Living Hope's race & Bible seminar with Eli Morris.

Is still reeling/Thinking/Processing/Ect... from the encouraging and challenging words at Tuesday's the Bible & race seminar.

Zack & Elizabeth

It was an amazing week in Nicaragua as we have taught family conferences, led in worship, done evangelism, connected with old friends, and made some new ones.

On Saturday we took the band and all the gear and did a concert in a field! It was a sweet time!

Just thinking about the makeup of our team…we’ve got mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, Latino, black and white, small groups, engaged couples, friends, teenagers, senior citizens (according to AARP!), children, infants, and unborn babies – all coming together to take the Gospel to the nations."

Why can't some people just tell the truth!!!!

When Katie and I purchased our current house in 2005 we were provided the normal paperwork, including the TENNESSEE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY CONDITION DISCLOSURE form that is required by the TENNESSEE PROPERTY DISCLOSURE LAW.
That's all well and good if you are counting on the people filling it out to be honest and answer the questions truthfully. Unlike the people that we purchased our hose from.
To be more specific, there are at least two of the questions that they answered in a completely fraudulent manner.
So here are the questions and the sellers answers;

#14. Property or structural damage from fire, earthquake, floods,
landslides, tremors, wind, storm or wood destroying organisms?
No
If yes, has said damage been repaired?
No.

Really! Seriously! That is what they answered!

We believed them and the Guy that gave us a home inspection letter, until this spring. I noticed that we might have some termite activity in the living room. I called an exterminator to come out and retreat the house, but also decided to pull off the siding under the window to see if it should be treated inside also. Well....here is the picture story of what we found;







This is the damage caused by the current termite activity, not much more than eating the paper off the back of the Sheetrock.



What I found next was much more disturbing!

The is the corner of the house....on the same wall...this is damage that resulted from an previous massive termite infestation that the previous owners attempted to repair, cover-up and failed to disclose to us.
Striped off the entire back wall...
Corner close up.....

Here are two more questions....

#6. Room additions, structural modifications or other alterations or
repairs made without necessary permits?

No permits ever pulled to make these repairs..

#7. Room additions, structural modifications or other alterations or
repairs not in compliance with building codes?
I am just thinking that leaving the rotten wood to support the corner of the house, would not be in compliance with building code. Just sayin'!

By the way how do we know when the repairs were made??????

Well, there is a manufacture date stamped on the Sheetrock! (04/13/2002) It appears that all of their repairs were made from the inside of the house. why they did not replace the insulation that was covered with mud is beyond me.

I have replaced all of the fiberglass insulation, (the old stuff was full of old mud trails), damaged lumber, and foam board.
Reattached the clapboards, siding, and trim. Caulked and touched up the paint where needed. When all is said and done about 800.00 and more than 60 hours of my time to make the repairs .....I have been told that It would cost me more to attempt to take them to Court than it would be worth, but I do hope that the "good christian" folks that sold us the house and left us this mess are feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit!

It was a simple Yes or No question!

OK It has been for ever....

I am taking a class at Union University and have to make a blog site as one of my assignments. So since I have one I just need to make some update to it, and good to go. I might get us back in the blogging mode.

Cricket Logic....

I have been reading again. Actually, I read all the time, but since I am home I wanted to share a thought on a book I read a while back. It keeps coming up in my mind, so it's time to put it down on paper. It was a Max Lucado book....In the Grip of Grace. Good book, but here is what stuck out and is apparently stuck. In one chapter he was talking about how one Sunday he was in church, and there was a cricket on the floor. He began to think about that cricket. Was that the only life he ever knew? Did life exist outside the church? Was there an entire colony of crickets, who wondered about this. (Yes you need to stretch your mind a little bit here...) However, here's the point. He said, "Have we become so worried about worshipping the creation, that we've forgotten to worship the Creator??" There's a wake up call if you need one!! Have I gotten to the point where I have lost time to stop and worship Him? I hope not. I know there is always more time I could be spending. What is there in life that has become more important than Him?? Your family? Job? Kids? Time with Friends? the list is endless. There will always be something that Satan can use to take our time away from our Father. I think that is why I like the crickets so much. I love the fact that I am so simply reminded of love and how His love is always there even when I am sometime wayward, as we all are. Spend some time with Him today...even if it is just a few minutes. You won't regret it, I promise!!

Summertime, Summertime....

I am loving summer!!! I am off of work for just about 6 weeks and am home! It is such a happy time for me. I honestly feel like there is some invisible balance that has been restored in the house because of it. (it could be my imagination, but I promise that's how I feel.) I have been very blessed by my boss at work who let me have some time off this summer and found a school teacher who wanted to work this summer have my class and then is letting me come back to work in August after the kids go back to school. I worked all of June because Jim was home recovering from his back surgery. He is back to work and doing great!!! The kids and I are just hanging out...playing, whatever and it is great! I am working to get the house in order. Something happens when you work, it just isn't the same kind of cleaning when you have so little time to do it in. I don't really like to clean, but I have found myself enjoying it. HONESTLY!!!! We are taking a small trip to Ohio in a couple weeks because Jim's grandma is going to be 90. His mom is having a party for her and she doesn't even know we are coming....hopefully she will love her surprise...US!! Hopefully I'll find some time to blog a little while I am home, but you never know.

Mourning Doves....

Prepare to be shocked....2 posts in one day!! My friend Jennifer, blogs everyday, and I am just amazed by that, I have trouble finding time to get something written once a week....but anyway, this I thought was worthy of an extra post today. =) We have had a nest of mourning doves that we've been watching for a while now. Mourning doves are one of the few species of birds that mate for life. They are very sweet birds, but their nests are terrible. We googled it because it looked so bad, but apparently that's how they make them. Anyway, we have been watching our eggs and in the whirlwind of the last month, see previous update post, we missed a lot. However, yesterday appears to be "pushing out of the nest" day. (or maybe they fell out because it was so crappy. =) ) We found the 2 babies on the ground yesterday afternoon kinda wandering around. The kids were fascinated and wanted to sit on the grass and watch them. Here is a picture of them.

We have a play set in the back yard, and we finally saw mom and dad bird up on the play set cheering on their children to get to the safe place that they had found for them. It was so sweet. The one bird was pretty brave and flew off right away. The second, was a little more timid and kinda hopped around aimlessly for a long time, over an hour waiting on someone to come and get him. Jim finally got too close and he flew a little bit. He almost skimmed the ground it was so low and he was just not sure of himself. But he eventually got back to his family and hopefully they will find another home away from the neighbor's cats.

Update...we're back!!

It has been almost a month since my last post...thank you Susan...but what a busy month it has been!!! First let's talk about Jim's back. He sneezed one day and literally could barely walk afterwards. I guess it was just the straw that broke the camels back....no pun intended. So off to the doctor he went. They did another MRI and decided rather quickly, like 4 days that surgery was needed. So we scrambled to get things in order so that we were prepared for him to be out of work for what we thought was about 2 -2.5 weeks. The surgery went very well. The doctor told Jim later that he was surprised at how big the rupture was...about the size of the tip of your thumb....and couldn't believe that Jim was still walking!! Thank you God for small miracles even when we don't know about them!! Well, the recovery is going well and Jim had his follow up this week. The doctor told him that he was going to be out of work for at least another 2-4 weeks. Yuck....he is already bored. Also he will have to go on temporary disability and that doesn't pay the normal pay rate, but it is better than nothing. =) Since it looks like he is going to be home most of June, I can continue to work full time until he goes back to work and he can stay home with the kiddos. Not our original summer plan, but it works, so we're going to go with it!! Keep his recovery in your prayers and us as well....thanks!

On to the kids....school is almost out!! They are so ready, and so are we!! They have had a great year, but are ready for a break. I honestly hope that Shelby Co. Schools never again make us go after Memorial Day, this is just plain stupid. The kids really haven't done anything all of the past week, and aren't going to do anything next week either. They are supposed to have Field Day Tuesday, but it is also supposed to rain, so we'll see what happens there. We found out that Taylor didn't make APEX, and she is ok with it. A little sad, but she is better. Bradley is doing well too, still thriving on his new meds. We thought that he was going to need an IEP, but he was tested and it was decided that he wasn't in need at this time...praise God! The school will keep his file open and in the future if it is decided that he needs one, then we will already be ahead of the game.

Bradley celebrated his 6th birthday!! I can't believe my baby is that old and almost a first grader. We celebrated at Incredible Pizza. It was our first visit and it was really fun! It was not crowded, clean, and reasonably priced. We went on a Thursday, and spent around $60 and we all ate at the buffet and had $50 of game cards to play with. It was a good deal on Thursday, they double your game card money so that was really nice. The kids had a blast riding the bumper cars, playing mini-golf, mini-bowling, games, skee ball, and spending the tickets they earned.

Taylor finished up her 4th year of Girl Scouts and got to bridge to the next level, which is Juniors. She has been in the same troop of girls since kindergarten and they have a great time!! Her leader, Ann and assistant leader Susan are just the best!! They really work hard to make it fun for the girls and I know Taylor wouldn't love it as much if they weren't part of it!!

I think that is it for now!! Have a great weekend!!!

The wet fleece...or placemat in our case.

This morning after my walk, I am making coffee, and I notice that the place mat that the coffee pot sits on is totally soaked. Nothing else around it is wet and I found it very curious. So as I cleaned it up, my mind started to wander, as it does sometimes, and I found myself thinking of Gideon. Here's a guy who is literally fighting God every step of the way. God calls him, and he says no, not me, but if it is really me then let me go and prepare a gift for you and you stay here and wait...guess what that's what happened.

Then as if that wasn't enough, he says, this out of Judges 6: 36 Then Gideon said to God, "If You will deliver Israel by my hand, as You said, 37 I will put a fleece of wool here on the threshing floor. If dew is only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry, I will know that You will deliver Israel by my strength, as You said." 38 And that is what happened. When he got up early in the morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung dew out of it, filling a bowl with water. 39 Gideon then said to God, "Don't be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me to make one more test with the fleece. Let it remain dry, and the dew be all over the ground." 40 That night God did [as Gideon requested]: only the fleece was dry, and dew was all over the ground.

It's kinda unreal when you think about it, but then when you do...ouch...that's us. We have so little faith and confidence in Our Lord. He is sovereign, He's got things under control. Yet we question that small voice inside our head....we listen to other things and other people and miss what God is telling us. I know I am so guilty of that. I love to hear that Voice, but sometimes to just do not want to be still enough to listen to it.

Just like in the story of Gideon, God will get the eventual Glory, in His way and His time. I love that, just like in Matthew when Jesus tells the disciples in Chapter 17 20-21: Because of your little faith," He told them. "For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting. Here's my thing: I want God to move, but sometimes I want Him to do all the work and I try to skip out on the prayer and fasting...ouch again. =) Something to work on even now. =) That's my thoughts for today. In case you were wondering about the water and the place mat: Jim went downstairs last night to take some medicine, he dumped a glass of water on the place mat. It was late so he didn't clean it up. But I still got something out of it.

Legalism and Dieting.....

I am pretty sure that this title caught your attention and you are wondering how those to things could possibly be related. However, for me they are. I have been giving this some thought recently. Last May, I started exercising. Most weeks 5 times a week I walk with my neighbor. We made it through the winter cold and are still walking, most mornings in the dark. I have come to enjoy, if not crave my exercise. This is a weird statement for me to make, but it is so true. Anyway, I am feeling the need to lose a few pounds. For once in my life I am fairly comfy with the skin I am in, but because I have started this quest to be healthier, I think I could go on a diet or something. Here's my thing, and where legalism comes in. I have done weight watchers in the past and have had huge success. After Taylor was born I weighed about 75 pounds more than I wanted and with WW I took it off and have kept 55 of it off for almost 10 years now. I was a great legalistic dieter. I just told myself to follow the dieting rule, I just couldn't eat certain things any more. By golly it worked. However, since I have given way to a new way of life and love of Jesus, most of those legalistic ways are melting away...which has been so cool. But now, I have no idea how to go on a diet. By the way, I hate the word diet.....I would rather figure out a way to make a lifestyle change that doesn't involve me giving up ice cream, bread, or pasta in order to become healthy. If I figure something out I'll let you know. If you have a suggestion, let me know.