Winter Blast '09!!!!!

WINTER BLAST '09! Oh the drama! We have had an exciting week! It started on Tuesday morning. Nothing to bad. Mostly rain. Power started going out Tuesday afternoon around town. By Tuesday night it was starting to get bad and by Wed. morning the entire town was covered in ice. Most people are saying around 1 1/2 inches of ice. The tree's got it the worst. The streets stayed clear the whole time, which is a huge blessing. We laid in bed Tuesday night listening to all of the tree's snap and fall.

This tree was ugly before the storm. Now, it is really ugly!

The Brooks lost power Tuesday about noon. They headed over to our house about 5 to spend the night because we still had power. As I was pulling our dinner out of the oven, out went ours. Of course the only part of our dinner that was done was the pork tenderloin. So, we had a candle light dinner of pork tenderloin, chips, rolls, and fruit salad. Yum. Chris and Greg headed to Home Depot to get flash lights. We only have one! And no batteries. We are very prepared for these things! Chris gets the award of the day because he bought each a boy a glow stick that lights up for 12 hours. The glow sticks saved the day!

All of the little boys slept in Isaac's room. They had a big time all together and with glow sticks! We stayed pretty warm until the morning.

This is Greg and Chris huddled up on the couch sharing ear plugs listening to the radio. Aren't they cute! By Wednesday afternoon we decided to bail. The Brooks went to Searcy to stay with her parents. We headed to the Maglothins. They didn't have power, but they did have a gas fireplace. We had some good times, and some boring times, but all is well. The power came back on Thursday night about 10pm. We all slept well and warm. There are still a lot people without power around town and we are on day 4 out of school. Debbie Cook is staying with us until hers comes back on and we may have a few more show up. Never knew how glad I would be to do laundry!

Goggles

Nothing like swimming in the bathtub with goggles!

History

Today was a very important day. Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America. This is the first time I have ever paid much attention to an Inauguration of a President. I felt like I needed to be aware of my surroundings, like I needed to pay attention, that I needed to talk about it, that I needed to listen. History was made.


I am so excited that my children were able to witness this event. I wasn't sure if the boys would get to watch it or not, but they both came home talking about it this afternoon. Even my little 4 year old Isaac watched history unfold at the pre-k center. "Mommy, I saw Barack Obama become President today!" Jake could recall all kind of details of the event. He has a crazy memory! He thought that "old Doctor guy" was a little weird. He stood for the singing of the National Anthem and got after his friend Logan who was not paying attention. Thank you Lord for my wonderful precious son. The tv in my classroom would not work, so I made all of my students go across the hall and crowd in another classroom to watch it. I was in 4 period with a bunch of 9th graders. Deqwon and William sitting next to me. I tried to encourage them all to pay attention, to remember. That this was important. This was one of those events that you will want to remember where you were, what you felt, who was with you.

No matter how you voted. This was a huge day for The United States.

My dad sent out an email yesterday. I loved it and thought I would share it.

I have vivid memory of fighting back tears as I watched live television of people dancing and cheering as they dismantled the Berlin wall with sledge hammers and pick axes when the Soviet Union fell. I remember turning to my young daughters and telling them, “remember this day, because you are witnessing a turning point in history.” For some time my mind has understood that tomorrow we will witness another turning point when Barack Obama takes the oath of office, but I didn’t feel it until this morning. As I was eating breakfast, a clip of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech came on the news. When I heard him state with such conviction that “… all men are created equal ...”, it finally struck me. It stuck me that we (the people of the United States of America ) have reached a turning point. Tomorrow we will be knocking a huge hole in our “Berlin Wall” of prejudice. A wall that Abraham Lincoln started beating on 150 years ago. A wall that Martin Luther King and others died to weaken 40 years ago. Tomorrow I ask you to take a moment to look past politics and the color of man’s skin to see freedom. I encourage you to fast and pray tomorrow. I ask you to praise God that we are so blessed to live in such freedom. Pray earnestly for our new president. Pray that he asks for God’s wisdom daily, and that he will listen when God provides it. Pray that God will use this moment to turn the people of this country to Him. Pray that God’s grace will spread through this country and that the “wall” of prejudice can be completely destroyed and every person can be free a last.

Erich

Jake is so smart!

His second Academic Award for the Year! What a smart kid we have!

Quote of the day

Isaac after church:

Me: "How was Bible Class Isaac?"

Isaac: "Good."

Me: "What did you learn?"

Isaac: "You know mom.... Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."

BROTHERS!

Reflections

2008. What a year. I think that God has done a whole lot more for us than we have done for him this year. I love lists, so here is a few highlights of God's work in the Harrell family this year:

1. Jake has had an amazingly healthy year. 2007 was full of asthma attacks and trips to the allergy doctor. He has been breathing easily in 2008! He still has all of his food allergies, but I truly believe that he is healthier than he would have been without allergies.

2. Isaac has adjusted beautifully to going to pre-k everyday. The Lord has blessed us with very flexible children. Isaac just goes with the flow and finds fun in everything! As I am writing this, he is driving his new remote control car around with a tie dye t-shirt and his underwear on. He doesn't really like clothes very much! What a kid he is!

3. Who would have thought that the Lord would call Chris to a different ministry? Who would have thought that the Lord still wanted us to stay in Jonesboro and at the same church? The Lord works things out better than we could ever imagine. Chris moved from youth minister to Associate Minister in September. That move was full of mixed emotions, but the Lord knew exactly what He was doing. Chris is perfectly gifted for his new role!

4. This time last year I was as happy as a clam working part-time at Paces! The Lord started putting people and opportunities in my lap. The doors just kept opening and here I am teaching Jr. High. Chris stopped working with teens and I started! I has been hard and a major adjustment, but I feel like I am exactly where I am suppose to be. Our family was ready and the Lord knew it!

5. My crazy eye. What else can you say? I have this incredibly rare congenital birth defect in my eye and the one of the best doctors in the world lives less than an hour a way? Way to make something crazy a blessing God!

6. Disney World! We were planning on going this year. We had no idea how we were going to pay for it, but we were going to go anyway. Then the church goes and gives us a free trip!

7. We have had 2 water leaks in our foundation this year. Jack hammers, concrete, mud, major mess! Well, our carpet was looking pretty bad and the Lord provided us a way to get all new flooring! Not only did he help us pay for redecorating, he also gave us a place to stay while all of the work was being done. Now, I am not saying that I want to do this ever again! But, at least we saw God working even in the bad stuff!

8. Laundry Ministry! We were out of our house for 6 weeks while all of this mess was happening. We were living at Marion Perkins' empty house on Rosewood Circle. The Rosewood Circle 40 Days of Community Group took on our family as their service project! They did our laundry the entire time we were out of our house. They would take turns coming every few days to pick it up and then bring it back the next day. Can you ask for anything more?!

To say the least, God is Good! We are amazingly blessed. Chris and I are wonderful. I love him more than I ever thought possible. Jake is gentle and strong all at the same time. Isaac is loving and so funny. We have a wonderful healthy family. Thank you Lord for a great 2008. Please keep blessing us in 2009!

Christmas Pictures!

Oh....Christmas pictures. So many bad one's, only a few good ones!
This is what most of them look like!

Here are a few that aren't as bad!

Santa brought a Nintendo DS and a Leapster!
Santa was up at 4:30am the day after Thanksgiving buying these items.
Santa is broke!
The boys think that Santa is best thing ever!

The next few are our attempt at getting a Christmas card photo.
I didn't even try to get one with all of us together.