Ronnie, Cambodia, and a Pilot

My husband left for Cambodia on July 13. He and 9 other people traveled to Poipet (upper left hand side of the country) for a mission trip. This is Ronnie's third time to Cambodia. In the past he has spent time in Phnom Penh and down on the coast in the southern part of the country.

If you would like to see some pictures from their trip you can go to: http://www.ccccambodia2010.blogspot.com/

I was parking the car at the airport on the 13th when I saw a gentleman that goes to our church. He is a pilot and does over seas flights. I didn't put two and two together at first. Yes, he was flying our missions team over seas to their first stop in Tokyo. For some reason I was so excited about this news. He is a very neat Christian man and his family is wonderful. This morning I found out that he is also flying them back from Tokyo.

Well, I just got off the phone with Ronnie. He is exhausted, hot, sweaty, and having a hard time eating, BUT he is having a great time. He really loves the worship time when everyone sings at the top of their lungs. He said that sometimes he can't sing during those times because all he wants to do is listen to them worship.

Ronnie will be returning to Minnesota this coming Friday. I can't wait to see him. He has been gone way to long!!

Dance Lessons

All of my family members are off galavanting...all over actually. Ronnie is in Cambodia. English is back in California after make a week long pit stop in Washington state to visit with Timmy's family. Veronica has moved to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Hunter and Cole are also in North Myrtle Beach, SC for a month visiting my mom and step dad.

My mom was so worried that the boys were going to be bored. No way! Hunter has friends from when we lived there two years ago, and Cole pretty much tries to go with the flow.

This past week was Jr. SOS..Jr. Society of Shaggers (at least that is what I think it stands for). This is a east coast dance that was modified from the Lindy Hop back in the 50's (again I am not sure of the exact time frame, but this is close). It is a "smooth" dance. There was a movie that came out back in the 80's called "The Shag" with some of my old class mates in it. This is a dance I never took the time to learn. My parents though are VERY good dancers and are both in the Hall of Fame.

Anyway, back to Jr. SOS. My sep dad, Walt, took all three kids down to Jr. SOS for some dance lessons. They all enjoyed it and went back each day for more lessons. Yesterday was a little end of the week exhibition for all of the jr. dancers. The kids could ask anyone that they wanted to dance. Hunter asked my mom.

Oh how I wish i could have been there to watch the dance. The boys want to go out again next year for Jr. SOS. I am definately going to go with them.

All together!

I finally had all of my children under one roof this weekend. Of course I made them all go and take pictures together. My mom and I wandered around dowtown Rochester, while Ronnie and the kids went and found some spots to take pictures. It took a while to get serious, but they finally got some good ones.

My mom, Beth and I waiting for everyone to get finished.

Seriously? On the goose? Seriously?!?!?!

This wasn't a wade pool. It was one of the fountains dowtown.
Hunter decided to go check out the dolphine in the fountain. Again....seriously?!

I honesly have no idea

Poor Tim (my soon to be son-in-law)

This is Ninja...English had just left and he was looking for her.

English and Tim....and the flying boy.
All my kiddos

English and Tim.

Skipping? Must have been English's idea.

Awwwww......English, Tim and the engagement ring

The dogs were hiding

Phantom

My Little Guy

We have had so many things happening in our family lately. One of those things is that we no longer have a child in elementary school. Cole will go to the middle school next year. We are finally down to two schools.

Happy Birthday English!

Yes, I am a day late with this post. I feel horrible. But....

Happy Happy 22nd Birthday, English!!!

We love you very much! I can't wait for you to get here so I can squeeze you!

This is English and her fiance, Tim.

Graduation

See this family below? This family yelled loud enough to get this girl below..... To smile like this on stage while graduating.

After the ceremony it was a little like "where's waldo?" only we were trying to find Veronica.
We found her!Finally we got to be with our graduate!

Pics with the whole family.... Uncle Mike, Aunt Deanna, cousins Sam, Grace and Jessie all came up from Kentucky for graduation. We had a great weekend with them.

Hugs for Mama Jensen...(that's Jennifer Jensen for those of you who don't know that Jennifer is Veronica's other mother)

Finally, she is done with high school. Yea Veronica! Awsome job!

Happy 18th Birthday, Veronica

Happy 18th Birthday......Veezy Mil....V-Ray...Vern...Vernie...Veronica....Victoria...V...Roni...Mac...

We love you very much!

Truth

Continuing on with our devotionals...and let me say that I love my friend for sending me this each day...we will be meditating on truth for a couple of days. She sent me this yesterday:

Today let’s think about whatever is true. Concentrate on being truthful all day and be in prayer that God stop our tongues before it says things that we KNOW are untruthful. I’m surprised at how many times a day I can “white lie” sometimes. I want to be conscious of all my thoughts, words and actions today and that they represent and glorify God. I also pray that God impress His truth upon us and guard our mind against itself really. It’s so easy to imply, infer, and create truth. I want only God’s truth in my head. So rather than assume I know what someone REALLY means, I want God’s almighty truth and wisdom to press upon me.

Philippians 4:8 (New International Version)

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

This is from Webster’s original 1828 dictionary before political correctness came into play:

TRUE, a.

1. Conformable to fact; being in accordance with the actual state of things; as a true relation or narration; a true history. A declaration is true, when it states the facts. In this sense, true is opposed to false.

2. Genuine; pure; real; not counterfeit, adulterated or false; as true balsam; the true bark; true love of country; a true Christian.

--The true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John 1.

3. Faithful; steady in adhering to friends, to promises, to a prince or to the state; loyal; not false, fickle or perfidious; as a true friend; a true lover; a man true to his king, true to his country, true to his word; a husband true to his wife; a wife true to her husband; a servant true to his master; an officer true to his charge.

4. Free from falsehood; as a true witness.

5. Honest; not fraudulent; as good men and true.

If king Edward be as true and just--

6. Exact; right to precision; conformable to a rule or pattern; as a true copy; a true likeness of the original.

7. Straight; right; as a true line; the true course of a ship.

8. Not false or pretended; real; as, Christ was the true Messiah.

9. Rightful; as, George IV is the true king of England.

Traning Your Mind

Lately I have had some pretty negative things happen in my life. Nothing devastating, but I found myself thinking about them alot. I mean a lot!

A friend of mine was going through a lot of the same things as I was and she sent me this scripture:

Philippians 4:8 (New International Version) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

And shared with me....True, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy things. When your mind is training to look for such a list the negative become harder to see.

I saw a devotional in the making so I asked her to expound on it for me.

You literally have to retrain the neurons in your brain when you are developing a new thought. So when you intentionally focus on what is good, you are working your neurons so hard that the bad isn’t seen as much. These aren't my thoughts, I’m stealing them from John Ortberg’s book "Me". I am refusing to let the negative take plant in my brain so that I can instead make way for the positive, which what God put out for us to think on, pure, noble, right, etc.

After she sent this to me we decided that Lovely was the word of the day. Focus on whatever is lovely to you. I am looking out my front window as I type and I can see all kinds of lovely-ness. God's creation is all around us at any given moment. My kids, husband, and extended family are all lovely to me. Thinking about God's continuous and never ending blessings is lovely.

So what is lovely to you today? Meditate on those things as you go about your day.

Deep Thoughts with Ebby Ray

So lets have some deep thoughts.....nah! You know me...I am not one for deep thoughts.

But I do wonder why us ladies get so upset when the toilet seat is left up? This is been going on for years and years. Why do we get so upset about it?

Why don't men get upset with us for leaving the toilet seat down? Why is it so acceptable for the toilet seat to be down but not up?

Isn't the universal sign that a toilet is clean is for the toilet seat to be left up? You go into resturants and the seat is up, BUT that is ok. Go into a school and the toilet seat is up, BUT that is ok. Go into the hospital and the toilet seat is up, BUT that is ok.

What is up with that?

I asked the boys in my house something about the toilet seat being up, and Hunter asked me why I didn't put it up after I was finished using the restroom.

Good point, son!

So there you go. That is as deep as the thoughts get with Ebby Ray.