Fall 08

Keith and I took a tour through the mountains of Tennessee and into North Carolina the other weekend. The colors were beautiful! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The Wedding!

Here is a link to Levi and Britt's wedding web site! You can look at all the photo's! Andy Lee, a dear friend of the family, did all this for them as a gift!!! Wow! Hope you enjoy...as you can see they are very happy~!! http://www.becomingmrandmrssmith.com/index.html
Levi came up with the name ;~)

This is the day the Lord has made...

"This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!" I have heard, read, sang, and prayed these words often in my 43 years. But today, Tuesday October 14, 2008, these words levitated off the page I was reading and really sank in to my mind and heart. I am reading "Everyday Deserves a Chance" by Max Lucado and he breaks this verse down by every word. "THIS is the day" today, not yesterday or tomorrow or next year or ten years down the road...TODAY...is the day...THE day. Today is not inconsequential, not just a stepping stone to another day. Today is the THE day. And the LORD made today to be THE day. My responsibility? To be GLAD and REJOICE in it! Not to wish away even one minute thinking of the past. Not to wish away even one minute contemplating my plight in the future.

"God still...occupies the universe's only throne. Each day emerges from God's drawing room. Including the hard one's."

I am to be GLAD and REJOICE in the gift of TODAY! Let me begin this new habit by listing what I am glad of:

1. Salvation and living relationship with God my Father!


2. Love of my husband and children (4 now!)


3. Home


4. Provisions


5. Ability to help others


6. Ability to boldly enter the throne of God with thanksgiving and praise

My only dream in life was to be a Mommy...as children grow we transition to Mothers...that's mature-Mommy's. And that role is quite different from Mommy. Both are equally rewarding. I have spent alot of time worrying (a.k.a. not trusting God with my future) about what the next 20 years will be like. He told me today to quit worrying about the next twenty years and start being glad for today and rejoice IN it! I can't be IN today if I am worrying, or pondering, or planning, or fretting over, or considering, my tomorrows.

This train of thought brings to mind Casting Crowns song "Slow Fade". I didn't realize that I was missing out on my today's because the change was gradual...a slow fade...to the point where reading this verse was a wake up call. I want to write this quote from the book...

A brand-spanking-new, unsoiled, untouched, uncharted, and unused day! A gifft
of twenty-four unlived, unexplored hours. And if you can stack one good day
on another and another, you will link together a good life. But here's what you
need to keep in mind.

You no longer have yesterday...The monthly calendar reads left to right, not
right to left. you no longer have yesterday.

You do not yet have tomorrow...You can't spend tomorrow's money, celebrate
tomorrow's achievements, or reslove tomorrow's riddles. You have only today.
THIS is the day the Lord has made.

Live in it. You must be present to win. Don't heavy today with yesterday's regrets or acidize it with tomorrow's troubles.

Guilt presses on one side. Dread drags the other. No wonder we weary so. We sabotage our day, wiring it for disaster, lugging along yesterday's troubles, downloading tomorrow's struggles. Remorse over the past, anxiety over the future. We aren't giving the day a chance.

Jesus' design for a good day makes such sense. His grace erases guilt. His oversight removes fear. His direction removes confusion.

Brittany's Bridal Shower

Today Levi's Aunt Carol, Aunt Bessie, and Aunt Debbie, along with cousin's Penny and Debbie, hosted the most wonderful bridal shower for Brittany! Brittany and Levi were so blessed with gifts for their new home and new life togeter! We met Britt's best friend from home, Summer and her mother Sherry, and friends from Friedman's also came! Jerry, Britt's Mom, was so thankful for the family Britt has here in Rome, and she shared the sweetest prayer of thanks before we ate. It was a very happy afternoon. I am so thankful for the family and friends God has blessed my family with! Thank you Deb, Bessie, Carol, Penny and Debbie!! You guys are the best!!

Day with Grandpa

I think the name of these beautiful flowers is Gabriel's Trumpet. Grandpa is so proud of how they have grown. His friend, Melvie Knot, shared them with him. They were just little sprigs this spring when he had Dad's "handy-man" plant them.

The picture of the deer was taken one Saturday as he and I drove through Berry. The doe and her fawn had no fear of the sightseers, they just walked up to the shade beside the road and laid down. They had been in a herd of about 30 or 40 deer!

Lacie's new place!!

Here we are! Summer is over already and Lacie has started at a new school in a new apt! Her dorm has 4 bedrooms and 4 baths so each girl has her own bathroom. We had so much fun choosing the decorations and moving the furniture around. All those hours of HGTV really paid off! We were moving the dresser drawers, raising the bed, moving the desk, arranging the two chairs (one comfy chair and one torture device that rocks). We laughed when she was ironing the curtains (on the bed) and everytime we increased the temp on the iron the lights would dim! She picked bright pink for her main color with splashes of other bright colors. I hope this is the year is her best year yet! I love you Baby Girl!

NO MORE TIFTON!!

I CAME HOME THIS AFTERNOON TO THE SIGHT OF LEVI'S TRUCK AND A U-HAUL TRAILER!! I LAUGHED AT HOW HE PACKED. HE HAD TO DRIVE THE 55 - 60 ALL THE WAY HOME...HIS TRUCK DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE DEAL WAS. HE SAID HE COULD LOOK IN HIS REAR-VIEW MIRRORS AND READ "U-HAUL" AS THE TRAILER SWAYED BACK AND FORTH. I WONDER HOW MANY DRIVERS ON I-75 ARE STILL SHAKING IN THEIR SHOES?

THANK GOD FOR BLESSINGS! HE HAS FINISHED HIS COURSES AT ABAC!! TWO MORE CLASSES THIS FALL @ THE LOCAL COLLEGE AND THEN HE WILL GRADUATE!!!

Woodchucks

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Profound question. A woodchuck would chuck all the wood that a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood! Profound answer. I loved this rhyme when I was younger. It is running through my mind today as I think back over the last six weeks at work. I feel like a woodchuck! And I am tired!!

It all started with our CEO wanting to initiate a Wellness program for our employees. Then we were asked to allign the program with the company benefits plan, and then we were challenged to perform health screens on over 1500 employees during the month of June!!! Can't be done? Surprisingly, yes it can!

Mind you that each person screened (all 1500+) generated at least 10 pieces of paper. All labs were recieved in duplicate, had to be reviewed for abnormals, matched and transcribed to the individual's questionaire, then scanned individually and profile results were printed. Then the results were sorted, matched back with the printed copy of lab results, placed in envelopes with corresponding form letters explaining the next step, double checked for accuracy, and then sealed and mailed. The duplicate lab results were then filed in the charts. We started June 3rd and the last results were mailed July 11. I really feel like I have "chucked all the wood that a woodchuck could chuck!"

But I do love my job and the people I work with. God has blessed me with this opportunity to learn how to apply the principles of wellness to help others improve their health and avoid chronic diseases. That is our goal, prevention and wellness. And it is all about choices. God gave us free will and choices to make. Most chronic diseases in America are the result of choices, type II diabetes, coronary vascular disease, even high blood pressure most often is the result of modifiable risk factors. Yes, genetics can give us the tendancy, but the choices we make everyday regarding food and activity, are our's to make.

Well, that is what my life has been revolving around lately. On the family front we have Levi and Britt busily nesting!! They have pruned the greenery in their yard, put down new flooring in the laundry room, painted their room and now also the living room. Levi has 5 more school days in Tifton!!! He will be on active duty for two weeks in August here in Rome, and then they will be focusing on the wedding plans.

Lacie is busy this summer with her two favorite activities...working with her Uncle Junior (construction) and babysitting our dear friends the Waldons. She is excited about her new major and nervous about starting at yet another new college. I think she has truly found a major she can stick with. She has started looking for mission trips that require building and is so excited she has to share all the details with me! What an awesome thought that maybe one of my children will be a missionary! There are so many schools, medical clinics and homes for needy families that need to be built!

Cody is on his second mission trip of the year. He has also helped feed the needy here in Rome. It breaks his heart when he tells me how many hundred of sandwiches are given away here in our own home town. Again, how awesome it would be to have a child become a missionary. He hasn't had much idle time this summer with mission trips, soccer camps, and his job at the local hardware store.

Keith and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary! Shania Twain says it best in her song, "You're Still the One". He really is and I am so thankful for the life we share. If you would, please join us in prayer for Andy and Jerrie Bulloch that God will meet their every need abundantly and bless them to overflowing. Thanks!!
Jenny