HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well a new year is here. I won't go into my Christmas and New Year except to say that I had a great time and got a few things I wanted. I hope you can say the same thing.

I just had to tell you that I'm learning my paintshop program now, so maybe I can actually put out some pictures that I've done. I'm not learning this on my own though, I have a great friend helping my out. As soon as I find out the site where I signed up, I'll post it here. This gentleman that is helping me has been great and I'm sure if you sign up for one you will get the help you need as well.

I'm going to go for now, I have my nephew over here for the day and between him and my two boys, I have my hands full.

I hope you have a great 2005 and my God bless you always.

It's a Shame

As a child, one of the biggest thrills was riding around with my parents and seeing all the Christmas lights that people had put up. Now my husband and I have to take our children to Huntsville Botanical Garden's Galaxy of Lights just to see some Christmas decorations. At that time if you found one out of ten houses that didn't have some kind of decorations up, it was amazing, not if you find one in ten that does, it's surprising. What has caused this attitude about putting up lights to celebrate the Christmas season? Has this country become so politically correct that it's not considered cool anymore to decorate for Christmas? Even the White House doesn't call it a Christmas Tree anymore, it's a Holiday Tree. The Macy's Parade won't allow anything that shows a religious holiday, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever. Don't you remember what it was like riding around looking at all the wonderful decorations that had been put up? Wasn't it so much fun? Do you remember what it was like showing your children the colorfull lights? Now I can't do this because of the attitude of most of the people now a days. Being willing to celebrate Christ's Birthday has become such a no-no. It should never have happened! I think it's a shame that this nation has forgotten just what we are supposed to be. We, as a nation, are so afraid of offending anyone that we've gone too far in the other direction. There's an old saying that if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. That is what's going on. The really bad thing is that I was looking forward to showing my children some of the wonder I had as a child. Now because of the way we've become, I can't and it's a huge shame!!!

I'll get off my soap box for now, but I sincerely hope you have a Merry Christmas and may God bless you and your family always!!!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I had to take a few minutes to say Happy Thanksgiving. I hope today is everything you could wish.

God's blessings with you always, and if you have to travel, be safe.

Things like this aggrevate me!!!

I don't know if this really happened or not, so because of that I'll keep the names out of this post.

Here is a copy of the email. I went through and took out all of the things that will tell you about who, where, and why. After you read this, I'll tell you why this makes me so mad.

My name is XXX. I wrote to XXX (on-line) concerning a program called "XXX XXXXXXXX." In last week's episode, one of the lawyer's mothers decided she is gay and wanted her son to go to court and help her get a marriage license so she could marry her 'partner.' I sent the following letter to XXX yesterday and really did not expect a reply, but I did get one.

My original message was:

XXX is obsessed (or should I say abscessed) with the subject of homosexuality. I will no longer watch any of your attempts to convince the world that homosexuality is OK. XXX XXXXXXXX can be a fairly good show, but last night's program was so typical of your agenda. You picked the 'dufus' of the office to be the one who was against the idea of his mother being gay and made him look like a whiner because he had convictions. This type of mentality calls people like me a "gay basher." Read the first chapter of Romans (that's in the Bible) and see what the apostle Paul had to say about it.... He, God and Jesus were all 'gaybashers'. What if she'd fallen in love with her cocker spaniel? Is that an alternative lifestyle? (By the way, the Bible speaks against that, too.)
--XXX

Here is XXX's reply from the XXX on-line webmaster:

How about getting your nose out of the Bible (which is ONLY a book of stories compiled by MANY different writers hundreds of years ago) and read the declaration of independence (what our nation is built on), where it says "All Men are Created equal," and try treating them that way for a change! Or better yet, try thinking for yourself and stop using an archaic book of stories as your lame crutch for your existence. You are in minority in this country and your boycott will not affect us or our freedom of statement..
This person's second response to XXX:

Thanks for your reply. From your harsh reply, evidently I hit a nerve. I will share it with all with whom I come in contact. Hopefully, the Arkansas Democrat Newspaper will include it in one of their columns and I will be praying for you.

Note: Wouldn't Satan just love it if people stopped using the Bible for a crutch? Please resend this to everyone in your mailbox.

Now to why this makes me so angry!!!

I get so mad over the fact that Christians aren't allowed to express our thoughts and feelings without people thinking that we hate the people we are talking about. You have to understand that it's not the people. A true christian is supposed to love everyone!!! It's the actions that we have such a hard time with. There are several referrences in the bible that show that it's wrong to have this kind of relationship with someone of the same gender, (both the old and new testament state this). I've had a lot of friends of this nature and I've never once made them feel that I hate them for the way they live, but I've always thought enough of them to let them know that I don't agree with it.

I applaud the fact that some people have such stronge convictions and are willing to fight for them, just don't get mad at me because I don't agree with them. Why is it that Christians aren't allowed to express our feelings about a subject without it being taken wrong? I understand that some take it to extremes, but so does the other side. As Christ loved everyone, as a Christian, we should as well. He never made anyone feel inferior for the way they lived their lives, but he never changed the way he thought about it either. He wasn't worried if it offended anyone, and yet as a nation that seems to be all we do care about. The people that think that being a gay or lesbian have strong convictions about this subject, yet they get very mad if someone disagrees with them and states that fact. I was raised under the impression that as an American, I have that right. I don't have to agree, but I also don't have to make someone feel inferior to me because we don't agree on a subject, and that's something I pray I never do!!! Just because I am a Christian doesn't mean that I have the right to judge someone, all I can do is let them know that I don't agree. I won't force them to agree with me. Yet some people feel that they have the right to make me agree with them. Why is that? Am I supposed to change the way I feel just because it may offend someone? I can't do that.

I realize that because of this post, I may get some hate email. I guess that goes with the teritory. It won't change my mind, and to the ones that sends them, I will pray for you. But that is the extent of what I will do. I won't hate you and nothing you can say will make me do that. That wouldn't be Christ like, and as a Christian, that is the main thing I have to do.

God bless.

Fake Emails

I actually got a fake email that was supposed to be (but not) from ebay. Since I keep my balance at 0 usually, I had no idea why I was getting it, so I asked customer service about it. I'm really glad I went about it that way. Come to find out that is was someone that wanted my password. The email said that they needed uptodate info on my cc or banking account and since my balance was over $1.00 and if I didn't give this info, my account would be suspended. I'm really glad now that I do things like I do. If I had been more trusting, this person could have wiped me out.

Please people before you give any personal information out because of an email, make sure you verify it's from the actual company and from a company that is legit! This can not be stressed enough. There are so many people out there that only want to rip you off. All they want is someone that is willing to freely give this kind of information out, then you are there's. Please be careful! I know the internet can be a wonderful place, but if you are not careful, you could be hurt as well.

God's blessings to everyone.

I want to apologize for not writing anything sooner. I've been trying to get some craft projects done so I can have some on sale for a craft show that is supposed to be in December. Plus a friend asked me to do a pillow for her daughter. So needless to say, it's been a pretty busy few weeks. One good thing though, I've got several things done for the show and plan to have some more before it's time.

Plus, great news! There is an online bookstore that has agreed to let me use some of the coloring pages that they send for samplers as the pages I send to the children. The name of the site is Dover Publications. If you get a chance, go by and see what all they have. I'm so glad they agreed to this. For starters, I can't draw a straight line and have it look good, another thing is I really don't like to use a printshop to make these pages. This way I get some wonderful drawings that I'm sure the children will love and I don't have to pretend that I know how to draw.

Another place you may want to go check out is City Links. Here is what they say about themselves, Citylinks, an online community portal providing solutions & resources to non profit organizations and individuals with needs, or who simply want to help. Our services include an online help database, informational resources, volunteer links & community service opportunities. They have so much information on their site, it will take a while to go through it all. But it's definitely worth checking out.

That's all for tonight, I hope you have a great week.

God's blessings to each one of you.

This place is so great!!!

I've been searching for someone to help me do some of these crafts to sell on my site, one of the people that called, we've become good friends since we've started to talk. Her name is Sherry Brooks. Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is because she made mention that Lowe's might be willing to give me some of the kids crafts for the children I send to. So I went up there today just to see. Guess what! This store manager was so nice about it. I told him what I did and why I was there, I, of course, told him that I wasn't non-profit but he gave me the projects anyway. I've got 9 projects to send to certain children. I haven't made up my mind as to which ones will get them because there are so many to choose from, but I thought it was so nice of Lowe's to give these to me, most especially since I'm not a non-profit organization. I completely understand why people are leary of giving to someone that isn't. It's to easy to say you do this or you do that just to see what you can get out of it, but this didn't seem to bother him. He accepted my at my word. So if you know a child that qualifies for one of these, Please let me know. I don't want to keep these here. I want to have these gone as soon as possible.

God's blessings to you all.