2.27.2007
Finally - Calendar Pages
I FINALLY got my calendars for this year all put together and ready to mail. Well, actually, I still have a couple of notes to stamp and write to send with about 5 more of them. The others are all sent already. Chris also finally remembered to bring the camera home so I could take pictures of them. They turn out better that way~my scanner doesn't pick up light colors so well. I apologize for the glare on some of the pictures. I didn't use flash, but the light was reflecting from the chandelier. :-( So - enjoy my calendars! By the way, I actually started them with February 2007 and they end in February 2008 (that's the advantage of doing them myself ~ I can start them whenever I want!) Also, it gives me 2 extra months for next year's calendar. I tell you... it takes some arm-twisting to get pictures from some of our family members! I try to take as many pictures of our family members as possible when we are with them, so if, for some reason, I don't get pics from them, I can use the ones I have!
2.25.2007
A TRUE FRIEND
~~~ A true friend is one who talks nice about you behind your back!~~~
I saw this quote on a stamp in the new Stampin' Up Spring Catalog, and I want it! I think it is such a great quote and so true! I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to 4 dear girlfriends on the phone on Saturday, all of whom live very far away from me. It was such an encouragement to be able to share triumphs and struggles, and to be challenged to keep allowing Christ to work in my life to help me to become more like Him. Thanks, Shirley, Rachel, Josie, and DD, for taking time to talk to me yesterday! I love you guys!
I also got to talk to my little brother for a while... that was nice, too!
I saw this quote on a stamp in the new Stampin' Up Spring Catalog, and I want it! I think it is such a great quote and so true! I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to 4 dear girlfriends on the phone on Saturday, all of whom live very far away from me. It was such an encouragement to be able to share triumphs and struggles, and to be challenged to keep allowing Christ to work in my life to help me to become more like Him. Thanks, Shirley, Rachel, Josie, and DD, for taking time to talk to me yesterday! I love you guys!
I also got to talk to my little brother for a while... that was nice, too!
2.23.2007
Four Things...
A dear friend of mine sent me this over e-mail, and it's also fun to post on blogs. I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to post this on your blog, feel free.
Four Things...
FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:
1. Registered Nurse 2. Cleaning 3. Waitress 4. Private Tutor
FOUR MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED OVER AND OVER: (only 4????)
1. Monsters Inc 2. Disney's The Kid 3. Remember the Titans 4.Cars
FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED: again, only 4?!?!?
1. Indiana 2. Maryland 3. South Carolina 4. Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Wyoming, Montana
FOUR TV SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH:
1. CSI 2. Numb3rs 3. NCIS (all of these with discretion, of course) 4. Wheel of Fortune
FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION:
1. Las Vegas (baby!) 2. Idaho 3. Tennessee 4. New England
FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Chicken Alfredo 2. Pizza 3. Chinese - esp Sweet-n-sour Chicken with Crab Rangoons 4. Chicken tenders (it's all about the white meat! ) :*)
FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. With my husband 2. With certain friends in Maryland 3. Beach 4. Hawaii
FOUR PEOPLE WHO WILL ANSWER BACK: Again, I don't want to tag anyone here, but you can do this if you want!
Have fun!
Four Things...
FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:
1. Registered Nurse 2. Cleaning 3. Waitress 4. Private Tutor
FOUR MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED OVER AND OVER: (only 4????)
1. Monsters Inc 2. Disney's The Kid 3. Remember the Titans 4.Cars
FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED: again, only 4?!?!?
1. Indiana 2. Maryland 3. South Carolina 4. Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Wyoming, Montana
FOUR TV SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH:
1. CSI 2. Numb3rs 3. NCIS (all of these with discretion, of course) 4. Wheel of Fortune
FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION:
1. Las Vegas (baby!) 2. Idaho 3. Tennessee 4. New England
FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Chicken Alfredo 2. Pizza 3. Chinese - esp Sweet-n-sour Chicken with Crab Rangoons 4. Chicken tenders (it's all about the white meat! ) :*)
FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. With my husband 2. With certain friends in Maryland 3. Beach 4. Hawaii
FOUR PEOPLE WHO WILL ANSWER BACK: Again, I don't want to tag anyone here, but you can do this if you want!
Have fun!
2.22.2007
A GREAT DAY!
Praise the Lord for a great day! Here's why:
- My husband took the day off after almost 3 months of working 6 days a week, 12 hour days (after I begged and pleaded and grovelled!) :*) Just kidding... well, sort of... I did ask him, though.
- Chris and I got to sleep in and didn't get up until 10:45am.
- Chris spent 10 minutes on the phone this morning, and sold a car on his day off.
- While Chris was dealing with his customer on the phone, our realtor called. He called her back, and she told us that we have a contract on our house in MD!! (HUGE ANSWER TO PRAYER!!!)
- Chris took me out to lunch at a place called "Cheddar's" which is like an Applebee's... casual dining. We had delicious food, and I have leftovers for dinner!
- I got my new stamp order in! YEAH!!
- We spent some time at the basketball tourney the Christian school associated with our church was hosting, and Chris caught up with a college classmate he hadn't seen in 10 years.
- We went to the dealership, and Chris' customer came and finished up paperwork on the car, so it is officially sold.
- While they were doing paperwork, our contract for the house came through on the fax. We finished that paperwork, and so now our house is pretty much SOLD! (Our closing date is March 30, 2007)
- I got to spend the day with my hubby!!
Praise the Lord for proof, again, that He is in control, that He is good ALL THE TIME, and that He loves us!
2.21.2007
Theodore Roosevelt's Stand on Immigration 1907
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
My thoughts exactly, Mr. President!
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
My thoughts exactly, Mr. President!
2.20.2007
Our Love Story: Long Distance Dating
The same day that Chris asked me to date him, my parents left on a missions trip to Africa. Because of that, Chris was not able to ask my parents if it was OK to date me. We headed home from camp, and later that week, Chris called my parents to ask for their permission to date me. This was yet another endearing thing that he did. My parents obviously said yes, for which we were very thankful. :*) Chris told me that had my parents said no, he would have hung up the phone and never talked to me again! I'm SOOOO glad they said YES!
This began our long-distance relationship. Don't listen to people that tell you that it can't work... we not only are a couple that survived and thrived over a long-distance relationship, but we are also a "camp couple" who made it!! It does take a lot of work for a long-distance relationship to stay together, though. Chris called me every Sunday and Wednesday night, and we would talk for an hour or more, depending on whether or not my parents would pick up another phone and tell us to get off the phone! Oh, the joys of living with parents! Actually, it had more to do with the fact that our house line was also the phone for the church and school, so if there was an emergency, people had to be able to get a hold of my dad. (This was before we had cell phones!) That did happen one time... Chris and I talked for 2 hours that night, and I guess someone was trying to call and couldn't get through. My dad was pretty upset about that. ANYWAY, we also e-mailed just about every day. I still have all of the e-mails that Chris sent me. Of course, there's always the "old faithful" snail mail. I sent him a lot more things via snail mail than he sent me! :-)
A little over a week after I got home, I went with my family to our AWANA/school camp at Camp Clearwaters. During that week, my dad started experiencing the symptoms of malaria, which he had contracted while on the missions trip to Africa. This was very scary for me, as I have never really seen my dad sick. He would get really feverish, then get so freezing cold he would shake with shivers. He also kept saying that he felt like he got hit with a Mack truck. This started on Wednesday of the week of camp.
Also, during that week, I was a "counselor" for one of the cabins. The last night of camp, we were playing flashlight tag. I hid in a ditch by a cornfield, and unbeknownst to me, was exposed to poison ivy. I had reactions to poison ivy twice before that, and each time the reaction got a little worse. (I still, to this day, do not know exactly what poison ivy looks like!) I was wearing windpants, and apparently the oil from the plant got on my pants, which I slept in that night. The oil worked its way through my pants, and the next morning I had 2 little spots below my right knee. By Monday morning, when I was able to get to the doctor (I didn't have insurance, so couldn't go to the ER), it had spread from hip to shin on both legs. I looked like I had been burned. The doctor actually reacted when she saw it, which is somewhat of an indication of how bad it was. I ended up having to take 2 rounds of steroids and an antibiotic before it actually healed. I didn't do much for about a week, other than lay on the couch with a towel underneath me and paper towels over my legs to soak up the oozing exudates. (That's a good "nursy" word for you!)
The Sunday afternoon following our return from camp, I was talking to Chris, whining about my poison ivy. I asked him, "Would you still like me if I cut my legs off?" He replied, "I'd still like you, but you'd look kinda funny!" At this point, I wanted to tell him so bad that I loved him. I had determined that I would not say it first, and we had talked about the fact that we would not say "I love you" until we knew for sure that we were going to get married.
That Monday night around midnight, my dad had a really bad episode of symptoms from the malaria. My mom was making him take a tepid bath, and he was yelling at her, "You old stone-heart!" among other things (this was the one thing that I remember... but he didn't swear!) Since my room was right across the hall from the bathroom, I was awake. I was kind of freaking out because, again, I had never seen my dad so sick. I ended up running downstairs to my dad's office and calling Chris. I was crying by this point, and asked him to pray with me for my dad. He did so, and I calmed down a little bit. We started talking about other things, and out of the blue, Chris said, "Heather, I love you." I was in shock, and asked, "What did you just say?" He repeated, "Heather, I love you." So I asked him, "What makes you say that?" He then went on to tell me that he was talking to the female athletic director at his school, and she was asking him about me. She asked him if I was the one he was going to marry, and after thinking about it for a minute, he said that he realized that I really was the one that he wanted to marry. After all of this explanation, I told him that I loved him, too. This was the day that I knew we were going to get married. I told my mom the next morning that Chris had told me that he loved me, and she said, "So that means you're going to marry him, right?" YEP!! :-) ***BTW, my dad ended up going to the ER and getting tested for malaria - which is very rare in the sticks of Minnesota- it took several weeks for the testing to come back, so they gave him medicine to treat the malaria before the actual diagnostics came back. He had a form of malaria that is not recurring, so we were very thankful for that!***
Chris came and met my family over Thanksgiving weekend, and I went out to New Hampshire for Christmas to meet his family. One of his brothers and his wife weren't there for Christmas that year, but I was able to meet the rest of the family. I flew home on December 31, 1999. With the big Y2K scare, the airports were like ghost towns! It was pretty funny to me that our huge jet had only 7 passengers in coach. The flight attendant was overly friendly because he had nothing else to do, and I just wanted to sleep! It was rather humorous. Joy Haglund picked me up at the airport, and we spent New Year's Eve doing a jigsaw puzzle at her house with her family! (How exciting!)
This began our long-distance relationship. Don't listen to people that tell you that it can't work... we not only are a couple that survived and thrived over a long-distance relationship, but we are also a "camp couple" who made it!! It does take a lot of work for a long-distance relationship to stay together, though. Chris called me every Sunday and Wednesday night, and we would talk for an hour or more, depending on whether or not my parents would pick up another phone and tell us to get off the phone! Oh, the joys of living with parents! Actually, it had more to do with the fact that our house line was also the phone for the church and school, so if there was an emergency, people had to be able to get a hold of my dad. (This was before we had cell phones!) That did happen one time... Chris and I talked for 2 hours that night, and I guess someone was trying to call and couldn't get through. My dad was pretty upset about that. ANYWAY, we also e-mailed just about every day. I still have all of the e-mails that Chris sent me. Of course, there's always the "old faithful" snail mail. I sent him a lot more things via snail mail than he sent me! :-)
A little over a week after I got home, I went with my family to our AWANA/school camp at Camp Clearwaters. During that week, my dad started experiencing the symptoms of malaria, which he had contracted while on the missions trip to Africa. This was very scary for me, as I have never really seen my dad sick. He would get really feverish, then get so freezing cold he would shake with shivers. He also kept saying that he felt like he got hit with a Mack truck. This started on Wednesday of the week of camp.
Also, during that week, I was a "counselor" for one of the cabins. The last night of camp, we were playing flashlight tag. I hid in a ditch by a cornfield, and unbeknownst to me, was exposed to poison ivy. I had reactions to poison ivy twice before that, and each time the reaction got a little worse. (I still, to this day, do not know exactly what poison ivy looks like!) I was wearing windpants, and apparently the oil from the plant got on my pants, which I slept in that night. The oil worked its way through my pants, and the next morning I had 2 little spots below my right knee. By Monday morning, when I was able to get to the doctor (I didn't have insurance, so couldn't go to the ER), it had spread from hip to shin on both legs. I looked like I had been burned. The doctor actually reacted when she saw it, which is somewhat of an indication of how bad it was. I ended up having to take 2 rounds of steroids and an antibiotic before it actually healed. I didn't do much for about a week, other than lay on the couch with a towel underneath me and paper towels over my legs to soak up the oozing exudates. (That's a good "nursy" word for you!)
The Sunday afternoon following our return from camp, I was talking to Chris, whining about my poison ivy. I asked him, "Would you still like me if I cut my legs off?" He replied, "I'd still like you, but you'd look kinda funny!" At this point, I wanted to tell him so bad that I loved him. I had determined that I would not say it first, and we had talked about the fact that we would not say "I love you" until we knew for sure that we were going to get married.
That Monday night around midnight, my dad had a really bad episode of symptoms from the malaria. My mom was making him take a tepid bath, and he was yelling at her, "You old stone-heart!" among other things (this was the one thing that I remember... but he didn't swear!) Since my room was right across the hall from the bathroom, I was awake. I was kind of freaking out because, again, I had never seen my dad so sick. I ended up running downstairs to my dad's office and calling Chris. I was crying by this point, and asked him to pray with me for my dad. He did so, and I calmed down a little bit. We started talking about other things, and out of the blue, Chris said, "Heather, I love you." I was in shock, and asked, "What did you just say?" He repeated, "Heather, I love you." So I asked him, "What makes you say that?" He then went on to tell me that he was talking to the female athletic director at his school, and she was asking him about me. She asked him if I was the one he was going to marry, and after thinking about it for a minute, he said that he realized that I really was the one that he wanted to marry. After all of this explanation, I told him that I loved him, too. This was the day that I knew we were going to get married. I told my mom the next morning that Chris had told me that he loved me, and she said, "So that means you're going to marry him, right?" YEP!! :-) ***BTW, my dad ended up going to the ER and getting tested for malaria - which is very rare in the sticks of Minnesota- it took several weeks for the testing to come back, so they gave him medicine to treat the malaria before the actual diagnostics came back. He had a form of malaria that is not recurring, so we were very thankful for that!***
Chris came and met my family over Thanksgiving weekend, and I went out to New Hampshire for Christmas to meet his family. One of his brothers and his wife weren't there for Christmas that year, but I was able to meet the rest of the family. I flew home on December 31, 1999. With the big Y2K scare, the airports were like ghost towns! It was pretty funny to me that our huge jet had only 7 passengers in coach. The flight attendant was overly friendly because he had nothing else to do, and I just wanted to sleep! It was rather humorous. Joy Haglund picked me up at the airport, and we spent New Year's Eve doing a jigsaw puzzle at her house with her family! (How exciting!)
The story of our engagement coming up next... :*)
2.19.2007
Our Love Story: "Just Friends" to Dating
So, with the "help" of our sweet matchmaker (I think we did pretty well on our own, but I'd hate not to give credit where credit is due...), Chris and I started to spend quite a bit of time together. I remember going to Walmart (with Julie as our chaperone) one weekend. Those of you who attended Christian colleges and camps understand the wonderful freedom that "going to Walmart" entails!! :-) Just Kidding... but it does seem to be the thing to do! Anyway, Chris and I ended up standing in the card aisle, just talking for what seemed like forever. Chris really opened up to me that day, telling me about his rough relationship with his dad growing up (now they get along GREAT) and the ex-girlfriend, Kristine. On the way back to camp, I remember thinking that there was no way that Chris would ever be attracted to me, because he was still in love with Kristine. Everything about her was totally opposite of what I am. I was a little disappointed by all of this, but tried not to let it get to me... after all, I wasn't there to find a man anyway!
2 weeks after meeting Chris, and spending quite a bit of time with him, my parents came up for a week of camp. My mom asked me if I had met anyone yet, and I told her, "Yes, and you'll never believe what his name is!" 2 years earlier, I had told my mom that I thought I was destined to marry a man named Chris. I had a lot of good guy friends named Chris, and had "dated" a Chris. Here we are, 2 years later, and the guy in whom I am quickly getting more and more interested is named Chris. My parents met Chris then, but we were just friends, so it really wasn't a big deal. I did, however, get everything right with my parents that week, which was a HUGE deal!
Oh, yes, there is a story that I have to insert here. You see, for those of you who don't know me, I am the QUEEN of procrastination (which is why I am writing this right now, instead of doing dishes!). For camp, we had an assignment that we were supposed to have done before arriving at camp. It was 4 projects, including memorizing verses, a study on Biblical principles in standards of conduct, and some other things to prepare us spiritually for camp. Well, I didn't have it done. Chris found out about that one day while we were in the computer lab checking e-mail. He told me that I needed to go back to my room right then and finish it, and he wasn't going to talk to me any more until it was done. (Not a huge surprise if you know him... he is very disciplined; I am not!) After he told me that, I went to my room and finished my projects(but not without telling him first that he was NOT my father, and he couldn't tell me what to do!) This, again, for those of you who really know me, was a big deal. I HATED being told what to do by anyone. Later, I was telling my brother, Nathan, about it. He said, "Well, Heather, he must be the one for you, because you never do anything anyone tells you to do!"
Chris and I continued spending time together. During Family Camp weeks, we had more free time, and as staff we were allowed more leeway as far as spending guy/girl time together. By this time, we had been designated "a couple," though we were "just friends" as far as we were concerned. During teen camp weeks, guy/girl ("dating") time is basically off-limits, due to the nature of the week. Also, during those weeks, it is imperative that staff focus on the teens, not other staff members. Because of the nature of our relationship, we were actually told to go to the "dating" meeting (though, again, we were not officially dating). We were asked not to spend any time together that week during camp. They say, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder!"
Though we were operational staff and could have gotten away with eating together and such (because we didn't eat at the same time as the campers anyway), we didn't do that. It was a long couple of days, but Chris actually went to the program director and got permission to call me on the phone after lunch each day. Neither one of us had responsibilities during that time, so Trevor said it was fine.
Also during this time, I was being challenged spiritually in a way that I had never been challenged before through the messages at camp. Chris also kept me accountable with my devotions and encouraged me spiritually. I had never had a relationship like this.
The weekend after the first week of teen camp (the last week of June), Chris and I (and a chaperone) went and spent some time at my sister's house. All of the sudden, I got the feeling that our relationship had changed, and that neither one of us thought of the other as "just friends" anymore.
We went through the first week of July, which was family camp and the special Freedom Celebration at camp. Chris was allowed by the pyrotechnics at the Freedom Celebration to actually light off the fireworks by hand!! (I was a little nervous about this, but Chris is a pyromaniac for real!) He actually had one of the fireworks blow up very close to him, but he just kept on going! (The pyrotechnic guy said that he has never seen anyone else be able to do that.)
On July 10th, Julie Jex, Danielle, Betina and I took Chris to the airport in Green Bay, then went down to Danielle's house in southern Wisconsin. July 10th is the day that Chris got saved in 1996. Anyway, we were dropping Chris off at the airport because he was flying out to California for the week for his younger brother's wedding. Chris and I went on a walk, when he stopped me and told me, "Heather, you are not just my friend anymore; you are much more than that. Would you be my girlfriend?" To which I replied, "Sure, I'd love to!"
Our dating relationship was now official. I was in a friend's wedding in Colorado that weekend as well, but I didn't leave until Wednesday of the following week. While Chris was in California, his aunt asked him (at the family dinner) if he was dating anyone yet. He had not had a chance to tell anyone about me at this point, so the whole family learned about it when he honestly answered, "Well, actually, yes, I am!" They were all shocked, and so he had to tell them all about me.
When we got back, our relationship grew closer and closer. We discovered (quite by my accident) that we had both been praying that the next person that we dated would be the one that we would marry. I told Chris that over breakfast one morning, then proceeded to choke on my milk when I realized that I had just told this man that I was going to marry him! YIKES! He was supposed to say it first! :^)
Camp ended in the early part of August, and we started our long-distance relationship. By this time, we basically knew that we were going to get married, but hadn't really said it yet. Chris left camp and drove to his teaching job in Mobile, AL. I went home to live with my parents for the time it took before we got married. I worked as my dad's secretary, and also helped in the A.C.E. school that my parents had started at the church.
2 weeks after meeting Chris, and spending quite a bit of time with him, my parents came up for a week of camp. My mom asked me if I had met anyone yet, and I told her, "Yes, and you'll never believe what his name is!" 2 years earlier, I had told my mom that I thought I was destined to marry a man named Chris. I had a lot of good guy friends named Chris, and had "dated" a Chris. Here we are, 2 years later, and the guy in whom I am quickly getting more and more interested is named Chris. My parents met Chris then, but we were just friends, so it really wasn't a big deal. I did, however, get everything right with my parents that week, which was a HUGE deal!
Oh, yes, there is a story that I have to insert here. You see, for those of you who don't know me, I am the QUEEN of procrastination (which is why I am writing this right now, instead of doing dishes!). For camp, we had an assignment that we were supposed to have done before arriving at camp. It was 4 projects, including memorizing verses, a study on Biblical principles in standards of conduct, and some other things to prepare us spiritually for camp. Well, I didn't have it done. Chris found out about that one day while we were in the computer lab checking e-mail. He told me that I needed to go back to my room right then and finish it, and he wasn't going to talk to me any more until it was done. (Not a huge surprise if you know him... he is very disciplined; I am not!) After he told me that, I went to my room and finished my projects(but not without telling him first that he was NOT my father, and he couldn't tell me what to do!) This, again, for those of you who really know me, was a big deal. I HATED being told what to do by anyone. Later, I was telling my brother, Nathan, about it. He said, "Well, Heather, he must be the one for you, because you never do anything anyone tells you to do!"
Chris and I continued spending time together. During Family Camp weeks, we had more free time, and as staff we were allowed more leeway as far as spending guy/girl time together. By this time, we had been designated "a couple," though we were "just friends" as far as we were concerned. During teen camp weeks, guy/girl ("dating") time is basically off-limits, due to the nature of the week. Also, during those weeks, it is imperative that staff focus on the teens, not other staff members. Because of the nature of our relationship, we were actually told to go to the "dating" meeting (though, again, we were not officially dating). We were asked not to spend any time together that week during camp. They say, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder!"
Though we were operational staff and could have gotten away with eating together and such (because we didn't eat at the same time as the campers anyway), we didn't do that. It was a long couple of days, but Chris actually went to the program director and got permission to call me on the phone after lunch each day. Neither one of us had responsibilities during that time, so Trevor said it was fine.
Also during this time, I was being challenged spiritually in a way that I had never been challenged before through the messages at camp. Chris also kept me accountable with my devotions and encouraged me spiritually. I had never had a relationship like this.
The weekend after the first week of teen camp (the last week of June), Chris and I (and a chaperone) went and spent some time at my sister's house. All of the sudden, I got the feeling that our relationship had changed, and that neither one of us thought of the other as "just friends" anymore.
We went through the first week of July, which was family camp and the special Freedom Celebration at camp. Chris was allowed by the pyrotechnics at the Freedom Celebration to actually light off the fireworks by hand!! (I was a little nervous about this, but Chris is a pyromaniac for real!) He actually had one of the fireworks blow up very close to him, but he just kept on going! (The pyrotechnic guy said that he has never seen anyone else be able to do that.)
On July 10th, Julie Jex, Danielle, Betina and I took Chris to the airport in Green Bay, then went down to Danielle's house in southern Wisconsin. July 10th is the day that Chris got saved in 1996. Anyway, we were dropping Chris off at the airport because he was flying out to California for the week for his younger brother's wedding. Chris and I went on a walk, when he stopped me and told me, "Heather, you are not just my friend anymore; you are much more than that. Would you be my girlfriend?" To which I replied, "Sure, I'd love to!"
Our dating relationship was now official. I was in a friend's wedding in Colorado that weekend as well, but I didn't leave until Wednesday of the following week. While Chris was in California, his aunt asked him (at the family dinner) if he was dating anyone yet. He had not had a chance to tell anyone about me at this point, so the whole family learned about it when he honestly answered, "Well, actually, yes, I am!" They were all shocked, and so he had to tell them all about me.
When we got back, our relationship grew closer and closer. We discovered (quite by my accident) that we had both been praying that the next person that we dated would be the one that we would marry. I told Chris that over breakfast one morning, then proceeded to choke on my milk when I realized that I had just told this man that I was going to marry him! YIKES! He was supposed to say it first! :^)
Camp ended in the early part of August, and we started our long-distance relationship. By this time, we basically knew that we were going to get married, but hadn't really said it yet. Chris left camp and drove to his teaching job in Mobile, AL. I went home to live with my parents for the time it took before we got married. I worked as my dad's secretary, and also helped in the A.C.E. school that my parents had started at the church.
More to come later...
P.S. I apologize if this seems kind of scattered... I'm just writing things as they come to mind, so please forgive me for the hit and miss format! :-}
2.15.2007
Happy Valentine's Day!
Did you know that Valentine's Day is not just another holiday schemed up by chocolate makers and card creating businesses? Valentine's Day actually started on February 14, 269AD. Pastor Valentine was martyred on this day. While he was imprisoned, awaiting his death, he sent notes of encouragement to the Christians in his church. Valentine's Day is actually a CHRISTIAN holiday and was used as a day to send notes of encouragement to other Christians to remain faithful to our GREAT GOD!
So, for those of you who do not do much in the way of "celebrating" Valentine's Day, it might be a good way to start sending notes of encouragement and love to others around you. Now, of course, as all holidays, it has been way commercialized. However, it's not ever a bad thing to let those you love know that you love them.
Happy Valentine's Day!!!
So, for those of you who do not do much in the way of "celebrating" Valentine's Day, it might be a good way to start sending notes of encouragement and love to others around you. Now, of course, as all holidays, it has been way commercialized. However, it's not ever a bad thing to let those you love know that you love them.
Happy Valentine's Day!!!
2.14.2007
Our Love Story: The Meeting & The Matchmaker
After I graduated from MBBC, I stayed in Watertown until Memorial Day weekend, which is when Staff Training started at Northland. (I still worked at Bethesda, but had my nursing license, so the job paid well enough that I didn't go home.) I had a great time with my summer school buddies; namely Mary Pendleton, Carrie Coordes, and Holly Ridout. Then I packed all of my belongings into my Ford Taurus and headed up to camp.
The first night that we were there, we had a staff meeting (duh!) During the meeting, we had to shake hands with a specified number of people, telling them who we were and what we were doing at camp (our job for the summer.) One of the people I met that night was Chris Mitchell. :-) Now, remember, I had signed a contract to work as a waitress. Well, we had an "interlude" during the service that night (staff training is very intense and there are a lot of services), and one of the office staff came up to me that night and asked me if I had heard about my change in job positions. I said that I hadn't, and she told me to talk to Kristin Hobi. Little did I know that God was opening a door because I was willing!
I went and talked to Kristin after the service that night, and lo, and behold, one of the nurses was hired contingent on passing her nursing boards to get her license. Well, she failed boards. Because of that, they had to have another licensed nurse to fill her spot (it kind of defeats the purpose of having nurses if you have to have one there to overlook another.) I already had my WI nursing license because I had taken boards in WI while I was finishing up at MBBC. My position had changed, and now I was a camp nurse instead of a waitress... pending a meeting with Mrs. Seely, the director of health services, which was set for 11am the next morning.
The next morning at breakfast, I ended up sitting with an acquaintance of mine from MBBC, Amy Delich, who was working that summer, and Chris joined us (I still didn't really know him "from Adam" at this point.) I told them the whole story about the nursing thing, including that I had a meeting with Mrs. Seely that morning. One of the first things that I remember really noticing about Chris was this: he told me that he would pray for me as I went to the meeting. I was pretty shocked by this, and remember thinking, "I might need to get to know more about this guy... he's different." (At this point, my story of what happened differs from what Chris remembers, but since I'm writing this, I'll tell you MY version!)
I believe that maybe it was at this point Chris and I went to the computer lab to check e-mail, and started sharing our personal information with each other... you know, all the details you share when you are meeting someone for the first time. Then we had more staff meetings and I had my meeting with Mrs. Seely. Because the meeting was right before lunch, I ended up going to the dining room with them and sitting with them. Chris sat at the table right behind me, and after he finished eating, leaned over and asked me how the meeting had gone because he had been praying about it! At that point, I KNEW I DEFINITELY needed to know more about this guy... not only had he said he would pray for me, but then he followed up on that and asked me how things went! I just couldn't believe it. All the guys to whom I had been attracted or dated up to this point had not really been interested in spiritual things for the most part. It really shocked me to know that someone that I had just met really cared enough to follow up on a prayer request/offer.
I think it was after that (maybe even at that time, but maybe supper... or maybe the next day or so... I don't remember) I ended up joining a bunch of other people and Chris for a meal. Julie Jex was there and she decided to play matchmaker for Chris and I. She was so funny... she started asking him all the things that I had already talked to him about earlier (whenever it was) in the computer lab, so I already knew most of the answers to the questions she asked (she was trying to ask them for MY benefit!)
I was still a LITTLE hesitant about the possibility of this actually becoming a relationship for a couple of reasons:
The first night that we were there, we had a staff meeting (duh!) During the meeting, we had to shake hands with a specified number of people, telling them who we were and what we were doing at camp (our job for the summer.) One of the people I met that night was Chris Mitchell. :-) Now, remember, I had signed a contract to work as a waitress. Well, we had an "interlude" during the service that night (staff training is very intense and there are a lot of services), and one of the office staff came up to me that night and asked me if I had heard about my change in job positions. I said that I hadn't, and she told me to talk to Kristin Hobi. Little did I know that God was opening a door because I was willing!
I went and talked to Kristin after the service that night, and lo, and behold, one of the nurses was hired contingent on passing her nursing boards to get her license. Well, she failed boards. Because of that, they had to have another licensed nurse to fill her spot (it kind of defeats the purpose of having nurses if you have to have one there to overlook another.) I already had my WI nursing license because I had taken boards in WI while I was finishing up at MBBC. My position had changed, and now I was a camp nurse instead of a waitress... pending a meeting with Mrs. Seely, the director of health services, which was set for 11am the next morning.
The next morning at breakfast, I ended up sitting with an acquaintance of mine from MBBC, Amy Delich, who was working that summer, and Chris joined us (I still didn't really know him "from Adam" at this point.) I told them the whole story about the nursing thing, including that I had a meeting with Mrs. Seely that morning. One of the first things that I remember really noticing about Chris was this: he told me that he would pray for me as I went to the meeting. I was pretty shocked by this, and remember thinking, "I might need to get to know more about this guy... he's different." (At this point, my story of what happened differs from what Chris remembers, but since I'm writing this, I'll tell you MY version!)
I believe that maybe it was at this point Chris and I went to the computer lab to check e-mail, and started sharing our personal information with each other... you know, all the details you share when you are meeting someone for the first time. Then we had more staff meetings and I had my meeting with Mrs. Seely. Because the meeting was right before lunch, I ended up going to the dining room with them and sitting with them. Chris sat at the table right behind me, and after he finished eating, leaned over and asked me how the meeting had gone because he had been praying about it! At that point, I KNEW I DEFINITELY needed to know more about this guy... not only had he said he would pray for me, but then he followed up on that and asked me how things went! I just couldn't believe it. All the guys to whom I had been attracted or dated up to this point had not really been interested in spiritual things for the most part. It really shocked me to know that someone that I had just met really cared enough to follow up on a prayer request/offer.
I think it was after that (maybe even at that time, but maybe supper... or maybe the next day or so... I don't remember) I ended up joining a bunch of other people and Chris for a meal. Julie Jex was there and she decided to play matchmaker for Chris and I. She was so funny... she started asking him all the things that I had already talked to him about earlier (whenever it was) in the computer lab, so I already knew most of the answers to the questions she asked (she was trying to ask them for MY benefit!)
I was still a LITTLE hesitant about the possibility of this actually becoming a relationship for a couple of reasons:
- My adamant denial of going to camp to meet my husband (But who's to argue with God, right?)
- My true desire to focus on the ministry of camp, rather than a relationship
- I had heard that Chris was engaged?? or that he had just broken off a pretty serious relationship
- I had been praying that the next guy I dated would be the one that I married, and I didn't want to jump the gun and mess everything up...
- I didn't want to be the one pursuing or pushing for a relationship... besides, I had NO idea whether or not he was even REMOTELY interested in me.
However, my dear friend, Julie Jex, self-elected matchmaker, did nothing to keep me from spending time with Chris. :-) As a matter of fact, she was the one that managed to fanagle us into eating together, as well as sitting together at staff meetings. (However, I'm thinking that neither one of us really minded enough to put a stop to this matchmaking scheme of hers.) Julie was also the one that "got the scoop" about Chris' past relationship(s)... and he was not engaged, nor had he ever been, and had broken off his most recent dating relationship in January.
TO BE CONTINUED...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I really HATE to leave you all "hanging,":^) but my husband just called and I am on my way to meet him at Fazoli's for a "nice romantic" Valentine's dinner (actually b/c it's so late, he's taking me out another time, but hey, I don't have to cook, so it's romantic for me!) Happy Valentine's Day to you all, and don't forget to let the special important people in your life know that you love him. I'll have to post more on Valentine's Day later...
2.13.2007
Our Love Story: the prequel
Since others are posting their love stories this month, I thought I would post mine (in installments, of course!) Knowing my love of details, I will TRY to make this as short and sweet as possible! (Bear with me, though, if I just can't do it!)
First of all, I have to give you the background. I graduated from Madison Area Technical College (MATC) with my Associate's Degree Registered Nurse in December of 1998. Through nursing school, I was dually enrolled at MATC and MBBC. I still had a semester to finish at MBBC after completing my nursing degree to get my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing Ministries.
While at MBBC, I had 2 really bad "dating" relationships. One happened right away when I was a freshman, and that guy actually died later that year from an allergic reaction to peanuts. Later my second semester as a freshman, I worked night crew. This started my other "dating" relationship (that was really never officially dating - oh, the drama!) that strung me out until October of my senior year! (Anyone remember Chris Perry?) OK, here is where I have to admit that I was totally and completely obsessed with him and though I knew better, I allowed myself to stay that way for way too long. However, I did learn a lot from that time! YIKES! Finally, October of 1998, I decided I was way better than being strung along by Chris Perry, and started to really seek GOD's will in my life in every aspect. I had a great time having "dates" to Artist Series that year that were just good guy friends. It was at that point that I wrote down all the things I wanted in a husband and started praying for that man.
Since I wasn't dating anyone my senior year, I had NO IDEA what I was going to do after I graduated. I had looked into a medical missions trip to Honduras (that was the year they had a big mudslide/earthquake or something down there), but that didn't work out. I really wanted to move to Colorado, but my dad really wasn't big on that one. Since my dad is a HUGE advocate of Christian camp, and I didn't really go much as a teen or work at one during college, my dad pushed me to work at a camp for the summer. (All of my brothers worked at Camp Chetek for many summers.) I really didn't want to do that; however, Northland Camp was looking for a nurse for the summer and had it advertised in the MBBC newsletter. My good friend, Sam Pendleton, saw it and mentioned it to me several times before I finally let go of my stubbornness and decided to apply to Northland as camp nurse.
When I heard back from Northland, they told me that the RN position had been filled, but asked if I could come work as a waitress. I didn't really want to do that, either, so I told them I would get back to them. I talked to my dad and told him that "I didn't go to 4 years of school to become a nurse, just to work as a waitress!" (Little did I know what my life was going to hold later...) My dad, the wise father that he is, replied, "Maybe God was just waiting to see if you would be WILLING to do whatever He asked. Besides that, what if something happened with one of the nurses during the summer and they needed someone to fill in. You would already be there!" Grudgingly, I signed the contract to work at Northland Camp as a waitress that summer!
As I look back, I just want to laugh at how things happened. God has such a sense of humor sometimes! Because I was graduating and not dating anyone, I can't tell you how many times people made comments about going to work at camp to meet my husband! My mom even told me that she was praying that I would meet my husband that summer. I was so adamant about that not being my motivation (which, honestly, it really wasn't)...
First of all, I have to give you the background. I graduated from Madison Area Technical College (MATC) with my Associate's Degree Registered Nurse in December of 1998. Through nursing school, I was dually enrolled at MATC and MBBC. I still had a semester to finish at MBBC after completing my nursing degree to get my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing Ministries.
While at MBBC, I had 2 really bad "dating" relationships. One happened right away when I was a freshman, and that guy actually died later that year from an allergic reaction to peanuts. Later my second semester as a freshman, I worked night crew. This started my other "dating" relationship (that was really never officially dating - oh, the drama!) that strung me out until October of my senior year! (Anyone remember Chris Perry?) OK, here is where I have to admit that I was totally and completely obsessed with him and though I knew better, I allowed myself to stay that way for way too long. However, I did learn a lot from that time! YIKES! Finally, October of 1998, I decided I was way better than being strung along by Chris Perry, and started to really seek GOD's will in my life in every aspect. I had a great time having "dates" to Artist Series that year that were just good guy friends. It was at that point that I wrote down all the things I wanted in a husband and started praying for that man.
Since I wasn't dating anyone my senior year, I had NO IDEA what I was going to do after I graduated. I had looked into a medical missions trip to Honduras (that was the year they had a big mudslide/earthquake or something down there), but that didn't work out. I really wanted to move to Colorado, but my dad really wasn't big on that one. Since my dad is a HUGE advocate of Christian camp, and I didn't really go much as a teen or work at one during college, my dad pushed me to work at a camp for the summer. (All of my brothers worked at Camp Chetek for many summers.) I really didn't want to do that; however, Northland Camp was looking for a nurse for the summer and had it advertised in the MBBC newsletter. My good friend, Sam Pendleton, saw it and mentioned it to me several times before I finally let go of my stubbornness and decided to apply to Northland as camp nurse.
When I heard back from Northland, they told me that the RN position had been filled, but asked if I could come work as a waitress. I didn't really want to do that, either, so I told them I would get back to them. I talked to my dad and told him that "I didn't go to 4 years of school to become a nurse, just to work as a waitress!" (Little did I know what my life was going to hold later...) My dad, the wise father that he is, replied, "Maybe God was just waiting to see if you would be WILLING to do whatever He asked. Besides that, what if something happened with one of the nurses during the summer and they needed someone to fill in. You would already be there!" Grudgingly, I signed the contract to work at Northland Camp as a waitress that summer!
As I look back, I just want to laugh at how things happened. God has such a sense of humor sometimes! Because I was graduating and not dating anyone, I can't tell you how many times people made comments about going to work at camp to meet my husband! My mom even told me that she was praying that I would meet my husband that summer. I was so adamant about that not being my motivation (which, honestly, it really wasn't)...
~~~TO BE CONTINUED~~~
2.12.2007
Friends
"A friend is one who thinks you're a good egg, even if they know you're a little cracked!" ~Erma Bombeck
May 2006
I am so thankful for good, Godly friends. Since I was struggling so much last week (and have been for a while) my husband suggested that I get an accountability partner (other than him) for my devotions. I asked my dear friend, Josie, to be that person for me, and she readily agreed. I miss her so much! It is so amazing to me that someone who has been through so much heartache has allowed those trials to mold her into the image of Christ. I know way too many others that would have used those circumstances to keep them from serving the Lord. Yes, we are close enough for me to know that she is not perfect and that she struggles daily (just like the rest of us.) However, Josie has been such a good friend to me, and I am so thankful for our friendship. It's rare to have true friends that love you no matter what it is they know about you. Thanks, Jos, for being one of those kind of friends, and for pointing me to Christ. I love you!
This weekend I had the rare opportunity to talk to my dad on the phone for almost 40 minutes (he is not a phone conversationalist!) Then, my sister called, and I had the rare opportunity to talk to her for a while (she is usually VERY busy, and doesn't get uninterrupted time to talk.) I am so thankful for my family.
Yesterday, my husband took me and the bus captain that he drives for out for lunch to Olive Garden. That was a special treat for me! I love eating there... chicken fettuchine is my favorite!
All in all, it was a very good weekend... especially with the safe arrival of Korissa. :^)
May 2006I am so thankful for good, Godly friends. Since I was struggling so much last week (and have been for a while) my husband suggested that I get an accountability partner (other than him) for my devotions. I asked my dear friend, Josie, to be that person for me, and she readily agreed. I miss her so much! It is so amazing to me that someone who has been through so much heartache has allowed those trials to mold her into the image of Christ. I know way too many others that would have used those circumstances to keep them from serving the Lord. Yes, we are close enough for me to know that she is not perfect and that she struggles daily (just like the rest of us.) However, Josie has been such a good friend to me, and I am so thankful for our friendship. It's rare to have true friends that love you no matter what it is they know about you. Thanks, Jos, for being one of those kind of friends, and for pointing me to Christ. I love you!
This weekend I had the rare opportunity to talk to my dad on the phone for almost 40 minutes (he is not a phone conversationalist!) Then, my sister called, and I had the rare opportunity to talk to her for a while (she is usually VERY busy, and doesn't get uninterrupted time to talk.) I am so thankful for my family.
Yesterday, my husband took me and the bus captain that he drives for out for lunch to Olive Garden. That was a special treat for me! I love eating there... chicken fettuchine is my favorite!
All in all, it was a very good weekend... especially with the safe arrival of Korissa. :^)
2.11.2007
She's HERE!
Our newest niece, Korissa Ann Fox, made her debut into the world this afternoon. Mom and baby are doing well... more details (and pictures) to follow as we get them!!
2.09.2007
Showings on our house...
We had a showing on our house in MD today from 1pm-2pm, and have another one scheduled for Sunday, 02/11/07, from 3pm-4pm. It has been a while since there has been anyone even interested in looking, so this is encouraging. Please pray with us that the Lord will bring the right buyer in the right time.
Here is the listing if you're interested in seeing some pics of the inside/outside. It doesn't look nearly as good as when it was all decorated, but it's still really nice. I LOVE the kitchen floor!
Here is the listing if you're interested in seeing some pics of the inside/outside. It doesn't look nearly as good as when it was all decorated, but it's still really nice. I LOVE the kitchen floor!
Stamped Valentines
Love U Valentine card (outside)
Love U Valentine opened
(inside: "Happy Valentine's Day")
Monkey Valentine (inside: "Love ya bunches!")
Last night I went to a stamping party, and these are the cards that we made. I love stamping! Chris was a sweetheart and let me have money to buy 2 more new sets of stamps (and I get an additional one for free!) I always am so excited to get new stamps!
Chris and I don't usually do much for Valentine's Day - he is of the belief that it is just a holiday that the card & candy companies made up to get more money (in spite of my attempts to change his mind!) However, my father-in-law always sends me a box of chocolates... the good kind that I savor and eat one-a-day until they're gone! My father-in-law also makes sure to tell me every year that Chris can't have any of MY chocolate! His dad does this every year for his wife, all of his daughters, daughters-in-law, and granddaughters. I received my first box from him the year that Chris and I were dating. I remember thinking that it was such a sweet gesture for my boyfriend's father to do that for me. Now I look forward to it. Chris' mom usually sends him a card with a little gift in it, as well. What a great tradition!
One of these cards will go to my hubby for V-day. The monkey one, I think, I will send to my dad. He, for some reason, has a monkey collection. I think it fits (the card, not the monkey collection)!
I'm hoping that I get my family picture calendars back in time to send them out to our families for Valentine's Day (they are really Christmas presents!) Our church has a small printing press that is going to do them for me, but they got pushed back a little bit due to a big job that needed to be done for PNC Bank ASAP. I will post those pages as soon as I get them back.
We should have a new niece arriving in time for Valentine's Day. (Chris' sister, Kim, is due on the 12th.) Her mommy&daddy are praying that she comes before Monday b/c her uncle, Burt, is going into the Marines on Monday and mommy wants to call her brother and tell him about his new niece before she is 8 weeks old! (I don't think they are allowed to have contact with anyone until they are done with basic training.) Her daddy is starting a new job (he got out of the Air Force in December) on February 19th. He is going to be a police officer in North Las Vegas. He is very excited about this new job opportunity.
2.08.2007
An Age-Old War - Americans vs. Muslims
This article was sent to me by my dad, and I thought it was very interesting. Therefore, I am sharing it with you.
Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United States congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Quran, the Muslim book of jihad and pledged his allegiance to the United States during his ceremonial swearing-in.
Capitol Hill staff said Ellison's swearing-in photo opportunity drew more media than they had ever seen in the history of the U.S. House. Ellison represents the 5th Congressional District of Minnesota.
The Quran Ellison used was no ordinary book. It once belonged to Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and one of America's founding fathers. Ellison borrowed it from the Rare Book Section of the Library of Congress. It was one of the 6,500 Jefferson books archived in the library.
Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam while in college, said he chose to use Jefferson's Quran because it showed that "a visionary like Jefferson" believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources.
There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom could be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran. At the time Jefferson owned the book, he needed to know everything possible about Muslims because he was about to advocate war against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli.
Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject once well-known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is mostly forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.
Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the African and Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing slaves.
The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal villages had a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill off as many of the "non-Muslim" older men and women as possible so the preferred "booty" of only young women and children could be collected.
Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value as concubines in Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of Muslim men by allowing them to take as many as four wives at one time and to have as many concubines as their fortunes allow.
Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to create eunuchs who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the Middle East. Muslim slave traders created "eunuch stations" along major African slave routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. It was estimated that only a small number of the boys subjected to the mutilation survived after the surgery.
When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776, American merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no American Navy for protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews enslaved by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the "Dey of Algiers"--an Islamist warlord ruling Algeria.
Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States. Congress appointed a special commission consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations.
Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the Mediterranean, the new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing to pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships and buy the freedom of enslaved sailors.
Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get American commerce in the Mediterranean moving again. Jefferson was opposed. He believed there would be no end to the demands for tribute and wanted matters settled "through the medium of war." He proposed a league of trading nations to force an end to Muslim piracy.
In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and Adams, then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the "Dey of Algiers" ambassador to Britain.
The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress' vote to appease.
During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the Dey's ambassador why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.
In a later meeting with the American Congress, the two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that Islam "was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise."
For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800.
Not long after Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, he dispatched a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress.
Declaring that America was going to spend "millions for defense but not one cent for tribute," Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying American Marines and many of America's best warships to the Muslim Barbary Coast.
The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS Chesapeake, USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
In 1805, American Marines marched across the desert from Egypt into Tripolitania, forcing the surrender of Tripoli and the freeing of all American slaves.
During the Jefferson administration, the Muslim Barbary States, crumbling as a result of intense American naval bombardment and on shore raids by Marines, finally officially agreed to abandon slavery and piracy.
Jefferson's victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine Hymn, with the line, "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, We fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea."
It wasn't until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total defeat of all the Muslim slave trading pirates.
Jefferson had been right. The "medium of war" was the only way to put and end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson. He was a "visionary" wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their own Muslim book of jihad.
What Thomas Jefferson learned from the Muslim book of jihad
January 2007
Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United States congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Quran, the Muslim book of jihad and pledged his allegiance to the United States during his ceremonial swearing-in.
Capitol Hill staff said Ellison's swearing-in photo opportunity drew more media than they had ever seen in the history of the U.S. House. Ellison represents the 5th Congressional District of Minnesota.
The Quran Ellison used was no ordinary book. It once belonged to Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and one of America's founding fathers. Ellison borrowed it from the Rare Book Section of the Library of Congress. It was one of the 6,500 Jefferson books archived in the library.
Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam while in college, said he chose to use Jefferson's Quran because it showed that "a visionary like Jefferson" believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources.
There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom could be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran. At the time Jefferson owned the book, he needed to know everything possible about Muslims because he was about to advocate war against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli.
Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject once well-known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is mostly forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.
Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the African and Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing slaves.
The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal villages had a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill off as many of the "non-Muslim" older men and women as possible so the preferred "booty" of only young women and children could be collected.
Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value as concubines in Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of Muslim men by allowing them to take as many as four wives at one time and to have as many concubines as their fortunes allow.
Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to create eunuchs who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the Middle East. Muslim slave traders created "eunuch stations" along major African slave routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. It was estimated that only a small number of the boys subjected to the mutilation survived after the surgery.
When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776, American merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no American Navy for protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews enslaved by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the "Dey of Algiers"--an Islamist warlord ruling Algeria.
Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States. Congress appointed a special commission consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations.
Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the Mediterranean, the new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing to pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships and buy the freedom of enslaved sailors.
Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get American commerce in the Mediterranean moving again. Jefferson was opposed. He believed there would be no end to the demands for tribute and wanted matters settled "through the medium of war." He proposed a league of trading nations to force an end to Muslim piracy.
In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and Adams, then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the "Dey of Algiers" ambassador to Britain.
The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress' vote to appease.
During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the Dey's ambassador why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.
In a later meeting with the American Congress, the two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that Islam "was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise."
For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800.
Not long after Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, he dispatched a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress.
Declaring that America was going to spend "millions for defense but not one cent for tribute," Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying American Marines and many of America's best warships to the Muslim Barbary Coast.
The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS Chesapeake, USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
In 1805, American Marines marched across the desert from Egypt into Tripolitania, forcing the surrender of Tripoli and the freeing of all American slaves.
During the Jefferson administration, the Muslim Barbary States, crumbling as a result of intense American naval bombardment and on shore raids by Marines, finally officially agreed to abandon slavery and piracy.
Jefferson's victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine Hymn, with the line, "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, We fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea."
It wasn't until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total defeat of all the Muslim slave trading pirates.
Jefferson had been right. The "medium of war" was the only way to put and end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson. He was a "visionary" wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their own Muslim book of jihad.
Do you forward e-mails?
My friend sent this to me on e-mail, and I thought it was good (and funny) enough to post. This is for those of you who indiscriminately forward any and all e-mails. It is also for those of us who receive those e-mails, and get highly irritated by them. I am posting this especially for TwoSticks, because he seems like the kind of guy that would enjoy it! :-)
Check it out: http://info.org.il/irrelevant/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf
Check it out: http://info.org.il/irrelevant/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf
2.07.2007
Prayer
Just a quick note... please pray for me. I have been struggling with a number of things lately, and I just really need some prayer. I really can't go into details, but it concerns just about every area of my life. The past few months since the move have been very difficult for me, but it seems that I've been under some incredible Satanic attacks since December. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I have allowed him to have victory in my life, rather than claiming the name of Christ and reclaiming surrendered ground. Please pray for me, and for my sweet husband, as he is forced to deal with ME!
2.05.2007
Congrats, Colts Fans!
Congratulations to all you Colts fans out there... now you can officially say that Peyton Manning is the MAN... he FINALLY won the big game!
Sorry, Jennittia, that your Bears lost... I was rooting for them.
We had a couple over from church last night to watch the game, and had a good time of fellowship over my specialty... homemade pizza. Not the exciting Super Bowl parties that we've had in the past, but it was fun, nonetheless.
My husband informed me last night that there is only 2 more weeks til baseball spring training starts, which means I will be hearing about the Red Sox non-stop until October! I don't mind the Red Sox (I'm actually becoming quite the fan), but I'm not nearly into baseball as much as football... and baseball season is SOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOONG!!
Sorry, Jennittia, that your Bears lost... I was rooting for them.
We had a couple over from church last night to watch the game, and had a good time of fellowship over my specialty... homemade pizza. Not the exciting Super Bowl parties that we've had in the past, but it was fun, nonetheless.
My husband informed me last night that there is only 2 more weeks til baseball spring training starts, which means I will be hearing about the Red Sox non-stop until October! I don't mind the Red Sox (I'm actually becoming quite the fan), but I'm not nearly into baseball as much as football... and baseball season is SOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOONG!!
Salesman of the Month!!!
Chris made Salesman of the Month for January! He sold 14 cars (the next closest salesman sold 11.) He missed getting the extra $5,000 bonus by 1&1/2 cars, but he still gets tons of bonus money for the amount of cars he sold, being salesman of the month, etc. On top of that, he gets a prime parking space for the month! :-) God has really been good to us in providing through Chris' job. We are so thankful for that. We are also thankful that God has provided in other ways... a tax refund for the first time in our married lives, being able to sell some stocks and get money from that to start our savings acct. back up, etc.
I also have been working regularly, and that helps with the financial aspect of things as well.
Our house in MD still has not sold, nor have we had any activity on it for about a month now. Please just continue to pray that the Lord will provide the buyer that we need.
I also have been working regularly, and that helps with the financial aspect of things as well.
Our house in MD still has not sold, nor have we had any activity on it for about a month now. Please just continue to pray that the Lord will provide the buyer that we need.
New Look... Again...
So - I just switched over to the new Blogger. It makes it a whole lot easier to fomat your template. Let me know what you think about the new look/format! I think I'm gonna try to get my beaches back in a little while, but I like the green, too. I don't know, we'll see what I have time for! :-)
How Rich Are You?
This site might put into perspective just how rich we are:
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Check it out and see where you fall in the count of the richest people in the world.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Check it out and see where you fall in the count of the richest people in the world.
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