  I am blessed.

Hunter and the wheels-in-motion cake and fun-on-wheels party for himself and 25 of his closest friends:

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Hunter turned “The Garage” into a speedway.  There were trikes and bikes and skateboards and more.  Kids zoomed one way and then the next.  It was crazy loud and speedy.  Hunter got the chocolate fudge cake he wanted in the shape of a “5″ and when, the other day, he reminded he really, really, really wanted some lightening bolts, too, in honor of his current favorite movie, Bolt, I whipped up a strawberry cake at the last second to cut out and ice some lightening bolt shapes for flanking the main cake.

But, oh my goodness, it is what I did with the cut-off-cake crumbs that needs to be mentioned.  Into a bowl:  leftover chocolate-fudge cake, the rest of the fudge filling, a block of cream cheese, a can of cherry pie filling.  Mixed well.  Cookie-scooped onto baking sheets and thrown into the freezer until they were just firm enough to coat with melted white chocolate.  Chocolate-Cherry Cake Bites, o yeah!  To. die. for.  Yum.  Seriously!

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Poor Magoo ended up very, very sick at his own party.  He conked out, but the fun held up.

There was a Worship and the Word Movement PSTeam (prayer-support team) potluck at the MadCap Theater (a great  improv place-you should totally go!)

october-a-003 http://www.madcapimprov.com/

 

Last night there was a Seek and Soak with TOM EWING (a man DP called a general in worship ministry).  Here is the kick-off song featuring Tom, Sing to the King

In the video, left to right: Rocky Rhoades on guitar, Tom Ewing, Tristan on drums, Stormie on bass, DP on lead guitar (and leading the whole Seek and Soak), Lewis Brown (a.k.a. Proxy), and Lewis Brown, Sr. on sax.  It was an amazing night.  Musical worship, the Word of God, 3+ hours of encounter-worship, about 100 people entering the Presence, even Baptists! :)   Smile, Emily!  That was for you!

Let’s see…what else?

Jovan and Rocky will find out if it is a boy or a girl at their next appointment.   Goody!

There is the celebration of Amy Jo’s baby-to-be this Thursday night.

And Saturday night I get to go see the final Delirious concert in Colorado ever as they are on their farewell tour.  This band changed everything in the 90s and they are still such a class act, men of integrity who love Jesus and are soooo talented.  They changed the sound of worship and people around the world  go deeper worship via the songs of the Lord they introduced.  Got to see them at Ichthus and now here.  I love them and how they have influenced my own children to become History Makers.

Also ~ Dave will play the lead in the Platte Valley Player’s community theaters’ presentation of “Suspenders,” a musical comedy, as part of the grand opening celebration of Brighton’s newly restored/renovated armory as a community arts center/theater in Brighton’s “downtown.”  He’ll be performing in it over the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.  I’ll be attending the very first performance on Monday the 19th (an event for which I bought a dress!!).  I am somewhat divided in my joy about the fact that Dave is also painting the backdrop for the show and there are 6 giant 8′ x 4′ canvases in my living room at this time.

Family Time!

I will be going to spend a week with my mama et papa in Springfield, MO, where they wrongfully and stubbornly retired a year and a half ago and now wish to leave to be closer to any of us that they know (do you know of anyone house-hunting in Springfield??  Help!).  They will spoil me rotten and my brother Joe is meeting me there, too.  We will visit Branson, about a half hour from them, for the express purpose of giving my mother her dream-come-true in visiting the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Museum before it closes its’ doors for good this December.

harvest_fest_headerI am already working on church Christmas decor.  In October!

Upon my return, I will enjoy the grandbebes playing dress-up for the church’s annual Harvest Fest and then, as they have all requested (informing me that it is a tradition, one I must have started unknowingly), all will gather at our home for broccoli-cheese soup (because I make incredible zuppa).

Life.  It can wear you out!

Dave is sick and they are checking him for H1N1 tomorrow morning, though they have already started him on antibiotics.  What in the world??  Who has time for this?

Just trying to keep up…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Loosen up some time in November and December.  Right.

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Posted in Birthdays/Anniversaries, Garden/Food/Seasons, Grandkids, Memories/Melancholy, Mi familia, My most unforgettable people, Photos of the Fam, Stuff I actually think, TV, Movies, Books, and Entertainment, Worship | 4 Comments »

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