Picture Perfect

To some, this man is,

• a logger
• a man who will talk your ears off
• a friend you can ALWAYS count on
• their boss
• their brother
• a very Godly man
• a man who thinks of others always before himself
• Someones only friend "in the whole wide world."
• One of the most hard working men you will ever meet
• And, I think one of my favorites, said by dear friends, "Completely RIPPED!"
• And said by a sweet little lady, "Just such a nice big guy."

To me, yes, he is all these things, but he is so much more. He is my father. He has taught me so much. I personly think that the funniest thing he has taught me and my sisters to do is argue, and now he can never win. He also taught us how to drive backwards with our mirrors before we went forwards. He is so patient, so loving, caring. He has never yelled at me or any of my siblings out of anger or frustration. Sometimes I wish that he would of just spanked me because having Daddy kneal down and look at you with his huge green eyes made you feel so small. But, with that, he taught to look at people in the eye, get on their level and to use self control in all that we do.

Thank you Daddy for working so hard so that we can stay at home!

Love you!

Your little girl,

JoyJoy.

PS. Listen to #8 on my playlist to the right. The last verse, I think puts Daddy into words very well!

Chivalry

Nowadays you don't see much chivalry. But, I have been blessed to see it in friends and family quite a bit here lately.

We have heard that a girl's part of being chivalrous is accepting when a guy offers to do something. Well, for us independent girls at times it is hard to do that! Baby Girl especially. Well, the fella above, a friend of our cousin, did an act you rarely see, he gave Baby Girl his chair and would not take no for an answer. Baby Girl was not going to be left standing up!

This little cutie is my double first cousin. Two sisters married two brothers. Just the other Sunday he was at our house. When he walked by he noticed that I was leaning over my foot with a pair of tweezers. He asked what I was doing, I told him that I was trying to get a piece of glass out of my foot. He then took the tweezers away, put my DIRTY foot on his knee and ran his finger across my foot to find the glass. Then, he just pulled it right out! It made my week!!

You all know Buddy. He is growing up and maturing so much, so fast! And you all know that when we come home from the mission trip we are VERY TIRED! Well, the Friday we got home, Hope was looking for her dirty clothes. Buddy then walks into the kitchen, figures out our problem, and looks at Hope and says,

"Well, I hope that you like your clothes on heavy duty."

All on his own he got Hope's clothes, and started the washing machine!

I know that we all want to see more chivalry in our society, don't get me wrong, but girlies, half of chivalry is us; we have to accept it when a guy wants to help us! We have to say, "Thank you," when they want to give us their chair. Baby Girl could have stood up; I could have gotten the glass out of my foot and Hope could have washed her own clothes, but these three young men wanted to help us. And in helping us, it made them feel needed and us feel loved. Accept it when a guy wants to help you. When he does ask, it doesn't mean that he thinks that you are incapable of doing whatever it is, he just wants to be the man that God is molding him into and we need to accept it so that God can mold us into the women that he wants us to be.

God Bless,

Joy.

Hard Times and Patience

Psalm 70:20

You have given me many troubles and bad tmes, but you will give me new life again.

James 1:2-4

2My brothers and sister, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, 3because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience. 4Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you be perfect and complete and will have everything you need.

Louisiana Mission Trip, Part 2

This post is about Sunday and Monday. Sunday is always a really great day. Well, all of them are great days, but every Sunday is great because is the day that the Lord has set aside for rest! And boy do we take advantage of that! The Lord really blessed this trip, as he does all of them.

Sunday afternoon the church fed us an amazing lunch! Man, Louisiana folk know how to feed a crowd with their Cajun cooking!
We all have to wear our Carpenters For Christ shirts. They aren't the best looking things, but, we make a joke out of them.

A very sweet lady from their church offered to take out n the town. She took us to the Red River walk and the Board Walk (an outdoor mall that was like a little village). IT was GREAT!!!!!
And THEN...
We went to Bass Pro!!! It was so great! There was a Sonic inside the store AND it was HAPPY HOUR! All of their slushies are half off! It. was. so. great!!! Uncle JR. bought us all one.
THANKS Uncle JR.!!!

Monday morning all the guys and men the roof at 5:30 to beat the heat. They said that they were going to quite at about 10:30, but, needless to say, they finished at lunch! They did not want to stop until it was done!

These are the three stooge's and hair stylists.
Individually known as, Whit, Lil' Darlin' and Pooh Bear.

We all love putting up sheet rock! It so much fun and according to Chris, third from the left, claims that if there are three girls nailing up the sheet rock, six hammers fly by! We had a great time and love working with each other and for the Lord!

More to come...

God Bless,
Joy.

Louisiana Mission Trip 2009 part 1

This years trip was a milemarker for me. Thursday night we always have "awards ceremony." It is a time where we embarass everyone who is new and has done a little something embarassing. Well, after that we have communoin. Right before we had communion I stepped forward to give my life to the Lord and asked Him to save me from the firery depths of hell. I had been doubting my salvation since about May and, on Thursday, June 18th, I was able to nail it down! God has saved my soul and I am completely His!

He did so much for us on this trip, as he always does. He blessed us with strength and energy. It was an amazing trip and the church was so thankful for us to be there. I will tell you about the trip in a couple posts because there is no way that I could do it in one. So, I will start with Friday and Saturday.

Friday morning we left a local church here in our community at about seven.

Hit a local truck stop for biscuits and then hit the road.

As you can see these hard working young men are replacing a tire. Well, to summ it up, God really had his hand the van that all of us young people were on. We were probably about five hours away from our destination and come to find out, the tire on our rental van was warped!
So, thankfuly we had already planned on stopping at church we had worked on years back and while there, we discovered the spare was even in worse condition! So, a member of the church went and got another tire for us!
And, you know how Satan will throwe firey darts at you? Well, this next thing that happened to us was almost literaly a firey dart. As we were riding down the interstate, people were bushhogging on the side of the road. A piece of rubber got caught in one of the bushhoos and was blown out. It flew up and hit the end of the van. This peice of rubber put a dent in the van right above the back right tire.
God kept us so safe!

Then we settled in on Friday night and a yummy super was fed to us by the church memebers. Saturday moring we (us girls) started putting up insalation!!! YuKK!! But, we had something to do, so, that is always nice. While we did that,

the guys were on the roof! Glad that I wasn't up there. They worked so hard in the heat, but, thankfuly for a lot of the time it was overcast so that helped out a lot.

Saturday night a sweet little couple from their church invited us to their diner! It was so great!

Have you ever seen six girls sitting at one booth?

Think it won't work?

Well, we made it work! It was such a blast! The whole week was.

After a DELICIOUS supper of fried catfish, AMAZING hushpuppies, fries, slaw and cake, there was pickin' and grinnin'!

The evening was ended with Amazing Grace.

Philippians 4:6-7
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God bless!

Your new sister in Christ,

Joy.

If...

If this was your last night, where would you spend you eternity?

The last night we were in Louisiana this question struck me. The story behind is to come soon.

Thank you

• Going to church
• Blowing bubbles with a little one
• Going on a Mission for God in Louisisana
• Being with my family
• Having reunions
• Blogging whatever I want
• Shopping
• Fishing with my little brother's
• Spending a day in the kitchen
• A night on the town with my sister's
• Watching a movie with my family
• Driving my Daddy's Ford

This list could go on and on. What is the list for you ask? It is things that I know that I do and don't even think about them. Today I have thought a lot about them and why we CAN do them. We CAN do them because of what I and my brothers and sisters and mama witnessed this morning. The homecoming of a fallen soldier. This brave, 21 year old Sargeant left his home and family to go fight for you and me. Not knowing at all what the future held. Sure, none of us know what our future holds, but he was going to a land where he was hated and going to be shot at WITHOUT MERCY. A land where his brother's are dying for others who don't even care anymore. You and I are safe, here in our homeland, the motherland. He left his young wife and newborn son. A couple weeks ago I was at the docters office with my grandmother. As we left I saw an older gentlemen, nicley dressed witha cap on that said, "Veteran of Vietnom." AS we left, I hesitated and then thanked him for his service to our country. After I told him thank you, he thanked me for thanking him. Mama and Daddy have taught me and my siblings to thank these men and obviously, they don't get thanked enough. I not to brag or anything, I just want to give you something to think about. Thank a soldier when you see one. As I write this I wonder if Sgt. Jordan was ever thanked; I hope that he was. I haven't cried like I did this morning at the airport in a long time. I kept thinking of his familiy, his young wife and 1 year old son who's birthday is the day that his life was taken. June 4th. I also kept think of the "This is just a dream" by Carrie Underwood . How I wish that had been a dream, but it wasn't. It was real. IT IS REAL! Please keep his family in your prayers. Please for all of our troops.

Thank you for taking time to read, and, if you take the time to thank a soldier,

Thank you again.

Remembering Memorial Day

Memorial Day was designed for those that this soldier is saluting: the fallen. The ones that gave their lives so that me and you could be here today. I can't imagine being one who has lost a loved one. My Great Grandfather was in the Caost Gaurd for 21 years, active duty. AT one time he was away from his wife and two sons for 22 MONTHS. He sacrificed so much. In one incident, he put his own life in danger in order to try and save a fellow gaurdsmen. And he did. If it hadn't been for him that man would have died. My Grandpa IS a HERO.

But But, others did make it home. Like my Grandpa and this man and many more. But there are more who didn't make it home. I have written the song below for those who did make it home. If any service man happens to read this, thank you so much for your sacrifice. You re in my prayers everyday and I pray that God's hedge of protection will be with you.

God Bless,

Joy.

As I stepped on the train with my Bible in hand

The first thing I saw was a soldier man

Sittin' all alone

I took a seat as we started along,

and asked if he'd been gone long

And he looked at me and said,

Chorus

My Mama loved me to death

But to my Daddy my ears were deaf

Ever since I was eighteen I been gone

Joined the Army and never been back home

He looked at me with tears in his eyes

and said, "I told 'em I wasn't comin' back after I said my goodbyes

I wrote my Daddy and asked if he could forgive and forget

So I'm headin' home but I hadn't heard from 'em yet.

But I said if he had to tie a yellow flag

To my Mama's apple tree that always sags.

But I'm nervous as a shakin' leaf,

cause,

Chorus

Now we're nearin' home and

I'm afraid I still might be alone

This is my home town here all about

Around the bend is the apple tree and I can't bear to look out

Sir, would you look at the tree,

And see if my Daddy has forgave me

I leaned out the window and saw a sight

And I grinned like a kid flyin' a kite

And looked at the soldier man and said

"Everyone is welcoming you home lad,

And it's not just a rag

On your Mama's apple tree that sags,

That tree is completely yellow

Surrounded by folks by folks full of love for a fella

Cause...

Your Mama loves you to death

And your Daddy has forgave and forgot

You won't be gone and alone anymore

You can stop running in those boots

Everyone in town is ready for you to return to your roots!