Monday, March 31, 2008

"Service" Station

A local gas station has revived the old term "service station." But, I think they might have taken it a bit too far. I guess with gas prices the way they are they have to do what they can these days to get the business in...



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Friday, March 28, 2008

Easter 2008

Here’s a cute picture of Andrew & Savannah from Easter. Hopefully I’ll have time this weekend to upload more.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Thelma Smith Obituary

The following is the obituary for my Grandma (my mom's mother) who died this past Monday morning. Grandma was the last of my grandparents still living. I have a lot of great memories of my grandparents... but, it's sad to realize that now they are only memories.

Thelma William Smith, 91, of 2501 Allentown Road, formerly of Bath, passed away at 2:10 a.m. Monday, March 10, 2008, at Hallmark House Nursing Center.

Born Feb. 22, 1917, in Littrell, Ky., to John Alexander and Mariah Elizabeth (Williams) Smith, she married Guy Boyd Smith on Dec. 30, 1932, in Littrell. He died June 3, 2004, in Pekin.
She also was preceded in death by two sons, Bobby Smith on July 6, 2005, in The Villages, Fla., and Jerry Smith on Jan. 24, 2007, in Pekin; one granddaughter; three brothers; and three sisters.

Surviving are two daughters, Rosie E. (Phil) Sexton of Monmouth and Connie D. (Ron) Sutton of Pekin; one daughter-in-law, Terry Smith of The Villages, Fla.; 15 grandchildren; 33 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandsons; and two sisters, Nannie (C.H.) Long of Plainfield, Ind., and Maydelle Key of Indianapolis, Ind.

She was a member of Parkway Christian Church in Pekin.

A homemaker, Thelma was devoted to her church and her family. She loved to read and cook.
She was a member of the Fulton County Chapter of the Modern Woodmen of America Camp 596.

Her funeral will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Preston-Hanley Funeral Home, Pekin Chapel. The Rev. Dr. Richard Shaw and the Rev. Andrew Ramey will officiate. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Burial will be in White Chapel Memory Gardens in Canton.
Memorial contributions may be made to Harbor Light Hospice, 2000 W. Pioneer Parkway, Suite 18B, Peoria, IL 61615 or to Hallmark House Nursing Center, 2501 Allentown Road, Pekin, IL 61554.
To express condolences online, visit http://www.preston-hanley.com/.

Published in the Peoria Journal Star on 3/11/2008.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Waiting for Mommy

I've discovered that this is Mister Tumnus' favorite stance on and off throughout each day... sitting at the front window waiting for Laurie to come home.

Friday, March 07, 2008

The Emergent Church Movement

This past week I've been spending a great deal of time reading about the emergent church movement. I've been aware of the emergent movement for a few years, but I haven't paid too much attention to it. But, for some reason I've been intrigued by it lately. And, to be quite honest, it's hard (VERY hard) to find a "list" of beliefs for this movement.

I ran across a new book, The New Christians; Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier, which was just recently released. I'm hoping this book will give me a better understanding of the emergent church movement.

I'm hoping to give some thoughts and reflections from my reading as I progress through the book. I do have to admit I'm torn... because I understand where they are coming from - "evangelicals" as a whole do not appear to be "doing church right" and "mainline protestants" (denominations) appear to be even more confused and have complicated the "process" of what it means to "do church." However, even though I agree we don't have it "right" I begin to get very defensive when being told we're "doing it wrong."

So... how DO we "do church" right? How do we "do church" in the 21st century in a way that Jesus would want us to? Or, is there a "right" way? Is there a "wrong" way? Does Jesus care if we are involved as churches with social concerns? Should our primary action be to preach the gospel and try to save others (can we personally "save" others anyway?) or live the gospel and let the Spirit save others through them watching us? (Did that make any sense? I couldn't figure out how to write that, but I think you know what I mean.)

Anyway... so this is what I'm doing in my spare time right now. We'll see where this takes me.

Do Not Bring Plants In The House During Cold Weather!

Garden Grass Snakes, also known as Garter Snakes (Thamnophissirtalis) can be dangerous.

Yes, Grass Snakes; not Rattlesnakes. Here's why.........

A couple in Sweetwater, Texas had a lot of outdoor plants. During a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from freezing weather. It turned out that a little garden grass snake was hidden in one of the potted plants. When it warmed up a bit, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa.

She let out a very loud scream!! The husband (who was taking a shower) ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was. She screamed "There's a Snake Under the Sofa"!

He got down on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time, the family dog came in and cold-nosed him in the butt. Thinking the snake had bitten him, he screamed and fell over on the floor. His wife thought he had a heart attack, so she covered him up, told him to lie still and called an ambulance.

The Paramedics rushed in, wouldn't listen to his protests and loaded him on the stretcher and started carrying him out. About that time, the snake came out from under the sofa and one of the Paramedics dropped his end of the stretcher.

That's when the man broke his leg and why he's still in the hospital, but the wife still had the problem of what to do about that snake in the house.

She called on a neighbor man. He volunteered to capture the snake, so he armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the sofa. Soon, he decided it was gone and told the woman, who then sat down on the sofa and began to relax. But while relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under the sofa.

The neighbor man, seeing her lying there passed out, tried to use CPR to revive her. The neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth, and slammed her husband in the back of his head with a full bag of canned corn, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed stitches.

The noise woke the woman from her dead faint, and she saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife bending over him, so she assumed that he had been bitten by the snake. She went to the kitchen and got a small bottle of whiskey and began pouring it down the mans throat.

By now the police had arrived. They saw the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occured. They were about to arrest them all, when the woman tried to explain how it all had happened over a little garden snake. The police called an ambulance, which took away the neighbor and his sobbing wife.

The little snake again crawled out from under the sofa, but this time, one of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table. The table fell over and the lamp on it shattered, and as the bulb broke, it started a fire in the drapes. The other policeman tried to beat out the flames and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog, who was startled, and jumped out into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car.

Meanwhile, the burning drapes were seen by the neighbors who called the fire department. The firemen had started raising the firetruck ladder when they were halfway down the street. The rising ladder tore out the overhead wires and put out the electricity and dissconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block, but they did put out the fire.

Time passed.

Both men were released from the hospital, the house was repaired, the dog came home, the police got a new car, and all was right with their world.

A while later, the husband and wife were watching TV, and the weatherman announced that a cold snap was due that night. The wife asked her husband if he thought they should bring in their plants for the night.

Thats when he shot her.

:)

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Red Neck Mansion

I saw this picture, obviously a “Red Neck Mansion,” online the other day in one of my too-many-to-count Google Reader subscriptions (came through on a tropical plant forum I belong to, I think… not sure of the connection there???). Makes me crack up every time I look at it… hope it gives you all a smile or two, also. J