New Preamble to the Constitution

I received this in an e-mail the other day, and thought it was great!

NEW PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION

This is probably the best e-mail I've seen in a long, long time. The following has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA. This guy should run for President one day...

"We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters.

We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights."

ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, change the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.

ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes . (This one is my pet peeve...get an education and go to work....don't expect everyone else to take care of you!)

ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.

ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.

ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. (AMEN!)

ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from! (Lastly....)

ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!

Pictures to accompany yesterday's post...

Here is a picture of the dress I bought for Nathan's wedding. I promise, it looks better ON me, but you get the idea! (I give it a lot more SHAPE! :-P)

This slide show is some of the pictures from the Louisville Bats game Saturday night.

Here is a picture of my ring finger. My hands look fat and old in this picture! Anyway, this is the reaction my finger gets from my wedding ring! :-( And this looks a LOT better than it did yesterday morning!

Busy

Wow - it seems like there is so much that I want to blog about, but time just slips by and the posts don't get done. I guess it doesn't really matter all that much to anyone but me. I love having this blog more for a journal for myself than for other people, but I'm glad that others read it, too!

Well, as you can tell from my most recent posts, we have been busy with trying to get everything worked out with the house. We were able to get our financing finalized on Friday, and Chris went and signed everything with the finance guy today. He is bringing home a huge stack of papers for me to sign tonight, and we should be "good to go" for closing on July 16th.

I also was busy last week trying to find a dress to wear to my brother's wedding this Saturday. It's kind of hard for me to believe that my baby brother is old enough to be married (he's eight years younger than me.) Anyway, I was hoping to have lost enough weight to get into an outfit I already had, but it didn't work out that way. It's pretty close, and I probably COULD wear it, but it doesn't look GREAT yet. It is a wedding, after all, though not mine, and there will be a lot of pictures taken. I want to look nice! So, my dear husband, (in spite of the fact that he has given me about $200 for stamps in the past couple months) graciously said that I could buy a new dress if I could get one for $25.

Now, I have lost over 20 pounds, which makes shopping very awkward due to the fact that I am in between sizes. (I actually am wearing a size 12 skirt today, and it is not skin-tight! That's a huge deal!) I still am not, by any stretch, thin, so all of those super cute dresses that are made out of bias cut fabric or stretchy (show every curve ~ or in my case, bulge) fabric are not flattering to my figure. The other problem I ran into is that I found some faux wrap dresses that looked pretty good, but were both out of my price range and required some sort of tank or camisole underneath to be modest. This would have increased the spending even more, and I couldn't do that.

Well, after searching high and low, driving all over the greater Louisville metro area, and shopping til I felt like dropping, I finally found a dress. Chris wasn't sure about it, as it has a fairly busy print on it, and he says that it's "not my usual style." However, after watching TLC's What Not to Wear, I am trying to CHANGE my style a little bit to wear things that are more flattering. ANYWAY, I wore it to church yesterday as a "test run" and received MANY compliments on it. I guess that means it will be pretty decent for the wedding. I'll post a picture of it after this weekend. That pretty much took up 2 whole days to find that dress!

This past Thursday, I spent a lot of time at our new house with the home inspector (that's why I was able to take all the pictures I posted last week. After that, I went shopping dress shopping. While I was out, I took a shopping break from dresses and went into a flea market. I was thrilled to find this: I have been looking for something like this for over a year now. I saw it and it screamed "Buy me, Buy me!" It was only $3.50, and I just happened to have the cash on me (and I very RARELY carry cash!) My kitchen is decorated in coffee and gingerbread men, so this was PERFECT. You can't much beat the price, either!

Saturday night, we went to a Louisville Bats game (Triple-A minor league baseball.) Chris' boss is a season ticket holder, and Chris was able to get our tickets for free. We went with our friends, John and Heidi, and had a great time. It was very ironic that the date we were able to go was also the date that the Bats were playing the Pawtucket Red Sox (farm team for the Boston Red Sox). Of course, my die hard Red Sox fan-addict husband was thrilled about that! The Red Sox actually won the game 4-1 after about an hour rain delay. Chris and I had to laugh about that... the 5 or 6 games we attended last year all had some kind of rain delay. We had a great time, though, and it was nice to get out and do something, rather than stay at home all the time. I'll have to post pictures of that another time, too.

I got new stamps yesterday... just a Gingerbread wheel that was retiring, but since my kitchen is gingerbread men, I had to get it... just in case I need more curtains, or want to make other decorative items with my dear little gingerbread men! Also, I got a set that is square decorative frames. I'm planning to use it more as a background than anything, but it, too, was retiring. When I make some cards, I'll post them.

I have a problem! I think I am allergic to my wedding ring! Now, I know that sounds crazy, but I'm totally serious. Up until November, I had worn my wedding ring every single day without removing it for any reason with no problems. The beginning of November, my finger started to break out. It gets very itchy, then gets red and little blisters begin to form. (I don't have this problem with any of my other rings, or on any other finger!) My nursing director thinks it is some kind of fungal infection from washing my hands so much and getting soap and water underneath my ring. Anyway, I was forced to stop wearing it for a while. Then when my finger healed, I would start wearing it again, and it would do it all over again. Recently, I would just wear my ring on my days off, and it was fine. Yesterday, I wore my ring all day and also when I went to bed. I took extra care to take it off and dry my finger and the under side of my ring each time I washed my hands. This morning I woke up, and my finger was itchy, red and very swollen. I took my ring off, and there were tiny blisters under where my ring was. I wish I knew what the problem was! I love my wedding ring, and I HATE not wearing it! Chris always asks me if I'm still married, even if I don't wear my ring. I told him he can't get rid of me that easily! Besides, in case anyone were to look, the big red mark on my finger should be enough evidence that I have SOME kind of ring that I wear on that finger!

Other than that, I can't think of anything major going on. Have a wonderful day. I'll post some new pictures one of these days when I get a chance! :-)

Stamps, Scraps, Stitches-n-Stuff

If you missed it, I just started a new blog for all my creative stuff. It's called "Stamps, Scraps, Stitches-n-Stuff" and you can find it here. I just finished posting all of the pictures that I had of all of my cross-stitch projects. Thanks to my SIL, Julie, who taught me how to cross-stitch... and, as my husband puts it, "Created a monster!" :-) I appreciate you taking the time to teach me, and I hope you enjoy the pics!

I am working on posting all of my past projects first in some kind of order, then I will add new things as they are finished.

Thanks for looking!

Virtual Tour of Our New House!

Welcome to the tour of our new house! I know there are a lot of pictures, but it gives you a better feel of what it really looks like. Unfortunately (in my opinion) the Louisville skyline art piece doesn't stay, nor does the dining room or living room furniture, which I LOVE! Oh, yeah, the big flat screen TV doesn't stay, either. We will be painting the kitchen burgundy for sure, and I would like to paint the 2 guest bedrooms eventually as well, but that can wait. I am SO excited! We did have a little "hiccup" with our financing... a bunch of the banks didn't want to count Chris' income b/c it is commission based and he's only been there for 6 months (they want to see a yearly average). However, today we got a lender, so all should be OK. Enjoy the tour!

Closing date and new website

Dawn... this is just for you... we are set to close on the house July 16th. Everything should be fine since the house is only 4 years old, and financing shouldn't be a problem. However, there is always that chance...

Also, I wanted to let everyone that is interested know that I started a new blog specifically to post pictures of my cards, cross-stitches, crafts, etc. The name is "Stamps, Scraps, Stitches-n-Stuff". I haven't posted any of my stuff yet, but there is a welcome post on there. Keep checking it... I'm going to try to post all of my old stuff on there as quickly as possible. :-)

In case you're interested...

... here are pictures of the house (from the listing.) They don't really do the house justice at all, but it will give you somewhat of an idea of what it is like. We're painting the kitchen/eat-in area burgundy before we move in.

The front of the house
A little closer...Landscaping...
Kitchen (from the eat-in area)
Eat-in area (view from living room)
Entry door/staircase to basement (not even close to what the rest of the living room looks like!)

Master Bedroom

Bedroom 1 (office or stamping room or guest room?)

We have the house!!!

As I wrote in a previous post... we had an offer on the house... and now we have it!! We accepted the seller's counter-offer which basically only raised the price of the house back up to the asking price, which was his bottom line. He is leaving the fridge, moving out at closing, and we get $5,000 back at closing. We talked to our pastor, who said it was a great buy... seeing as the prices are going up, we really like the house, it's in a good neighborhood, and it will have great resale value if we finish out the basement. So - we are homeowners again... contingent on home inspection and closing, etc. YEAH!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! I already have ideas of how to decorate... :-) I'll be interested to see how things come out in decorating, since I REALLY haven't gotten a whole lot of a chance to do that yet, even in our old house (due to all of the remodeling/renovating we were doing.)

One more thing that I forgot to mention. Please pray for my family... and my dad's side of the family. My dad's mom, Grandma, passed away on Tuesday. It was time for her to go; she's had dementia and has not known people for probably 6 years now. The saddest thing is that she was unsaved, as is most of my dad's family. My parents are in MN now. The wake is tonight, and the funeral tomorrow. My sister and her family were able to make it as well. Please pray that they get the opportunity to share the good news and hope of the Gospel with my dad's family.

Also, please keep 2 of my brothers-in-law in your prayers. Both of them are looking for work after losing their jobs. Pray that the Lord provides jobs for them quickly, and that the Lord provides for the needs of them and their families while they are looking. Thanks! :-)

Now, my cards and cross-stitch pictures

This is the cross-stitch that I made for Nathan and Caroline's wedding present. Of course, this is the unframed version. I'll post another picture when I get it back framed. I actually used a lot of metallic and iridescent thread in this, so it makes it have a little more "bling."

Anniversary card for my brother and sister-in-law. I used gel pens on the picture to make things a little more sparkly.
"You Grow Girl!" I love the little colored safety pin on the tag. :-) The inside says... "Congratulations on your Swell News... Happy Waiting!"
Flutter by oh butterfly... Birthday card for my SIL
Flutter by oh butterfly... Birthday card for my MIL
I liked the idea from the first card, and just changed the colors and layout a bit for this one. I love the combination of the Cool Carribean with Chocolate Chip.

Father's Day card that I made at a stamping party about a month ago. The letters are chipboard, and we colored them so they looked like suede (sort of!) This one we sent to my FIL

Father's Day card for my dad. He loves lighthouses, and has the focal point picture (or one similar to it) on his wall at home. This isn't a typical Nautical color scheme, but I really wanted to use this ribbon.
Father's Day card for Chris' grandpa. He used to LOVE to fish. I messed this one up a little when I didn't trim the blue cardstock to the right size. And, as usual, some things aren't straight, but I like it anyway. I love the color combination. Father's Day card for my grandpa. I'm not sure that he is into trains, but I thought they were pretty cool. I like the photo corners that I made with my stamp punch, and also the embossed train at the bottom. I used distressing embossing powder, which is pretty cool.
Another card I made at a stamping party this week. We used Pearl-Ex for the focal pictures, and embossing powder for the background. These colors are REALLY cool, too... very masculine.

Fourth of July card - also made at the stamping party. This one used Pearl-Ex as well in the fireworks background and the children's parade image. The flag was cut out of patterned paper.

Recent pictures

Lil D... another walk, this time with sunglasses AND a hatD - driving my car?!? What a cool dude! Love D's face in this one... the puppy had just licked his face!

And the puppy is winning...
The scratch on my driver's door

The scratch on the trunk

Update

Wow - it seems like FOREVER since I posted... (has it really been OVER a week?!?!?!) Much has been happening here this week, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet, but get you "up to speed" on the Mitchell Mania.

First of all, rather than posting on my blog, I have been going crazy trying to get cards stamped for the various happenings going on in our families, etc. I have also been working like crazy trying to get Nathan & Caroline's cross-stitch done so that I could get it framed and back in my hands BEFORE their wedding. I have difficulty finishing cross-stitch projects in the time that I would like to have them done, mostly due to the fact that I have little time where I feel like I can really sit down and cross-stitch without having something else I SHOULD be doing. However, I discovered that I can now incorporate stamping with cross-stitch. Combining these two crafts may help me cut down my stitching time, as well as make more unique gifts. My problem with cross-stitching is that I usually make my own patterns by hand, so I have to figure out all of the color combinations, etc, as well as the design. I just have so much trouble liking any COMPLETE cross-stitch patterns that I already have. Also, because I make my own patterns, they don't usually fit in a standard sized frame. This means that sometimes I cannot frame them myself, which also requires extra time to get them completed for an occasion. ANYWAY, I did get the cross-stitch done, and it should be framed and ready by the 25th, and we leave for the wedding on the 29th. (I will post pictures in another post in a few minutes.)

The other BIG event that is happening... actually as I post this... is we are buying a house! I know that was quick, huh? It has only been about 2 weeks since we started looking for a house. We met our realtor (referred to us by our realtor in MD) on Thursday morning. He did an excellent job for us before we even met him! He sent us a bunch of listings prior to Thursday morning, and we weeded out the ones that we were not interested in at all. Then he took us to I think 10 houses Thursday morning. Only 2 of them were we REALLY interested in, and after Jason (our realtor) doing some homework for us, and Chris and I really discussing the pros/cons of the 2 houses, we decided on the second one we had seen. We met with Jason this morning to write up an offer, and Chris just called me to tell me that the seller had counter-offered. We are accepting his counter-offer, which is about $2400 more than our offer, but he is leaving the refridgerator (which is worth it to me at this point.) Also, we will be able to move in upon closing. Apparently, in this market here, refrigerators don't come with the houses, and sellers will sometimes stay in the house for 30 days after closing. That is just non-sense to me!! Why would I allow you to stay in my house for an additional 30 days, when it is now MY HOUSE??? Anyway, maybe by the time I'm done posting this, I'll be able to tell you if we are buying the house for sure! :-)

My Lil' D is back from the hospital, and has been for a week now, and is doing well after his surgery. We don't really know if it helped, but at least he is doing well. His mom bought a puppy for him last week, so that has been interesting. (I'll post pictures in a minute!) This puppy is a yellow labrador/border collie mix. She (the puppy) is an addition to the Rotweiller, Black Lab, 3 cats, goldfish, lizard, and racoon... yes, I said, RACOON... that the family already owns! (Plus Mom and 2 other brothers!!) The racoon stays in a cage outside, all of the others are in and in some cases out of the house. D likes the puppy, but the puppy gets a little rough for him sometimes.

Oh, yeah, my car got keyed again this week while I was at work. There was a scratch near the driver's mirror... about the same place as before. The auto body guy at Chris' work was able to buff out most of it today. The other scratch is on the trunk and is too deep to buff out and is accompanied by a dent. It's so frustrating that someone is doing that to my car! I mean, I work there, and I am inside with D most of the day. I don't talk to anyone enough to bother them or make this a personal thing... I guess it's just that I have a nice car and they don't like it. I just wish they would QUIT!

Chris has been doing well this month at work so far, so that is always a blessing!

That's pretty much the news from our part of the world!

I MISS CAMP!!!!

After working at Northland Camp for 4 summers, and Chris working 6 summers of camp, we go through withdrawal every time camp season comes around. Most of the Christian camps we are familiar with start their summers around Memorial Day weekend. We usually have at least one conversation that starts out with... "Well, the staff should be arriving at Northland today."

Let me tell you, we definitely miss working at camp. Every major spiritual decision that Chris has made, has been made at Northland Camp. Chris didn't even attend camp there... all of these things happened because he WORKED at camp. He accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior the first year, surrendered to full-time Christian service, met me, and surrendered to the call to preach while at camp.

Anyway, the reason I'm saying this is that our camp void has been a little bit filled this year. The reason for that is our church runs a camp... Indian Creek Baptist Camp. We are blessed to have all of the campers join our church family for the Wednesday night service. Basically, what we have is a very short prayer service, then the camp service takes over. We get to enjoy the camp speakers preaching every Wednesday night for the summer, and get a little taste of camp coming to us. I am so thankful! Greg Locke preached last night, and the message was very convicting and challenging.

So - if/when the Lord leads us back into full time ministry, we would love to work at a camp full-time. Until then, we'll be as active as we can as laypeople in our church, and though missing camp, we pray for several camps daily... that the Lord would work in the hearts of staff, families, and teens as a direct result of camp.

40%

I am excited! After 3 months of weight loss, I have crossed over a big goal... 40% of my total goal... I have now lost 20.5 pounds!!! It's been a slower process since I haven't been able to exercise like I would prefer to do, but my back is still giving me fits, and I don't want to overdo it. I feel a lot better, and feel like I LOOK a lot better, too. (That's always nice!) :-) Only 29.5 pounds more to meet my goal. To put a time limit on it, I'd like to have lost the whole amount by September. I don't think that 50 pounds in 6 months is unreasonable by any stretch.

Things went well with Lil' D's surgery this week... he is home today. I was able to pick up a shift tomorrow, as well as working my regularly scheduled shift on Saturday. The Lord provided the other shift to make up for the one I lost yesterday, and we needed the money. So - thank you, Lord, again, for your provision for us!

Also, the Lord is "making up for lost time" with Chris this month. He has sold 4&1/2 units already, and he still has 7&1/2 selling days left. Praise the Lord! :-)

We have been having beautiful weather here. I got to lay out in the sun (yes, I know I could get skin cancer and wrinkles and all that, but I hate being white!) both yesterday and today. I only stay out for about 30 minutes on each side, so I don't overdo that either.

Well, other than that, not much is going on here. I've been stamping today, so I may post a few of my cards in the next couple days. I'm thinking of making another blog just to post my cards, cross-stitches and other crafts, as well as any really cool photos that I might take. That way they don't all have to go on slide shows.

Have a WONDERFUL day!

Verdict on the house

Well, the house we went and saw today was OK... rated on a scale of 1-10, it was a 5. The outside is beautiful, and the landscaping is well done and pretty, too. We didn't like the layout of the main floor (I like open floor plans), but the deck and adjoining swimming pool with deck surrounding it were SWEET! (The pool needs a new liner, but that's no problem here.) The upstairs was nice. It had a huge room extending out over the garage that would make a great playroom... if one had kids! :-) (Maybe a playroom for a wife who stamps?!?!? It would take me a while to fill that up!) The basement was "finished," but not done well. Had we actually bought the house, we probably would have torn down all the sheetrock and pulled up the carpet and started over. There were just a lot of little things that needed help... the switchplate covers were nasty, several of the light fixtures didn't work (and were nasty), etc. Also, it was not really "show ready." The painter was still working in it, and it hadn't been cleaned. So, the vote for us was to keep looking... after all, this is only the first house we've looked at, and we haven't even gotten a realtor yet! We'll see what happens! God knows what we need, and what we're praying for. He's never failed us.

WHY???

Why do I so often doubt the goodness of God and His provision for me?

Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

Praise the Lord! After a seemingly very slow month at the dealership, and Chris missing several selling days for various things, he closed out the month selling 10 cars (selling 10 cars means he starts getting extra bonus money, and that bonus money increases with every 2 units sold after 10.) On the 30th, he had only sold 8, and we were praying that he could get to 10, so that we could actually pay the bills for the month. Well, long story short, God provided the 10th car, and we had plenty of money to pay the bills. God also allowed Chris to be a testimony to God's blessings on His children when they obey His will.

Wednesday night, the 30th, Chris was still short of his goal of 10 cars. However, for the first time in a while, he did not have any customers coming in for appointments during church time. Instead of staying and trying to get another sale, he chose to honor the Lord and come to church. The other salesmen couldn't believe that he would leave to go to church, but Chris told them that God would bless him for going to church. Of course, that is EXACTLY what God did, and it was a great opportunity to be a witness to the men with whom Chris works.

Another thing that happened to "slap us in the face" so to speak about our faith was this: I bought ribeye steaks at the store the other day for Chris to eat. Since I am still using Nutrisystem, all my food is provided for me. Chris loves steak, and I haven't really bought any meat other than hamburger and chicken for the almost 7 years we've been married. Chris is TIRED of chicken! :-) ANYWAY, he told me to pull out a steak to thaw the night before in faith that he would sell a car the next day, so I did. However, the next day was very slow, and frustrating for Chris. About an hour before closing, God finally brought in a customer for Chris... it was actually the couple who bought the very first car that Chris sold. Chris said he was humbled by realizing that God was just testing his faith, and though Chris doubted Him, God still came through in the end... like HE ALWAYS DOES! So - Chris got steak for dinner that night! :-) By the way, Chris only gets to eat steak that night if he sells a car that day. So far this month, he has been eligible to eat steak every night... again, God is providing for us in a great way! Speaking of which... I need to buy more steaks! :-)

More news: we have decided to look into buying a house here. We have talked and prayed about this matter for a while now, and we are praying that God gives us wisdom in what to do. We really do not feel that God is leading us back into full-time service at this time, nor has He given us any direction other than to continue doing what we are currently doing: serving as laypeople in our church on the bus routes, in choir, and I work in nursery, and working at our jobs. We are kind of thinking that it may be another couple of years before we are ready to go back into full-time service. Only God knows when that may be, whether it's 6 months from now, or 6 years from now. Our strongest desire for ministry would be working in the camp ministry full-time.

All that to say, we started "putting out feelers" regarding buying a home in this area. Saturday night/Sunday morning, neither Chris nor I could sleep, so we were looking at houses online. We found this one: http://homes.realtor.com/prop/1079489938 It is only about 3 miles from our present location. We ended up stopping by the house to "case the joint" after church on Sunday afternoon. Well, it so happened that the best friend of the owner was there, and gave us some great information regarding the house and the situation. We left our number with him, and the owner's realtor called us Monday. We are going to look at it tomorrow morning. It looks very promising, but we'll see. Right now it is empty, so if we were to decide to buy it, we could probably move into it very quickly. Most of our stuff is still packed from our LAST move, so no major issues there! :-) So - you can pray that the Lord gives us wisdom as we seek His will in all of this! I told Chris on Sunday afternoon, "Maybe this is God's direction!" It was just so weird the way everything happened. We'll see what happens now...