I saw this over on Jeff’s blog and thought it was nice.  It always better to reflect on all the good and bad things that have happened over the course of the year.

I never thought this would happen to me in 2008.

• Attend church every Sunday of the year (not being forced to)
• gain trust in my husband more and more everyday
• teaching second grade at Drew Central Elementary
• watch Ashton play soccer and love every minute of it
• regain a friendship that was lost
• moving to a 3 bedroom rent house (5 years more and we will buy one)
• see my grandmother for another year (She is 92)
• find an end to debt problems (or at least light at the end of the tunnel)
• Michael having a full time job at Monticello School District
• seeing my brother fall in love again and get engaged.
• went to a Newsboys concert (what you do for the love of your hubby)
• be jealous because Jeff went to Auschwitz (so totally a dream of this Holocaust fanatic)
• read through a complete John Grisham novel
• complete another the 3rd annual Arnold DVD year end movie
• Gain family members back that once said they did not want to see us
• pay off my car note
• begin to read the Bible
• make pintos just like my Dad (I have tried for about 10 years now)
• begin tithing on a regular basis
• stand up to my Principal on something I believed in

Things that I want to see happen…

• pray on a regular basis, not just when I need to
• read through the New Testament in one year
• get back to running like I love
• stay in second grade for another year (absolutely love it)
• begin to speak my mind a little more instead of holding it all in
• actually get flowers to grow outside and not die
• have more Pamper Chef products (baking dishes here I come)
• to not be in the red at the end of the month..stupid overdraft privileges (actually going to happen in January)
• to read more Christian books that are encouraging

Carolyn’s birthday is December 24. That was the  day we received good news about her last needle biopsy. All the initial results from those came back negative for lymphoma or Hodgkin’s! That is truly a startling turn of events that we are ascribing to God’s gracious intervention through His people’s prayers. While Caro’s doctor may still ask her to have one of the nodes removed (a significant abdominal surgery), we are thanking the Lord at this point. Carolyn said she felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off her shoulders.

Last Friday, she had surgery again to remove more tissue around her breast from where they removed the first tumor. They injected her with dye that traced the lymph nodes connected to that area. They removed those and tested them for breast cancer to see if the invasive portions of the tumor had spread.

Today is my birthday. We got a call this evening while celebrating my birthday with family and old friends at Mimi’s Cafe in Little Rock. The results… again, negative. No sign of cancer in the removed nodes. Carolyn breathed a huge sigh of relief and says she can’t stop sighing.

Obviously, we’ll have some more consultations. She goes back next Monday morning to have the drain port removed. (We won’t go into that; it’s rather gross.) We are continuing to count on your and your church’s intercession for us. We thank you deeply for your participation in this hard journey with us.

I remarked to Caro the other night how different this time around is from the first bout with cancer in 1992. The outpouring of prayer and a sense of connectedness thanks to the blog world, Facebook, email and other forums has been astonishing. Literally, we’ve been aware of prayer and encouragement from all over the globe. Thank you.

And for those few of you who keep coming back to Notes waiting patiently for posts of church planting, tech, missional living, etc., please stay with me. I’ll get back to that in the near future.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

journeyguy posted a photo:

journeyguy posted a photo:

The last of the Christmas was spent with Michael’s parents and grandparents.  We all had a great time.

Kaylee and Ashton sitting by the fire place awaiting the opening of presents.  Well, at least Ashton is waiting.

Both kids as usual loved opening the presents.  Ashton racked up on Batukons and Transformers.  Kaylee gots lots of new baby dolls and bottles for the babies.

Of course what is a trip without playing with Callie.

We open our presents on Christmas Eve, except for the big ones from Santa.  This way the kids and parents get to relax and play before we hit the road for our Stuttgart Christmas.

This year was very exciting because Kaylee was very into opening presents (not just hers but everyone’s).

Ashton’s favorite gift this year was his moon.  It is a remote control moon that doubles at a nightlight.  It is awesome.  He is so into science (must get it from Daddy).

Michael’s gift from me was pictures.  Rosjuane Pinkard did an excellent job on helping with my pictures.

My gift from Michael was my favorite.  Tommy Girl cologne and some relaxing bath products.

So Santa cam and ate the cookies and drunk the milk.  The reindeer however had to go to the bathroom.  I am glad that they did it in the bowl and not on the floor.

Ashton’s big gift this year was soccer goals and a soccer ball.   No more kicking the ball into trash cans.

Kaylee’s big gift was her kitchen.  She loves to cook and feed her babies.

This meeting is for heads of our new ministry teams:

• Web/Media Ministry: Taylor James
• Sunday Team: Tracy Reed
• Worship Team: Jeremy Woodall
• Missions: Jennifer McKinstry
• Building & Grounds: David English
• Fellowship & Followup: Stephanie Fearer
• Childrens Ministry: Mandy Moss
• Finance/Stewardship: Clayton Moss
• Elders: Jeff Noble, TJ Files

I would prefer not to receive catcalls and ecstatic derision from this admission: I’m a geek.

I love computers (well, real computers… Macs). I love the intricacies of web design. I can sit in front of my iMac for waaaay too long checking out new Web 2.0 technologies, lifestream services, etc.

In recent weeks, several old and new friends banded together to create an informal and ad hoc group called TGOM. The post title says it all: Twitter Geeks of Monticello. It started simply. I sent out a tweet one day around 11 a.m., asking if any TGOM wanted to meet for lunch. What resulted was a raucous gathering of unashamed geeks. Well, one of them is a closet geek, but the rest of us carry our mice proudly.

We’ve had more lunches and tweet wars since then, even trying to help each other with Twittiquette. We randomly appointed officers for the group with BCMguy as president, me as Sergeant-at-Arms, seearkaj as Secretary, and journeyjerm as Vice President. I think we even let larryanna12 be Treasurer even though she’s not been able to be a part of the meetings yet. Others are vying for power presumably as I tweet.

In spite of our general banter, today I experienced a very practical and ministry-oriented side to TGOM. I’m confident that any of my tweet buddies could have helped, but one was johnny-on-the-spot. Here’s the situation:

Carolyn and I woke at 4 a.m. today to make it to Little Rock for a 6:00 a.m. surgical procedure. You can see the why’s of that here. However, suffice it to say that we were both bushed - her more than I, of course, upon our return home at noon. I dropped her off to sleep while I ran several errands, including picking up prescriptions at Wal-Mart. While I was there, I was supposed to get some Diet Pepsi for her. In all the hubbub of a crowded Wal-Mart (and Sam and I goofing off), I forgot.

When Carolyn awoke and got hungry enough to eat, she requested her Diet Pepsi. I slapped my forehead in frustation. Aaaah. I had just laid down to rest (see the earlier comment about 4 a.m.).  I was mustering up the energy to run to Wallyworld again when an idea stuck me… could it be…. TGOM to the rescue?

I hammered out a fast tweet: “Any TGOM folks at the store?”

Within a minute, I had several responses. arnievw and larryanna12 were apparently off-roading it in the Delta somewhere. shaneglass said his jeep was broke. BCMguy was rooting on Ole Miss at the Cotton Bowl. But seaarkaj said, “I’m at Wallyworld.”

A couple of private tweets and a few minutes later, and I had Diet Pepsi roadside delivery from a smiling friend.

That, folks, is one great way that Twitter can be extremely helpful and useful. I don’t care if I am a geek. Nyah, nyah. Live long and prosper.

We had Christmas with my Grandmother.  We had to have it at the Nursing home because she was there for rehabilitation after gall bladder surgery.  It was amazing to see Ashton talking to all the old folks.   He never once made fun of them, even though one kept asking him to guess her name about 50 times.

Ashton was trying to help Mammy get into her presents.  He didn’t care who’s presents they were, he just wanted to open them.

Of course, my teacher to be found the chalkboard.

I love this picture.   We are really into something.

Ashton and I hated the nursing home food, but Kaylee digged it.  She is such he Daddy’s child.

The entertainment for the evening was a big glassed cage of live birds.

Kaylee’s other entertainment was to ride around with Mammy in her power chair.

At the beginning of 2008, I never dreamed…

• I would walk the streets of Krakow, Poland.
• See Auschwitz.
• Baptize Taylor James.
• Preach in a Polish Baptist church.
• Get published in a book for childrens charity.
• Attend the Arkansas Baptist State Convention voluntarily.
• I’d own a flat screen TV.
• Carolyn would be diagnosed with breast cancer.
• My family would receive sooo much love and prayer support.
• Journey would gain so many new families and friends.
• Journey would also lose a few more folks.
• I’d reconnect with Tim Smith at Exponential in Orlando.
• Olympics in China!?
• Attend another Passion event in Dallas with Carolyn - and have to stay in the hotel with the flu.
• Help develop an informal church planters network in Arkansas
• See Sam go to his first week-long kids camp - by himself
• Teach a seminar on using the internet for godly influence at Glorieta, NM
• Watch Adelyn place first in just about every race she swam in.
• See the UAM BCM building begin construction!
• Attend the last worship service for the BCM in their old building (built in 1954).
• Meet Ed Stetzer.
• Become a Twaddict.
• Get beat in the first round of the fantasy football playoffs.
• Shop unsuccessfully for a Kia Rondo.
• Get a moped stolen from me and have money provided to purchase a new one.
• Fall more in love with my wife than ever.
• Resurrect the old joke about seeing the fortune teller (don’t ask; you have to present to fall for it.)
• See gas go over $4 and under $1.50 in one year. That’s retarded.
• Be prayed for consistently and dramatically and intensely by so many folks from all over the world. (That’s a blog post forthcoming in and of itself.)
• Witness “The Catch” in Superbowl 2008.
• Have some strong aversion to words like bailout, change, and pork.
• See such radical change in national leadership and history made at the same time.
• Live in our house without power for five days due to a hurricane
• Watch Carolyn get her own iPhone and become one of those users she used to lash out at.
• Witness a near-worship service on one of the last shows of American Idol ‘08.
• Get to play in foot-deep snow in the middle of March in Arkansas!
• Find a new home for Fancy the chihuahua, get a new dog… have a cat run over… and get a kitten for Christmas… whew. Pet Replacement Year.
• Learn so much about Christ, life and intimacy with God through hardship.
• Preach in Newark, Arkansas.
• See dozens of college students coming to our church.
• Marry one of my former students… (I was the officiating pastor… I’m not from Texas…)
• Admit that PCs are better than Macs… then I woke up in a cold sweat. What a nightmare.

What did you see happen that surprised you? Blog about it and leave a comment and a link!