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Showing posts from June, 2011

Homeward Bound

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~Barbara Bush One more day to go and I will be flying to Chicago for a few weeks. It’s my Mom’s 96th birthday next week; she has no idea I’m coming! I look forward to spending lots of time with my family. I will be offline for a while and hope to get caught up with everybody when I return.

Remembering My Dad

This photo of my Dad and me was taken at a wedding when I was about five. I wonder why I look so scared. Maybe I was just pooped from dancing too many polkas with him. Maybe the photographer frightened me because I hadn't yet learned to be courageous and smile at him. One think I know for sure is that I've grown in understanding through the years. I use to think the legacy that my Dad left us was his kindness and enjoyment of everyday simple living. It goes deeper than that for sure. My Dad's legacy is that he was a father who loved God and reverenced Him. Dad was never ashamed of his faith or prayer life. A quiet man, he never retaliated when he was offended. He wasn't big on words, but he modeled how to live in peace. I'm remembering my Dad this Father's Day and thanking God for his example. My pastor shared some awesome statistics last week in Part One of his Father's Day Message. Ninety three percent of the family comes to Christ when father gets saved!

How to Know If You're From Chicago

You Might Be From Chicago If : The 'living room' is called the 'front room'. You don't pronounce the 's' at the end of Illinois and you become irate at people who do. You measure distance in minutes (especially 'from the city') and you swear everything is pretty much 1/2 hour away. You go to visit friends, or family, down south and laugh when they complain about the traffic. You understand that no person from Chicago can be a Cub fan AND a White Sox fan. It's 'Kitty corner' not 'Katty corner'. You know the difference between The Loop and Downtown Stores don't have sacks, they have bags. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: 'Where's my coat at?' or can I go with?' (My English teacher had fits with this one.) You drink 'pop', not soda. You call the interstates 'expressways'. You refer to Lake Michigan as 'The Lake ' You refer to Chicago as 'The City'. Yo

Trailers R Not Us!

It irks me when people refer to the homes that we sell as “trailers.” How insulting to refer to our beautiful upper-end manufactured homes as trailers. These homes are popular in the southwest. The brand I sell is loaded with insulation and amenities and when the contractors get finished with them, they look good. Here’s one of our customers who lives in Sedona. Currently, we are featuring the 2011 homes. Our interior decorator spent a day sprucing up our lot models last week and I followed her around with my camera. She comes up with some great ideas. Here is a cute kitchen in our smallest home. My favorite is this middle-size three bedroom home decorated in a Mexican theme. I love the openness of this floor plan. Oh, to sit at this table and serve up some burritos and refried beans! This four-bedroom home has warm accent walls. I fight the temptation to take a nap in this comfy bed mid-day! So remember, they are “manufactured homes” not mobiles and certainly not trailers!

Let Me Get That Door For You

"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open." Rev 3:8 When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully. Let Go. One of two things will happen, either He’ll catch you when you fall, or He’ll teach you how to fly! Only God can shift things around for us and cause things to work in our favor. My prayer partner sent this to me today and I had to share it. It is a confirmation also from a co-worker who quoted the same thing to me two weeks ago! God is telling me that He will get those doors for me and I don’t have push them to open or close. This post links to Spiritual Sundays. Click here.

The Fireproof Bible

What do you do when your world is so black that everything around you seems hopeless? I heard a good message on Alive in Christ Radio this week about this very thing. Deborah Lovett was featured and her topic was ”Breaking the Bondage of Despair. “ She told of the devastation of watching the home that she personally designed burn up in flames and with it everything she cherished. Imagine how it feels to lose family heirlooms, personal possessions and irreplaceable homemade items the children created through the years. Deborah shared her spiritual journey of how she overcame this time with God’s comfort and His Word. She told of returning to the smoldering hot ashes days after the fire and retrieving her Bible which miraculously remained intact! The crux of her message was that when we find ourselves in oppression, there is help for us. Her advice was right on: “your attitude means everything.” If we want to win a victory when everything around us is falling apart, we must choos

Rosy Wednesday

It’s not that everything is coming up roses, but I have seen the favor of God this past week. I use to believe in coincidence, until I met Jesus. Now for sure I know that every morning when I meet Him for coffee, prayer and the Word, my day will be sprinkled with reminders that He’s close, He’s helping me and He loves me! Here is a recap of the favor of God that I've been seeing this week: I’m part of a praying army for a friend’s co-workers. They gathered together at a memorial service last weekend and the message was so anointed that a dozen of them gave their lives to the Lord. The dentist made my husband a wonderful (expensive) partial but he hates to wear it. He misplaces it because he removes it so much. At work the other day, he lost it just before he was scheduled to give a presentation. He frantically drove all the way home to look for it. I stayed in the office and prayed and felt lead to trace his steps in the parking lot. I found it intact amidst all the tiny g