Quotable Quotes

Last Sunday while in Murdo the Sunday school teacher was a wise, godly man. He is also Senator John Thune's father. These are some things he said that caught my attention.

~"Keep you eyes on the Lord and your nose in The Book!" (not his original quote)

~"If a man falls, he's not a failure unless he says somebody pushed him."

~"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you're doomed if you don't try."

James Montgomery, our neighbor who we've been praying for, wrote this 3 weeks ago today. Little did we know at the time how close he was going to come to this being a reality!

~"The pinnacle of my existence will be the day I prostrate myself before the Lord and He tells me I was right to believe in Him."

And to finish with Scripture, I love this promise as I see it come true on a daily basis.

~Proverbs 29:17 "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto they soul."

Church Softball

This summer our church has joined a town softball league. That is the brief version. The extended version is that our family is part of it - Matthew, Zach, and I play on the team while Monica, Logan, Alana, and Jesse play on the sidelines. It's been quite a fun thing to be part of! While there have been some long practices the kids have handled the late nights very well. They entertain themselves and play with other kids that may be around or Monica takes them to the nearby playground and the have fun there. Initially our practices were COLD but now things have warmed up quite a bit and tomorrow morning we expect our practice to be the opposite end of the thermometer.

Matthew is one of the pitchers.Zach plays when he can but, like we explained to him, this is kind of like AWANA for the big kids so the younger (read smaller) guys are often the benchwarmers=) He can play just as good as the rest of us but is waiting for his size to catch up with his skill!

Zach and I are often in outfield....not always a lot of excitement out there....=)

More than the games, I enjoy the practices. One reason being that we haven't won a single game yet and some of the other teams can be VERY ANNOYING! Did I say that? I meant spiritually challenging for someone like me who doesn't have the 'turn the other cheek' thing mastered just yet. It's good for me....I guess. (*One of the reasons for our team is to be a testimony to all the others that are mainly made up of unsaved people. It's been a good means of contact.) But, another reason I enjoy the practices more is that it is a relaxed time with our friends and just enjoy our church family in a different setting that usual.

For example, Jenna=) Doesn't she have on a great shirt?

Here we are at one of our practices....lined up and batting off of Dale's homemade T's.

That week Logan was able to participate in the practice as well.

Anyway, as this will most likely continue all summer I may write more about it at another time. It really has been enjoyable....now if only we could WIN!

UPDATE ON JAMES:

Today James is having surgery on his internal defibrillator. The one that he has may be causing some of the problems he's had lately (passing out) and they hope to be able to 'patch' and fix any problems they may find. His memory seems to be improving slowly but is still a matter of prayer. As of a few days ago he did not even remember his father being with him in the hospital for the first few days after the accident. Thank you to those who faithfully ask and pray! James' mom is keeping us posted and each time we talk with her she mentions how grateful she is for the many people praying for her son.

A Different Park

Yesterday I took the little people to a different park than the usual one we go to in Hot Springs. You all may get tired of endless park pictures of the kids, but I don't=) And, since this blog is kind of like a diary with pictures, and I have a lousy memory - I'm adding yet another blog post about going to the park. Lucky for you there won't be a lot of endless rambling on my part, mostly just pictures=)

The kids enjoyed swinging....

Playing on the climbing area....

Making silly faces....

And posing for Mommy as she took pictures yet AGAIN....

Eat your heart out girls=)

Alana and my attempt at a 'bubble' pic....

And now for the final pose which I've labeled: "Just because Logan and Alana are being so agreeable about smiling pretty doesn't mean I have to!"

Murdo...again

This past weekend, over Father's Day, our family went to Murdo. Matthew had been asked to fill the pulpit Sunday morning and evening as well as next Sunday morning. Thanks to the hospitality of the Daum family we went out Saturday evening and stayed the night to avoid what would have been an early, chaotic rush out the door trying to get all of us ready for church. Instead we were able to enjoy a relaxing evening and spend some time enjoying each other and the great outdoors.....and, as usual, Monica and I 'enjoyed' it by taking pictures=)

Of Monica....

Just enjoying a chat on the deck with Daddy.... And pictures of Zach....This dog was Zach's shadow!And of Logan....OK, so you can't see him in this picture but Mr. Daum took Logan with him for the last couple hours of daylight that evening. They are in a hurry to finish planting all their millet and Logan got a front row seat in the tractor!Then there was a pond which, of course, Logan had to explore.Then pictures of Alana....

And finally for the littlest rascal, Jesse....

He said, "Take a picture of me crying, Mommy", so here he is posing with his 'sad' face!

And on the way home from church he realized one of his lenses had popped out of his glasses - he found himself to be quite entertaining which is one of his favorite things to do=)Just a couple months ago we were in Murdo presenting NTI so we enjoyed the opportunity to be able to visit with some of these same people again. We had a wonderful, relaxing Father's Day (despite forgetting the Father's Day present!) and trust that Daddy had a good day, too! He got to take a nap and spend time with his kids....what more could a Dad ask for=)

UPDATE:

Here's a quick update on James - He, of course, remains in the hospital, but he is up walking in the halls, the neck brace is off as no internal injuries were found at all, the ventilator tube is out so he is talking, the one thing he does seem to have is some short term memory loss (especially related to the accident). The hope and prayer for now is that he would soon be able to get a heart....while he has recovered miraculously from the accident, he is still by no means healthy. Two nights ago his internal defibrillator had to kick in again, so - please continue to praise the Lord for all He has done and pray for a transplant as that is the one thing necessary for James to be completely healed. Thank You!

James

Today I was preparing a post about the life of our friend and neighbor, James Montgomery. I've mentioned him before, like in the very last post when James helped Monica with her car trouble and last year when he competed with Zach in the Egg Drop.

You see James was in a serious car accident on Wednesday afternoon. He has a pre-existing heart condition that may have played into the accident and by the next am we were being told that the brain scan showed absolutely no activity and it was only a matter of time - he would be disconnected from life support and he would go home to be with the Lord. Ever since hearing that we have been just waiting for the phone call to come saying James was gone....

BUT GOD HAD OTHER PLANS!!!

Within this past hour our hearts have gone from heavy with grief to full of praise! Matthew spoke with James's mother who said that a miracle had taken place. The same doctor who said that there was no hope announced that he was now waking up and responding. PRAISE THE LORD! As of right now, James is sleepy but wakes on command, opens his eyes, recognizes people, answers questions by a squeeze of his hand (due to the ventilator tube in his throat) and has all of his reflexes! As you can imagine, there is no medical explanation for this - but, who needs one when we serve our Creator - HE alone knows the number of our days!

"Thank you, Heavenly Father, for sparing the life of our friend. Thank you for fulfilling your Word once again when you told us that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. May we not forget to thank you!"

Caballito Blanco, llevame de aqui....

Friday:

For the past few days Monica has had the responsibility of watching the Couch's ranch for them while they've been away. She's often over there working so she knows what to keep an eye on and which water tank to check and which pasture the cows should be in, etc. During the days that she was 'ranch-sitting' we were able to go over there a couple times and go riding which was a HUGE treat for all of us=) I went over with Monica on Friday afternoon while the storm clouds were brewing but we actually had perfect weather and it was great fun riding just the two of us.Of course 99% of the work falls on Monica to get all of us horse-ignorant people ready to ride but she knows what she's doing and loves the chance to be around the horses.I basically opened and closed gates and took pictures.....Since I didn't take the camera on the ride here are a few pics from when it was over - me and 'my ride', Squirt.And Monica rode Pepsi who celebrated the saddle coming off with a good roll=)

*(Side Note: On Sunday afternoon while Matthew, Zach, Logan and I were at the park for the baseball games Monica stayed home with Jesse and Alana. She and the boys had spent the whole day there on Saturday and she was ready for an afternoon at home and we had the game to play in so it seemed like a good idea. Well, she took A and J over to the ranch to check the cows and ended up having car trouble and having to walk a looooong ways through the pastures and down the gravel road back to the ranch to call us and figure out what to do - while taking turns carrying J and A! Poor girl! But she handled it all well and was very thankful her little sibling behaved very well in the middle of some not so comfortable circumstances! And James gets the *Buffalo Gap Good Neighbor Award* for rescuing the stranded Chamberland kids.)

Monday:

Yesterday afternoon I went over with all the kids and everyone got a chance to ride. It seemed to take a while to get Squirt singled out from the other 4 and ready so the little kids entertained themselves riding the saddles while waiting for the real thing=)Monica usually brings all the horses in and runs them around the corrals a few times to calm them down so they're easier to deal with. They are sooo beautiful to watch! I have a definite favorite....look at him - he's GORGEOUS!

You can see in the video how Monica makes them run around a bit to calm them down. They need to 'release their wiggles'=)

But as pretty as the Arabian is, he's definitely not the best when it comes to taking little kids for a ride=) So, Squirt was given that job and did quite well once he settled down from having a fly go up his nose! The kids took turns brushing him as Monica got him all saddled and haltered and ready to lead around the corral.

Here's Zach waiting for his turn - I just thought it was a cool picture of the birthday boy=)

Little Miss Fearless was up first since she was the one who seemed the most ready to ride, no hesitation what so ever. If Squirt snorted or tossed his head the others would get a little nervous, while Alana just looked around and smiled=)Look at these next two pictures - Jesse thought he wanted to ride until I was setting him up on the saddle - then his mind changed most definitely! Mean mother that I am I made him do it and walked beside him the first time and then let them go with just Monica the second time, as you can see he had a change of heart. Logan did great holding him and keeping him calm.Zach got to ride on his own and I hope overall had a good day. Even though it was his birthday he did have to mow the lawn, but he was excused from the dishes=) He finished out the day staying up late with his big sister and dad watching Lord of the Rings, which means that I go and find something else, anything else, to do=) Lucky for you all, I picked blogging=)

On that note....Thank you Monica and Squirt for all the riding and the fun we had pretending we were cowboys=)