On the run

Today I'm especially running after my God..... My hands and feet have more pain than "normal", and I'm being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to trust my Lord and my hubby to watch over my sweet 8 year old who is on her first trip to Six Flags (someone was just killed there 2 days ago).

We should continually RUN after our Lord. Our Lover. Our Bridegroom. Not just on days that we are seeking refuge, but CONTINUALLY.

How 'bout you? Got your Nike's on???

What Jesus do you pray to???

Sunday our pastor preached on "My Relationship with God is Dependent upon my Concept of God!"

How do you view your Heavenly Father? Jesus? The Holy Spirit? When you pray, what mental image do you have of the Divine Being to whom you're conversing??? We all do that. We all have a picture in our heads of God when we pray. And being creatures of habit, that image is probably one we've had for a very long time.... What do you think Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit are like???

My image of the God-head varies. My picture of the Father is something like my earthly father ~ with potential for wrath, but mostly loving, compassionate, patient and gentle. I like to picture myself sitting on His lap and Him holding me. I like to listen for His heartbeat, though I know He doesn't have a physical one.

My picture of Jesus changes vastly. I love to see Him as a love-sick Bridegroom counting the minutes until the wedding feast. I love to see Him as my Best Friend. My Lover. My King. My Saviour. This picture is by far the best way I love to visualize my Jesus:

The Holy Spirit's image is a little more illusive to me. I pretty much picture Him as a very sensitive Spirit-Being.

Our pastor used an excerpt from a movie scene as an illustration ( he didn't necessarily recommend the movie BTW):

dinner scene: (Ricky begins dinner prayer):
"Dear Lord baby Jesus lying in a manger...."

His wife interrupts: "Jesus did grow up you know!"

He replies: "I like the baby Jesus. When I pray that's who I like to pray to! When you pray, you can pray to grown-up Jesus, teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus, whatever YOU want!"

He begins to pray again: "Dear Lord baby Jesus, with a fleeced diaper, wrapped up all snug and warm, curled up asleep in a manger...."

Grandpa then confronts him: "He was a man! He had a beard for Christ's sake!"

Ricky then states: "Well, I like the baby Jesus the best!"

His friend Cal says: "I like to picture my Jesus in a tuxedo T-shirt, because it says, 'I want to be formal, but I'm here to party' ~ cause I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party too!"

One of his sons then says: "I like to picture my Jesus as a ninja fighter fighting off all the evil samurai."

His friend Cal says: "I like to picture my Jesus with large eagles wings and singing lead vocal for Lynard Skynard and a huge angel band!"

So, WHAT DOES YOUR JESUS LOOK LIKE???? Is he a stern father figure sitting on a golden throne waiting to bash you for wrong doings? Is He a large, grandfather figure with a long white beard like Gandalf? Is He the sweet baby Jesus in the manger? Do you always picture Jesus as a Caucasian male???

Do tell!

Love shoes??!

Good friends of ours just opened a fabulous shoe store here in town. Do you live close? Do you love stylish, comfortable, casual, did I mention ADORABLE footwear? Check it out....
On Walnut, behind Talbots. One of a kind!

Why DID the chicken cross the road???

BARACK OBAMA:
The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN:
My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn ' t about me.......

DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won ' t realize that he must first deal with the problem on ' THIS ' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the ' OTHER SIDE ' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he ' s acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding ' NEW ' problems.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I ' m going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don ' t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken ' s intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he ' s GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer ' s Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I ' ve not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can ' t you people see the plain truth? ' That ' s why they call it the ' other side. ' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like ' the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It ' s as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn ' t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn ' t that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% ......... reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:
Where's my gun?

AL SHARPTON:
Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

My baby girl is ONE today!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Today is already tomorrow

Tomorrow, June 11, Kate Ha Mee will be one year old! But, it's already tomorrow in Korea. I knew I would be thinking about her birth mother and foster mother tomorrow, but TODAY I'm totally consumed in thought of both of them. It is overwhelming to think this child, my child, has been so dearly loved by THREE mothers. Birth mother, foster mother, adoptive mother. Kate Ha Mee has already been on a tremendous journey in her short life, but with a triple blessing.

Father God does the same for each of us. No matter how hard our journey, He ALWAYS gives us what we need in advance, and in abundance ~ no matter what the circumstances seem like.

Move over Rachel Ray!

My friend Marianne is known for the STELLAR birthday parties she throws for her kids. I'm talking all out, over the moon kind of fun! One year she served up these WONDERFUL chicken fingers she made from scratch. I had to have the recipe and we've been eating them ever since. I just made them again the other night and thought, gosh, these are just tooooooo good not to share!!!

BREADED CHICKEN FINGERS

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
~~~~
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon Tony Chachere's original creole seasoning

Combine the top four ingredients and refrigerate 2-4 hours, or overnight. Mix together remaining ingredients. Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture and dredge in flour mixture. Fry til golden in small amount of oil in a nonstick pan. Yummmm!