Goodbye 2008...

Well, this year is almost over. There are several directions a post starting out this way could go. We could talk about our historic presidential election. Or the economic crisis and financial bailouts. Global warming...true or farce? Summer Olympics in China. Propositon 8. The possibilities are endless. But I have chosen to end my blogging year the same way I started back in the spring...by "Loving His Appearing".

As 2008 winds down, I believe we are seeing biblical prophecy being fulfilled. Anytime Israel is in the news, Christians should be watching what is going on with a biblical slant. Unfortunately, the secular world will see this as just another "Mid-East flare up". I am interested in seeing how the "global community" (MAN, how I despise that term) is going to react. I am fearful that there will not be many who won't ultimately turn their backs on Israel. Hopefully the United States won't be among those who will blame Israel for all the carnage this time. So far, we are still allies of Israel. President-elect Obama has declared that Israel has every right to defend itself from terrorists. I heard a newsman say yesterday that "Hillary Clinton has always been a friend to Israel". I pray this will continue in the future. That is a great stance for our next Secretary of State. Ultimately, only time will tell...God has already written the script. We just have to watch it unfold.

Here is a video that shows Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking about the fighting in Gaza. I am listening to various main stream media sites to see which outlets are beginning to put the blame on Israel. (It amazes me how slanted and biased some networks can be and how some people will just take it as "gospel".)

Remember to "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you." Psalms 122:6




We know not the hour, but we are to watch for the signs...

God bless you all in 2009!

Too Little, Too Late...AKA...I know it was only KC, but DANG, we looked GOOD!

At least, I can go out on a win! Three in a row. WHOO HOOO!!!

It has been 3 years since I have been happy during football season (thank you very much, Kimo the Assassin...) Carson Palmer's first playoff game ended on his first pass. (But in all honesty, even before that game, we played like crap the game before it and lost the bye. Ahhhh, I remember it well...Mainly how poorly Chaddie (Ocho STINKO) Johnson played that day. Haven't had ANY use for him, his antics or his big mouth since!!!)



But I digress...

Well, it would have been nice to have back to back shutouts...(OH, IT WAS SOOOOO CLOSE! Took them SEVEN tries to punch it in!!!)

August seems like a long time ago when my hopes were high and I posted this: At least this prayer WAS answered:



Mike Brown did ONE intelligent thing this year...got rid of one of his "blind mice".



Chuck Bresnahan (at least) got the boot:



This guy has pumped NEW LIFE into our defense!!!!!! Thank you, Mike Zimmer!



Carson had to sit out this season for the most part...banged up...avoided surgery...



But THIS GUY



ALMOST made me forget about Carson... Ryan Fitzpatrick (HAAAARVARD MAN) certainly knows how to move around in the pocket!!! A lot of fun to watch...couldn't find out how many rushing yards he ended up with...but he slides head first, so quite a few breathless moments this year. LOL

Happy Birthday today to this guy, Cedric Benson...made Rudi Johnson's loss less painful this year! (same number...#32)



Now if we can just sign him for next year! (WAKE UP, MIKE BROWN!!!)

Now the big question is who stays and who goes. The saddest part of this season ending is that my beloved TJ Houshmandzadeh may not be coming back. Hard to fathom...Please indulge me just a little while I show my boy off:














So good luck to the Colts! If it can't be the Bengals, let's see the Colts go all the way again. Good luck to Pastor Pink...here's hoping SD beats Denver today to get in. [ETA...I didn't realize the winner of that game tonight plays the Colts! This could get interesting!] Heck, even good luck to the Squealers...hope Big Ben isn't hurt badly! Well, looks like Detroit is winless this year. Hopefully they will leave us a left tackle...

Cincinnati Bengals 2008...4 -11- 1

See ya next year!!!! WHO DEY!!!!!!

Your BEST Christmas ever?

OK, so the festivities are over...



Today is a rainy day. Perfect for visiting "blogland". (The 'best Christmas ever' was certainly not yesterday for me...Let's just say that when I get a chance to ask the Apostle Paul what his thorn in the flesh was, I won't be at all suprized if he answers, "Migraines"!)

Anyway, I was just sitting here thinking about the best Christmas I can remember as a child. (They were ALL good when Lauren was a child and I could enjoy them through her eyes.)

My best Christmas memory is as follows...I was in the 5th grade and all I wanted for Christmas was this:





I remember asking my Mom for it weeks in advance. She wouldn't say, "yea or nay" for awhile. Then one day, she told me something to the effect of, "Sue, farming didn't go very well this year and we just don't think we can afford to get you the chord organ for Christmas." I was disappointed, but surprizingly, for an only child, I think I took it WELL! Totally understood.

Fast forward to that Christmas Eve, which is when we celebrated Christmas. We lived with my grandparents and so my aunt and uncle and their 3 kids all celebrated Christmas with us on Christmas Eve. I remember, as a younger child, after dinner, the "women" would be cleaning up the dishes while the "men" took us kids out in the car to look for Santa Claus. Funny, how every year, he managed to sneak in without the "women" hearing him! When we got back (after spotting him way up in the skies some years, and some years, not) there would be a HUGE mound of presents under the tree. A kids' PARADISE!!!

Well, this one particular Christmas, a great time was enjoyed by all. I wasn't slighted at all, in the gift department! So what awaited me was a complete shock and wonderful surprise.

Yeah, you guessed it. After all the gifts were opened and we were pretty much winding down from the excitement, my Mom said, "Sue, go comb your hair. We are going to take pictures." (Unlike the digital age we live in now, pictures back then had to be staged...You couldn't just delete pictures like today...film and flashbulbs were too precious to waste. Anybody remember these?)









So, I dutifully went to my room to comb my hair and there, sitting on my bed, was the "Red Ryder" gift for me that year...my "Magnus Chord Organ"! That Christmas will always be remembered by me as "the best one ever"!

Thanks for strolling down memory lane with me. I wish I hadn't lost (STILL hoping they are just "misplaced" somewhere!!!) my childhood pictures in our last move. I would love to share the photo of that gift.

Here is an ironic part. At growth group last week, my friend Betty brought her portable keyboard to small group and this topic came up then. Then, later on in the week, I stopped in at Goodwill and there was a "Magnus Chord Organ" for sale in there. Looked like it was in good shape, but I was in such a hurry (ONE evening of Christmas shopping doesn't leave a whole lot of time) that I didn't try it out. Now I kinda wished I had...

Mary, Did You Know?

(Pause my playlist over on the right before playing the video.)

While it is still acceptable and legal to say it on the net, "Jesus IS the reason for the season".

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

CHANGE IN PLANS (AS IF I HAD ANY)...AKA...That is the title of Jim's newest post

(This is Sue. I am typing up an entry in my blog for Jim. I DO wish he would learn to type...LOL)


Got the word Friday morning. Yep, those dreaded words that most men hate to hear. You guys know the ones. Yep. "When are you going to put the tree up?" Scooby heard them too.



OK! OK! I'm going, I'm going. Off to the basement to dig out the tree. My gosh, where did all this junk come from and how did it get in front of the tree? We need a smaller tree. This box is bigger than I am.

Alright. First things first. This is going to require a lot of good bluegrass music. Today's selection, Del McCoury Band!





8:30 am Started putting the tree up. Going pretty good. I can still tell the color on the color coded parts.

9:30 am


Maybe I ought to put on some bluegrass gospel.

10:20 am


Got Del and the boys playing, "I Can Hear the Angels Sing". It's just me and it's kinda loud. Hey! The mailman is on the front porch patting his foot. He is staying there. I don't know if it's the music or the rain that's keeping him on the porch. He needs to move on. We are both real busy. I'm "MODOC'N" now. Scooby has had enough:



TIDBIT: Connersville has a singing mailman. His name is Stan Howard. He is a good Christian and a wonderful singer. A great voice. He is a city carrier and is even known to stop and sing to the people on his route. His son, Matt Howard, is a star player for the Butler Bulldogs basketball tean. I believe that Matt and Crayton Frost (Jack and Milah's son) played on the same team in high school.

11:30: I'm getting there! Hmmm. Is it just me, or does anyone else want to go fishing?



Sometime later. Voila! Topped out and the sun is still up.



TIDBIT: Did you ever wonder why an evergreen tree is placed on top of a completed steel structure? It was started by the Native American Indians. They used to do most of the steel erecting on high buildings. They had no natural fear of heights and therefore had incredible balance. They would place the evergreen tree on top of the completed structure to signify that no one was lost or hurt during the job.

One thing I have learned in all my years as a journeyman carpenter is that you don't "cross trades". Every one has a job. I'm a "putter-upper" and a "taker-downer". My work here is done.

Sue, take it from here...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

This is Sue, taking it from here.

Here is the top of our Christmas tree:


Here is one of my favorite ornaments:



Our tree has many, many more that are my favorites, but for some reason I only took this one picture. The ones Lauren made me in school with her picture on them, Jim and my first Christmas together, the Hallmark "daughter" one my Dad bought me the first Christmas I was separated from Gary, Lauren's first Christmas...Going through the ornament box is DEFINITELY a trip down memory lane!!!

Here is our finished tree:



Finally got some decorations put up today! Hopefully everything will be ready by Christmas Eve when Lauren gets here!

Hope all your Christmases are blessed!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas! (Pause playlist on right!)

But don't forget the reason for the season! (you may have to pause it again)

Oh, Joy and Rapture...AKA...I PASSED MY TEST!!!!!

Honestly, folks, I had NO IDEA which way this one was gonna go!

I had been checking my AAPC account every evening, knowing the results would be there before the mail notification. Everytime I clicked on it, I felt NAUSEATED. It always said, "Results - pending" and right next to that was a box that you could click on that said, "Schedule retake test". Believe me, the thought of THAT was more than I could even bear to think about!

Well, tonight when I clicked on it (praying before I opened it up, like always...holding my breath, like always), it said simply "Results - PASS". I started crying and screaming for Jim and I think we were both jumping up and down...can't remember too well...was crying and laughing at the same time!

We did remember to:



before celebrating further







Believe me, if we still drank, I would be breaking open the bubbly:



Instead, we will be celebrating with our usual nightly fare. Me enjoying this:



and Jim partaking of this:



(I know, I know...too wild for words, ain't we?)

For anyone who might be interested, this is what it entailed:

We even have our own code of ethics:

I want to thank ALL OF YOU for your prayers during this very stressful time in my life! I feel like I have my life back now. Audra told me I needed to buy a lottery ticket, what with passing my test and the Bengals WIN yesterday...





...she is pretty sure this is my LUCKY week! LOL

One last thing. Shannon, my friend at work who took her certification test about 3 years ago, told me that when she got her notification through the mail (it wasn't available online back then) that she didn't realize until after she had opened the envelope containing her certificate that it was addressed to her with the initals CPC afterwards. Tonight, after looking more closely at my online account, I noticed that it said, "Linda Sue Sebree, CPC". I FINALLY (after all these years) have some initials after my name! LOL

Just remember,



and then remember to

"Our Mutual Joy"...AKA Does anybody REALLY care what they are trying to do to the Word of God?

Here are some excerpts from the cover story of Newsweek magazine, December 15, 2008

{Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?

Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so...

...Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition (and, to talk turkey for a minute, a personal discomfort with gay sex that transcends theological argument). Common prayers and rituals reflect our common practice: the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer describes the participants in a marriage as "the man and the woman." But common practice changes—and for the better, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." The Bible endorses slavery, a practice that Americans now universally consider shameful and barbaric. It recommends the death penalty for adulterers (and in Leviticus, for men who have sex with men, for that matter). It provides conceptual shelter for anti-Semites. A mature view of scriptural authority requires us, as we have in the past, to move beyond literalism. The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it's impossible to apply its rules, at face value, to ours.}

Read the entire article here:

I don't know about you, but I choose not to take the Bible out of context and to take it literally...unlike President Bush who considers himself "probably not a literalist" when it comes to the Word of God...but that is another post...you can see it for yourself here.

I know I probably won't get any comments on this post with the possible exception of Milah, but that doesn't deter me from stating my opinion on what is becoming the new hot button PC topic. (Like the media is asking, "Is Gay becoming the new Black?" HUH???) Anyway, I realize discussions like this are not comfortable. Sometimes I feel like I am pretty much alone in my opinions and that God's people would rather just ignore what God's Word is being twisted into because it makes them uncomfortable. After all, God IS love , isn't He? God loves the sinner, doesn't He? Would God REALLY send someone to hell over what maybe IS just a gray area?

You can't have it both ways...either God's Word is true or it is false. In my opinion, remaining silent is just condoning the heresy. If I am wrong, then God and everybody else forgive me!

Trying to play "catch up"...

Now that my test is finally over (at least until I find out if I passed it or not) I realized that it is only a few short weeks until Christmas. Just thinking about everthing there is to do makes me very tired...

Here are some 'toons I found (while I should have been doing something constructive!)












Getting ready to watch, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on ABC in 8 minutes. I am suprised they are "allowed" to show this anymore!

My favorite part: (PAUSE PLAYLIST ON THE RIGHT FIRST)