Ok for the show we went to. We weren’t going to go to a show while we were in Branson because we had on goal while we were there as I said before SLEEP!!!!! To go to a show you have to do your hair, put on makeup (when you are me), put nice cloths on and everything that goes with going out for the evening. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go through the hassle of all that. Dad wanted us to go though because it was one that He and Mom had gone to before and really enjoyed. We just couldn’t say no. I’m so glad we didn’t!
The show was a variety show. It had this great ventriloquist. He came out onto the stage and no joke it looked like his head was the dummy and the dummy’s head was his. He also had his baby dummy that was so funny. He (the ventriloquist) picked this lady on the front row that he had the baby call grandma through the whole program. She just played it up just as big as the ventriloquist guy. Then the other main act was a magician. He actually called himself an illusionist. He did some great acts as well. Like this one were birds were coming out of all there things. Then the birds would fly over the heads of the crowd. That made me nerves. I was always afraid that the birds would to us what they do to my car. He also had this act that he was put in this cage that shrunk and had spike things on it; his wife was on a trap door that was tripped open by a string that was being pulled by the walls of the cage as they closed and hanging over spikes as well. I will pause and tell you that no one died of course but the only thing that I didn’t like was that they covered up everything that they did with curtains. You couldn’t see what was going on at all. I think that we figured out what he did but we weren’t sure and that is for sure.
The ventriloquist at one point had these two guys get up on the stage and help him sing this song. While one of them was a teacher and so Joy and I cheered. We were the only ones that did that and the ventriloquist looked our way and said “Ok, I’m not sure what that was all about.” Talk about being a little embarrassed!!!
I think that the cool part is that they remembered Dad from when he and Mom went to the show. Most people remember my Dad because of him being the only survivor of a plane crash. He wrote a tract about it and gives it out every were we go. They both at least acted like they remembered him. The magician who is also a pastor and holds services every Sunday at the theater that they have their show in told Dad that he wanted him to come sometime and preach for him. Who knows weather or not that will ever happen, but it is cool to think about it happening.
We also had our picture taken with both of them.
On Thursday we shopped and went out to lunch. We met someone while we were out that worked for my great grandpa on my Mom’s side of the family. Then while we were getting ice cream we met another family that was born or had family that lived in the small town where Dad lived as a kid. Talk about small world!!!
On Friday we stopped at Lamberts. It is a great restaurant with such a fun atmosphere. We had the best waitress in the whole place. I asked for a diet Dr. Pepper hoping that they would have it and because they didn’t she gave me one of her own diet Dr. Peppers. I was so surprised! She talked listen to all the kids tell their stories, Dad tell his jokes and in general just had fun with us. I think that the best thing she did was this, Jonathan my brother needed a refill on his drink so she took the 42 oz mug to refill it. As she was coming back to the table she tripped, the mug tipped and all of the contents went onto Jonathans lap. We all just about had a heart attack on the spot. Then we looked at Jonathans face and it wasn’t on of shock and horror but one of shock and confusion. He kept feeling his pants to see where they were wet and they weren’t wet anywhere. She had “spilled” and empty mug onto his lap. We laughed so hard! I think that every one in our area of the restaurant was looking at us. Jonathan was laughing just as hard as the rest of us.
I know that I am not writing about the things that I said I was going to write about but this is what is on my heart today and all week. I need to ramble for a while.
Wait, trust, rest and hope have been on my mind these last few days. I have had a life long theme of waiting for things to happen and because of that I have to work at the rest and trust part of my life. Then because of having problems trusting and resting I struggle with the hoping part of my life. I give up on there being any hope for my dreams to come true, my needs to me met or what ever else it might be at the time to be taken care of. NO, God has never let me down. No, God doesn’t know how to let me or any one else down for that matter. He gives us the desires of our heart. I know that he does this when we have the desires that He wants us to have and the desires that He gives us. Yet so often I feel like He is letting me down and not fulfilling the desires that I think are from Him. My biggest question these days is to know how to discern if a desire is from God or me. I never want my will to get in the way of God’s in my life. I want His will more than I want my way. His will is always right and when I lean on God instead of my own understanding I will get His best. I worry that I might miss His will if I’m not careful yet that can’t happen if I am truly trying to obey Him.
Then there is FAITH. How do you do what James 2 says to do? How do you work out faith when you don’t know for sure that what you are trusting in is from God? Should you try to work out the answer? Should you just sit back and do nothing about what you feel He says He wants in your life and let Him do it all for you? Where is the balance in all this? I know that I have a responsibility to pray every day all through the day. I also know that I am to keep doing the last thing that God told me to do until he tells me to do something else. I know also that every time I try to help God out I tend to get in the way of what He is trying to do in my life.
I guess that my conclusion for this whole thing is that I need to keep doing the things I know that God wants me to do and let Him take care of the rest in my life. As I am sure you all know THAT IS THE BIGGEST JOB OF ALL!!!!!! When you are a fixer like me you have a hard time with the whole taking your hands off and letting God put His hands on the situation. I guess it all comes down to letting God be Lord in my life.
Thank God that I have been trying to let Him be Lord in my life. Now having thought through all this I feel like I have been going in the right direction. Just wait, trust, rest, hope, and put my faith in Him. None are easy but doing all will put God where He needs to be in my life, right smack dab in the middle.
Last week my family and I went to Branson, MO for spring break. I had one thing that I wanted to do while I was there, SLEEP. Boy, I had no idea that we would have as wonderful a week as we had though.
We started out on Monday loading the van in the pouring rain. But it was ok because we were on our way to a wonderful week of fun and relaxation. I must say that for a little while I was nerves as we drove because we found out that the blower to the AC and all that other stuff wasn’t working and the windows got all fogged up so it was heard for Dad who was driving to see. But we drove out of the rain and soon were wishing for the clouds again because they afforded is a little protection from the hot sun. We made it with all our stuff, food and lots of soda. I’m not sure how I did it but I went out to buy soda for the trip and came back with way to much. The boys made sure that we took it all too. We could have just drunk soda the whole trip and still had some left (that was an exaggeration). We got the van unloaded and every thing put where it was to go, got into our swimming suit and went to the pool. IT WAS COLD!!!!!!! There is really no way around that fact. I think that we all turned blue. Joy and I got out before the rest of the family so we could get dinner ready and get a hot tub bath ready for when Joanna got back from the pool. I started the water running into the tub then went and took my shower. I figured that by the time I got done with my shower the tub would be almost full. When I got out the tub was only about four inches full. Joanna was back and wanted to get in so we both got in to the tub in our swim suit. Then figured out that the stopper wasn’t stopping the water, it was letting a little out all the time. So for the next 20 minute I sat ether on the stopper or with my hand holding it down. Joanna had a great bath! The next day Joy, Joanna and I decided to get in again (this was after we had maintenance up to fix the stopper!). This time joy and I got the bright idea to try this body mask on our arms. I kind of stank. Ok not kind of it just did, but we wanted to try it any way. By the way it was this lovely color of mud green. After you put it on the stuff has to dry. You know it’s really hard to have stuff dry in the bath tub. We had to set in the tub with our arms out in front of us for what seemed like forever. I had wanted the stuff to work really well on me so I had put it on really thick, so my arms took longer to dry then Joy’s. Finally I just gave up and stared to wash off the nasty stuff (that is what I started to call it after smelling it for so long) only to find that it was making the tub turn the same lovely color of mud green. Then when we stared to try to wash the tub it wouldn’t come off. I was thinking about how fast we could get to Wal-Mart and back with something to clean it with. Joy was trying to come up with a plan of how to explain the mess to house cleaning. Then I got my great idea for the day. We could use dish soap to clean of the gunk. Because, you see, the night before we had used these bath beads that are filled with oil in the tub and that was making all the green gunk stick to the tub. I have never seen anything work so fast in my life. It took all of the green gunk off in no time at all. We were so relived, we didn’t have to tell housekeeping or go to Wal-Mart. After that we had a very uneventful stay at Branson. By the way we did get to sleep, rest, and watch movies and all that great stuff. We also got to go see one show. I will tell you more about that at a later time. I also have to tell you about our lunch at Lamberts where they throw the rolls at you. I also have to tell you about our shopping trip in downtown Branson.
I really can’t believe myself. I wrote a page long post about my lovely trip last week while I was at work today and then left it there on the disk that I put it on. Some times I really wonder about myself. I think that I might be losing my mind (please no comments about that). I will try to put on tomorrow, but no promises about that because tomorrow is parent teacher conference and I will be working late because of that.
