def of trust: to have confidence in a person or thing

def of trust: to have confidence in a person or thing, especially in reference to a person and having confidence in their integrity, ability, or character.

That definition is put in my own words after skimming several different definitions and sites. The other day while driving down the road I was having a conversation with my son about earning my trust if he wanted to be able to do things and have more freedom.  Trust is a hard concept for kids.  It's a more abstract concept and they can't see the cause and effect of disobeying our rules and instructions for them. I was attempting to explain why when he disobeyed the rules one time (by not being where I had asked him to be) it would keep me from trusting him enough to allow him to go play at his friends house the next time.

I am not sure if my son understood me or not.  I guess we will see the next time I allow him to go play at a friends house.  As I was discussing it with him though I realized that my son had to have trust in me to allow me to decide what was best for him. I think I've done a pretty good job of proving myself trustworthy to my kids. Afterall I have raised them and taken care of them all their lives.  Then I realized that we are not much different than my son when it comes to our trust in God. We struggle with our trust or our faith in God even though he has been consistent in his promises to us. We can't always see why he chooses the path he has chosen for us or why he won't allow us the thing we think we want most, but we have to trust in him and know that he always has our best interest at heart.  But if we don't follow his instructions we could end up kidnapped by the enemy........do you see the analogy here?

So my thought for the day is to follow God's instructions and pathways in your life even when you can't see what he's doing.  We can have total confidence in our Savior that he is in control of everything even when we can't see it.

Great tutorials for Guitar!

Angel and I found this guy on youtube and he has some great tutorials for praise songs on guitar.  It's really helping Angel with some of the songs she needed to learn as worship leader for YCI.  I thought I would give him a quick plug.

Tutorials by Acousticselection

Busy busy busy

I am playing catch up one again. It's that time of the year. Things just keep getting more and more hectic and after a while I just can't keep up with it all.  So hear I am playing catch up once more.  Here's just some of the things that have been happening in our lives.

We are still waiting to hear of a final competition date for Angel on the Rip The Hallways competition.  They are a little unorganized and they ended up making a bunch of changes after the first taping.  I will update once I hear something.

Angel had her photoshoot so we will be updating her sites with the new pictures soon.  We are still working on her charity idea.  It just takes time to collect all the information and act on things.

Everyone is well at the moment.  The kids have had their flu shots.  No one in my house has had the swine flu at this point.  The kids are doing pretty good with school. Work is picking up with Christmas sales starting.

Life is good!!

My Angel put up another video last week.  I just love this song.  It's such a beautiful melody and I think she did a really good job with it.  What do you think?

Angel Marie Cur sings Almost Lover

Wordless Wednesdays

Life is going at the speed of light or should I say life

My husband and I took some time off work last week to spend around the house and with each other.  The time flew by.  The kids are keeping us busy.  There's some exciting things going on at our church.  Angel has the first round of that television show this weekend.  There's always ups, downs, laundry and dishes to do.  I feel like I barely have time to sleep most days.   So, here I am taking a minute to do something that I enjoy....just a minute or two! There, I stopped and watched the world go by.  Now here I go....back to working on a million things at once.  Have a great day!  Enjoy the chaos that is your life.  There will come a time where you might just miss it.

So your Middle schooler isn't doing their homework?

So your Middle schooler isn't doing their homework?  What do you do? 

Report card came home yesterday.  My middle youngin, my tomboy, who would rather be running outside then sitting inside doing homework any day, got an F and a D on her report card. Both of the teachers that assigned those grades said that she's just not doing the work.  Well my husband and I hadn't decided what we're going to do about the situation.  So we let it go last night and decided to take a couple days to think about our game plan. Then I get an email from one teacher and then this afternoon a call from another. She didn't turn in her homework again.  What am going to do with her?

So it goes without saying that she's grounded. No phone or computer privileges and she won't be going anywhere or doing anything fun with friends for the next 6 weeks until she brings up her grades.  But will that be enough to get her to shape up and do the work that is required of her?  I just don't know.

What would you do?

What is your testimony?

This month is Pastor or Clergy Appreciation Month. So we (the members of our church) are writing notes to our Pastor, Steven Furtick, and thanking him. We are prompted to give him our testimony and tell him how Elevation has changed out lives. I have struggled with this for some time. I have just felt like I didn't have a testimony. I cannot pinpoint one particular moment in my life that changed the course of things for me.

Then the other night it hit me....my whole life is a testimony. I am the testimony. God has always been part of my life and always guided me in the right direction. I am the testimony. What is your testimony?

Angel has a blog!

She is starting a blog about all her exciting accomplisments in music and everything that she is learning along the way. You should check it out.

The Angel of Melody

13th Acre Haunted Trail in Monroe NC

Angel did a commercial for a local haunted trail today. Here is one version of it that will be used on their website.

Check this out: The 13th Acre

Sometimes life can be frustrating. You think you have it all figured out and under control. Then there comes that curve ball! And wham...you miss it.

I had a job opportunity that would have been a great answer to prayer. I have spent the last week in negotiations for it and I was really excited about the prospect of the added income and what it would mean for my family. I thought long and hard about applying for the position and thought even harder about my requested salary. I have prayed all week for God's guidance in the situation while I addressed their questions and concerns. I should have been notified of the final decision today and I haven't heard anything and I just have this feeling that they have went with someone else. I am disappointed, but trying to remind myself that if it was God's will then I would have gotten the position.

It really stinks when the wind is taken right out of your sails, doesn't it?

Rip the Hallways

There's a new TV program coming soon in NC. It's called Rip the Hallways. It's similar to American Idol but for high school students. My daughter made the cut for the show. We need some people to register for us on the site and let us know so that we can get some free tickets from the producers. Let me know if you can help us out.

Register with Rip the Hallways

Homecoming Weekend!

What a weekend we had! Things have been very very hectic around here for the last several days. Thursday Angel had the first showing of her Talent Show for her school. Then Friday we had to go to the school for Homecoming. She made homecoming court and she was so beautiful! (pictures to follow) Then Saturday night she had the second showing of her Talent Show. She also found out Thursday that she made the first cut for the production of Miss Saigon at her school. Callbacks are 10/12 so hopefully she will make it through that round of cuts as well. To top the whole weekend off she also heard back on a television show that she had auditioned for. I will post more information as that gets closer.

The whole family got baptized!

A few weeks ago our church held a baptism service and my entire family including my 9 yr old son got baptized. It was an incredible experience and I am so grateful for our church for where we are right now. Thank you Elevation. Thank you Pastor Steven, and of course thank you God!


Here are a few great pictures that were caught during the event!

Biltmore House

The family and I went to the Biltmore Estate in Ashville this past weekend. We had an awesome trip. The trip was paid for through my job and it was great!







The family and I went to the Biltmore Estate in Ashville this past weekend. We had an awesome trip. The trip was paid for through my job and it was great!

I am having a hard time keeping up with this thing right now. There is just so much going on in my life, but I will keep trying to post at least a few times a week. There is so much that I want to say and too little time to get it all typed out! I have been keeping notes though so I can go back to some of the topics.

Thanks for continuing to read. I really appreciate all who do.

What an awesome weekend at Elevation. This was Student Takeover Weekend. The message that Pastor Steven taught was extremely powerful!

You should definitely check it out at http://www.elevationchurch.org/ and click on the current sermon.

This whole weekend was directed at students and teenagers and how they can control their lives and that they each have a calling from God. It was some powerful stuff and over 500 people gave their lives to Christ.

Monday things took a sour note. First I was exhausted. All the working and cleaning finally caught up to me. Then when I got home I got the call that my Dad was on the way to the hospital. We weren't sure what was wrong with him. He was having pain from his chest down so it could have been many many things.

Then my son had an episode...not really sure what else to call it. It was a sort of panic attack and we couldn't get him calmed down. After 30 minutes of hyperventilating we finally called 911 and an ambulance came and got him. They managed to get him calmed down in the ambulance but we went to the Hospital anyhow to make sure that he was alright. Things are better now but I think we may be doing a medicine change in the near future.

While we were at the hospital we got the word that my Dad had appendicitis. He went for an emergency appendectomy on Tuesday morning. He is recouping and the chaos has finally died down. I finally got some sleep and went back to work on Wednesday. Scary couple of days but all's good now!

Ok, so I really fell down on my job. I haven't posted in over a week. I got really busy last week and then have had a crazy emotional roller coaster the last few days. Let me explain.

I had to clean my house and my husband and I decided to do some painting as well. Since I had been laid up since earlier in the year with my back I hadn't been able to clean. So my get together with my old high school friends was a great reason to work and clean my house. I have only 2 rooms left now! So we spent the weekend of the 5th painting and cleaning and it took the rest of the week and this past Saturday (the 12th) to finish.

By the way, the reunion went great. It was great seeing old friends again and catching up with them. We pretty much fell right into conversation like we've never been apart. It was a little strange watching our children playing together. Who would have thought that would happen had we talked about it 15 years ago?

On Sunday night my entire family, my husband, me and all three of my kids, were all baptized at our church. I am so proud of my husband and my children. This is something that I've prayed about for a very long time. It was a great night and definitely a high in my weekend.

I will go ahead and post this and then I will tell you about my Monday and Tuesday. Things didn't go so well on those days!

A mini class reunion!

I found out recently that I have a friend coming to visit that I haven't seen in forever! It's literally been years....like probably at least 10. I am really excited and a few other old friends from school are going to get together with us all at the same time. I am really excited. This will be so much fun.

I got published again!

I really enjoy this writing thing. Its a great creative outlet for me. And I can see where it might even make me a little money on the side.

Today I have a few articles in the works waiting on approval, but a book review that I did last year was already accepted and published. Come check it out and show me some love!

Angel*and*Issabug's aka Sewrtess's Articles on Associated Content

our summer trip to Charleston and Patriot's Point

Some pictures from our summer trip to Nashville

at the Charlie Daniels museum



in downtown Nashville



My Country Angel

This email has been circulated before, now it coming up as a video on youtube. Either way I think it is a great example of a man's great Faith in God.




STAND UP!!!

There was a professor of philosophy who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester attempting to prove that God couldn’t exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. For twenty years, he had taught this class and no one had ever had the courage to go against him. Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him because of his reputation. At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!" In twenty years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, "Because anyone who believes in God is a fool. If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that He is God, and yet He can’t do it." And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students would do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students thought that God couldn’t exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up.

Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who happened to enroll. He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about his professor. He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid. But for three months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said, or what the class thought. Nothing they said could ever shatter his faith...he hoped.

Finally, the day came. The professor said, " If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!" The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom. The professor shouted, "You FOOL!!! If God existed, he would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!" He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away unbroken. The professor’s jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man, and then ran out of the lecture hall. The young man who had stood, proceeded to walk to the front of the room and shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God’s love for them and of His power through Jesus.

Tips for saving and making extra money

Who doesn't need extra money coming in these days? I am so excited, I've had my second article published on Associated Content. Check it out:

Tips for saving and making money in a bad economy

Tell me what you think and what I could improve.

Running a contest........I need you to help me increase my readers and my subscribers to my store newsletter. So I am going to develop a contest over the next week and see about giving away a great prize for anyone who comments and posts a link to my blog on their website, facebook, or blog.

Any ideas for a prize that you'd like to see?

Pastor Furtick is online!

I know you might be getting tired of hearing about my church and my Pastor, but I just can't help passing on the information and talking about them. There are such amazing things going on in this city and this church. All of Pastor Steven Furtick's sermons are online. Here is our most recent sermon that was our very first sermon in our new campus. Pastor is talking about having real faith and acting on it...not just saying that you believe in God, but proving it by your actions. It's definitely worth listening to.

Give Me Faith Sermon from 8/22/09

So we all made it through the first day of school.

My son made it through the first day of 4th grade and still says he likes school. My 7th grader was really nervous, but seems to be settling in. My oldest started high school and came home talking a mile a minute so I think we are good there too.

Now I have a million papers to sign and I need to get some sleep. 6 am comes really early.

This weekend was Amazing!!!

We had an extremely busy and productive weekend. I went to a First Aid/CPR class with my girls on Saturday. I did a bunch of cleaning on Sunday. Since I'm still recovering from back surgery I haven't done much cleaning for the last several months. So now I am gradually getting back into my routines and going through my house room by room and cleaning out the clutter.

We also went school shopping with the kids. Of course with school starting tomorrow they needed book bags, lunch bags, pencils, paper, notebooks etc. Then they also "need" a new pair of hip shoes, a cute jacket and that great pair of skinny jeans.

By far the most exciting part of my weekend was the first service at our new permanent campus with our church. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. We doubled our service capacity from about 450 seats to 900 with the new campus. But what happened Saturday no one could have anticipated. We filled all 900 seats of the service and the another 400 seats of overflow made with folding chairs through-out the church and then started turning cars away in the parking lot. We had to tell about 100 people that we had no seats for them. Is that not crazy?!!! I was quite humbled by the whole thing.

A great video about America today

Here is a great video that really describes the state of America right now. This was our opening video for Easter Sunday. It's a very powerful video.

Elevation Church Easter Sunday Opener

Goings on at Elevations

Tonight was a great night at Elevation Church. We had a volunteer meeting at our church. We toured the new building and watched a couple baptisms. We also heard Chris Brown's new song, Give Me Faith. I am so excited for where my church is headed and the momentum that they keep in doing so. It is absolutely amazing. Our campus Pastor, John Bishop said something that made a lot of since......Our preparations are prerequisites for God's presence. That is so true for everything in your life. We have to prepare our lives for his coming to get us. We have instructions for how to pray and have our prayers answered. There are directions on how to live your life and how to have a Godly marriage. All these things are examples of how our preparations are prerequisites for God's presence in our lives!

We had a lot of fun at the reunion. There was family there that I hadn't seen in 15-20 years. It was great to reconnect with them. We got lots of pictures. The kids got to go on a hike and see the Raven Cliff Furnace. My son, my husband, and my Dad even climbed up inside of it and got some pictures. My middle child played around in the river most of the day. My oldest played the Guitar and sang for everyone most of the day. There was lots of food and we took lots and lots of pictures.




The Raven Cliff Furnace in Wythe County VA.




As seen from inside the furnace up the chimney flue

Have great weekend!

Well, I will probably not post until again until Sunday. We are going to a family reunion in VA this weekend. Great times with family and hopefully pictures to share later. I've only worked a few hours today and then I've spent all day cleaning my house and packing. My hubby is on his way home and I've still got to get the van loaded. Have a great weekend!

Sarah Palin's notes on the so-called Death Panels

I've been watching this for awhile. Just read and make up your own mind. You may need a facebook account to read it.

Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve .........
more on Sarah Palin's notes on the Death Panels

How much is too much?

How much is too much for your kids? Do you buy that new bike they've been asking for on their birthday? Or that new video game they have mentioned? Or do you go for the more practical gifts like new clothes or a savings bond? Do you buy everything that your child asks for?

This is a daily battle for my husband and I. We have one teenager and one preteen and then one still in elementary school. The older ones are all-consumed by clothing and shoe brands, only wanting to wear certain things. It's so hard sometimes for us to find a balance between what they need and what we can afford AND what they want.

I compromise with my older girls. We shop Goodwill and yard sales. We also shop sale racks. Anything else they have to earn themselves. They have to save their birthday and Christmas money and earn the money if they want the high end shoes or jeans from the high end store. We just can't afford to buy the name brands. I think my kids are better off for it. They appreciate that their Father and I work hard for the things that they have and they tend to take care of things better because they have to earn some of it themselves.

So how do you find a balance and decide how much is too much?

Thankful for all the love and prayers during our time of need.

I wrote this while being laid up after my back surgery. So to all who helped out and prayed for me and my family, Thank you.

Thanks for all the prayers. I have to say this is one time when I am genuinely grateful for every single person who prayed that the surgery went well and for my recovery. I have never been so scared in my life before a surgery...and I've had a few.

I am slowly getting back to myself. I have actually found myself getting up and brushing my hair and putting on makeup, something that was excrutiatingly painful before because I couldn't stand up straight in the mornings until I had some pain meds in me. And on that note, I haven't had a pain pill since Saturday July 25th. I am so glad to be off the pain pills after more than 2 months on them.

I have felt like such a killjoy for quite a while now, but this year has been really hard and doesn't really show any signs of getting better any time soon. Everytime we get through one crisis another takes it's place. I am not going to even attempt to list off all the family members I have that are in need of prayer right now.

All I can say is that I have found I have a lot of people who care about me and who have been helping out. We have only had to fix dinner for ourselves one night since the surgery. You would have thought there had been a funeral with all the covered dishes that have been dropped off. Some days we've had lunch and dinner provided. I have had friends' of my kids bring flowers and cards to me (multiple kids, not just one kid or one bouquet of flowers). People are texting me and offering to run errands for me daily. I don't think that I've ever felt so loved in all my life. That is the upside to all of this.

And then I can say that I've seen a tender side to my husband that I've never seen before. He was really worried about me and so stressed the day of surgery that it brought on a full blown migraine headache with nausea and sensitivity to light, something he's never had to deal with before.

So I am thankful for the repreive. Thankful for a healing, and time to regroup and no matter what is coming I trust in God and know that he doesn't give us more than we can handle, though sometimes he tests those boundaries and gives us more than we think we can handle.

Love you all.

OK, I am feeling a bit old. We upgraded our cell phone plans today. It's become an almost necessity with teenagers in the house. My boss texts me. My daughter texts me. My sister texts me. Even some of the doctors offices text me. So we decided it was time to upgrade our phone plans to include text and picture messaging. It turns out to be a good deal. Doesn't really cost us anything extra then we were already paying. We just switched to a different plan. So here I am joining the technologically savvy. Scary, huh?

I know you hate change, but......

I have been working on my sites. I am trying to get back into posting on my blog every day. That is a good thing. But then I have also been painstakingly going through each and every listing in my Ebay store and comparing it with what I have in inventory. Inevitably there have been things I was tired of attempting to sell, things that have been moved or lost, and of course changes that need to be made to the listing like shipping prices. It's a very tedious boring process, but one that needs to be done. I am about done with the current listings. Now I just need to add new listings.

For all my readers and fans, I have added a promotion. If you will go to my ebay store and subscribe to my newsletters then I will give you 15% off your entire order. Just let me know that you subscribed before you pay and I will adjust your invoice.

Keep checking back over the next couple weeks as I add new things.

Thoughtfulness: an area I might need to improve on

Ok, so I like to read my Pastor's blog. This week's blog entries were about thoughtfulness. I am learning alot and would like to be more thoughtful. I see that those little thoughts that come to mind for things that we could do or say for others may be more than just random passing thoughts. They could be nudges from God to help someone through a tough spot or a simple word of encouragement to help someone get through a tough day. Don't pass up the chance to bless someone.

Check out Pastor Steven's Blog.

http://www.stevenfurtick.com/

Wow, has it really been that long!!???

Ok, so I didn't really realize that it had been that long since I posted anything on here. I feel like I am slowly coming out of a fog. So if you have been faithfully following my boutique posts, I apologize. A lot has changed since December. All Things Boutique has since folded. I stepped down from my position as leader of ALTB and this blog is now just my blog for my life and designs. I began having back pain the week between Christmas and New Years and I just had back surgery a couple weeks ago. I am finally off pain meds and feeling a whole lot better. I am planning on completely overhauling this blog along with my entire boutique store. I will be relisting some old favorites and hopefully as I get back into a routine some new original designs. We've had some challenges thrown our way recently and I am sure that I have lots to talk (ummm, TYPE) about. So I'll be back soon with more.