Gabby Claire

Here are photos of my 3rd great niece born in 2008. Gabby Claire belongs to Ashley and Byron Allred.

Snow Day

It seems I blog less and less since joining facebook.com. But today is significant in that it snowed in Florence, MS. I am including some snow photos for your viewing pleasure.

School

Well, as you can see, I haven't blogged in a long while. School has begun and so has the nightly homework, football games and the busy social lives of my girls. Tomorrow is the day to receive the first report cards so school has been in session for nine weeks.

Adrienne is a freshman and slowly adjusting to high school. The first few weeks were challenging and my theme song for her was, "I Had a Bad Day," from Alvin & the Chipmunks. Fortunately, she is settling in and doing well (except for the dreaded PE class). She can't be perfect at everything!

Brooke's transition to Middle School was easy. She has adjusted to changing classes, the block schedule and multiple teachers. As always, her major is socializing! We'll see how the grades are tomorrow.

There are photos to post but they haven't made it on my computer yet. So keep visiting.....maybe I'll have them added by Christmas.

New Great Niece

My second great niece for the year was born last week...Eowyn Christine Abaloz. She was a bit premature but is doing well. Above are some beautiful photos of her.

Kelly

Kelly, my niece, recently sang at a benefit for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. I can hardly believe that she is 20 years old! I think you will agree she has grown into a beautiful young woman....

Fireproof - The Movie

Through my job, I was blessed to be able to preview the new movie, Fireproof, prior to the September 26, 2008, opening in theaters nation-wide. The movie speaks directly to problems in marriages and relationships and attests to the fact that marriages are not fireproof without God. I encourage you to go see the movie when it is released and take your friends. I believe God can use this movie to restore broken relationships and mend homes.

The book, The Love Dare, resulted from this movie. It plays a key role in the movie but actually did not exist until previewing audiences demanded it. The Kendrick brothers responded with the writing of the book, to be released when the movie premieres. I am including a link here to a sample chapter.

http://thelovedarebook.com/love-dare-sample-chapter.pdf

If you loved Facing the Giants, you do not want to miss "Fireproof."

Answered Prayer

This is an excerpt from an email from Kim, a two-year worker, that serves with Michael in Thailand.

"Praise God for His work in the lives of many people in our community! You prayed for the new series, 'The Keys to Removing Stress from Your Daily Life' that we started and the first Sunday around 20 people gave their life to Christ!! One of these was a Chinese student at the nearby University whose name is, C. He came to our University English Camp in June and since that time has been attending our church. It has been awesome seeing God work in his life over the past couple of months!! (Below is a picture of C, he's the guy next to me-the American girl)"

A Better Use for Obama Campaign Signs

According to reports on all the major news networks this morning, Barack Obama's campaign headquarters has issued a statement to cease all distribution of campaign signs in Alabama. According to the statement, the Obama campaign has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace campaign signs that keep disappearing all over the state. Upon further investigation, it became apparent why this is happening.

Thailand Story Photos

Thailand Story

This is an email I received from one of my Thai friends. I hope you are as amazed by God's greatness as I am. I will post some of the photos she sent later.

"I don't like to write email but because of God, so i have to write this longest email that i ever wrote before!

Hello y'all! I hope y'all are doing well. It's 9.48 pm. hear in Thailand and i'm so tried from the English Fun Day Camp! I suppose to go to bed and get some rest, but i just want to share something that God had blessed me today. Well i don't know how to start it, if y'all were here with me, i'm sure that i will talk talk talk and talk for more than hour about today. I am very thankful God. He is so so good to me and to everyone too! Well, last week we were plan to have English day camp for the school around CR. because we have the team from Texas with us this two weeks, so we are plan to go to four schools which include the school that my mom teach there (it's in my hometown which is one hour far from CR.) As some of you know that this time is rainy season in Thailand and it has been raining everyday this week. And today was the day that we were schedule to go to my mom school. So last night was a prayer meeting night, we were pray about the camp and the weather. We had ask God for His mercy and bless us with no rain tomorrow while we are having the activities because we have to do about the sports outside. Anyway God send the rain so hard last night. Well today when i woke up about 5.30 am. (we have to leave church about 6.45 am. to get to my mom school about 8 o'clock, so we have to get ready early.) I remember that i pray that "Please no rain today God" but it was rain until 6.30 am. and so cloudy which mean it gonna rain again soon. When i got to Songtaew, i start pray again about rain and I believe that everyone in my team also pray about that too! We took 1 hour to get to my mom school and when we get there, the weather was so good, but a little bit cloud. And when we start the activities, the sky was start clear and have sunshine... not too hot...feel so good! Then at noon it was very strong sunshine... and got too hot! (Kim got so bad sun burned because she play soccer with the students.) About 1 pm. we had 1 more station need to do. It was very hot so we have to move one of the station into the building. While we moved, i just say "God, it is too hot!" by myself...then 5 mins later the weather start change..no sunshine and have wind, but not strong.. the weather just perfect!!!!!!!! Then we run the activities and we had plan to finish our station at 2.30 pm. and finish everything by 3 o'clock. At 2.30 pm. the sky start get cloudy again. It was black clouds and it seem like it was ready to rain now! When i saw that i keep pray to God agian and ask Him to wait for 10 more mins. Our God is full of mercy, He wait until we finish everything, then it was rain immediately after that! When i saw the rain, i am feel so thankful. God is so good to me. He cares me a lot. Even though the thing that i ask from Him is just a small thing, He listen to me! All the way back to Church, I was so happy about this day that God had bless me with many things. Pii Michael said he got to talk to my mom a lot today and he tell me that God is working in my mom's heart. That made me wonder and excited in the same time! BUT GOD LOVE AND MERCY to me is not just only that blessed. This evening we had Cell Group at church and we normally eat supper together around 6 o'clock. And it was stil rain a little bit and had black cloud all over the sky at that time. I told nong Tek and nong Ball that it's not rain today at the camp. They said it was rain all day here in CR. Praise the Lord was the first thing that i thought. After we ate, i just walk out and clean my plate... guess what i saw?????? I SAW RAINBOW (it had 2 rainbows) WHICH IS SO PRETTY I NEVER SAW EVER!!!!!!!! It was so bright in the begining (The head) and it was a haft of cercle, so beautiful... I ran into the room and told Allison amd Kim and everyone and i ran to Pii Michael's house and told them (the Johnson had dinner with the team from texas tonight) to come see. At that moment, I can feel God love and mercy so clear!!!!!!!! I want to tell everyone that how God is so good to us!!!! So i can't keep this feeling inside. I need to tell all my friends. I want to tell my family too but they are not Christian yet, so please keep my family in your prayer! Wow this is gonna be the longest email that i ever worte before! Thank you God for His love and thank you for y'all love and kindness to me too! I LOVE Y'ALL!

Thank you again for tried your best to read my English which is very bad in Grammar 555...I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH. Hope y'all have a great experiences with our God too! I am waiting to hear from y'all too! Have a great time! Bye bye..

PS. I sent some pictures from the camp today and the rainbow for y'all to see how great is our God!!!

....wow i took an hour to wrote this email!!!!!....

Puppy Renamed

This puppy has had several names. Who knew that when she awoke today that she would be renamed? Not me and not her. Her new name is Addie.

New Member of the Bridges Family

Today the Bridges family welcomes our newest member, a baby girl that is 2 1/2 months old. She is blackish-silverish, very hairy, has sad eyes and white feet. She is part bloodhound and who knows what else. Her name is Zoey.

Thailand-The Journey

For the past two weeks, I have wanted to create a youtube.com video that captured our mission in photos and music. Well, I finally created a slideshow but it is 28 minutes long! That is way too long to upload to youtube.com

So for now.....I will recap our trip in words only. I must do some thinking to figure out how to narrow down the photos to the most important ones.

I'll begin with The Journey to Thailand.

We left Jackson about 9 a.m. on Sunday, June 22. We made a short 3 hour flight to Detroit, waited a short time, made a very long 13 hour flight to Tokyo, followed by an 8 hour flight to Bangkok. We spent the night there and flew to Chiang Rai the following day.

After settling in to our hotel in Chiang Rai, we had a traditional Thai dinner of rice and chicken and some veggies. We visited several of the English classes in session at the Grace Language School. We then spent the remainder of the evening playing Scrabble and Boggle with Michael, his family and the staff of the Baan Athitaan and the Grace Language School.

END OF DAY ONE!

English Camp Video-Thailand

Here is a video that was posted on youtube.com by one of the staff we worked with in Thailand. Enjoy!

Rambo Bridges

Our beloved dog, Rambo, passed away at 9:50 p.m. on Saturday, July 12. We adopted Rambo in January, 1993, from the Mississippi Animal Rescue League. We adopted him after our two black labs, Obie and Taylor, were killed on Highway 49 in December after trailing a deer scent.

We've had several dogs come and go during Rambo's life, mostly strays that wandered to our house. We adopted Jake about 3 years ago and Rambo never adjusted to having a puppy around. Jake jumped the fence and was hit by a car when he was only 5 months old.

Rambo helped raise our children. Adrienne was born just 11 months after Rambo was adopted. He had some difficulty adjusting to his new life but quickly became her protector. By the time Brooke came along, Rambo had learned to adapt pretty easily to whatever changes happened.

Several months ago, Rambo began to show signs of slowing way down. He mostly just ate and slept. When we began taking our summer trips, he took a turn for the worse. At first, I thought he was just on a hunger strike but then his body began to shut down. For the past two days, he hasn't been able to get up or eat. He died peacefully with all of us present.

For now, there will not be another dog. Rambo was a part of our family and a fixture in our home. He was, in fact, the greatest dog of all time!

Friends in Thailand

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More Photos of Thailand

I am hopeful tonight to create a youtube.com video of some of my Thailand photos. For now I am adding some of me and my new friends!

My New Best Friend and Me

Above is a photo of me and my new best friend. She's a little weighty and her skin is awfully dry, but what she lacks in looks, she makes up for in personality. How do I know it's a she? I have learned that female Asian elephants do not have tusks. Now you know what I know.

We're Home

WOW! What a great 10 days we had in Thailand. There is so much to tell and time does not permit me today. I am hopeful I can share some highlights of our experience soon. Above is a photo of our team and the campers.

Thailand

The time is almost here! I leave Sunday morning for Thailand. Thank you to all that have supported me with words of encouragement, funds to travel and prayers. I know that this will be a life-changing experience for me.

I wanted to let you know that the weather is very similar there as it is here. One major adjustment I will have to make regards time. Thailand is 12 hours ahead of Florence, MS, time so when you pray or check email, remember I am probably asleep. As I write this blog, it is 1:30 a.m. tomorrow in Thailand.

Again, thank you for praying for me and for my family as I am away from them.

Adrienne in Panama City

Adrienne spent last week in Panama City at a church youth retreat. Here she is with Scott, our Student Minister, and her friend, Marlee.

Anna Kate VanConant

Here are new photos of my beautiful great niece!

First Time Great Aunt

I became a great aunt for the first time of 3 times this year! Yesterday Anna Kate Van Conant was born at 4:10 p.m. She weighs 8 lbs and is 20 1/2 inches long and she is soooo beautiful. See for yourself.

Memorial Day

I can hardly believe that school is officially over for the summer. We kicked off our summer this weekend in a laid back sort of way. David and I spent Memorial Day alone because Brooke was spending the day with a friend and Adrienne left for Panama City with the youth group. It was a nice, quiet day - our only activity was to have lunch with friends at Red Lobster. No barbecue - just some fish and taters.

This weekend will be anything but laid back. David is taping two dance recitals on Saturday while Brooke and I will be helping with a garage sale at church to raise funds to go to Thailand. I only need a thousand dollars if anyone reading this has money to spare! Adrienne returns from Panama City on Saturday as well so that day is pretty much spent.

Sunday afternoon our Thailand team begins drama practice in preparation for the work we will do with the university students. Who knows what else may pop up to do?

Captured Images

The new business venture, Captured Images, is doing very well. In the past two weeks, David has videoed a daycare graduation and 3 kindergarten programs. He had almost 100 DVD orders from the two events. Both DVDs turned out great!

I am experimenting with using the software to create photo slide shows. I did a DVD for my friend's daughter's graduation party. It was a challenge but it came out ok. David also did a DVD of a young girl at church. He put the service of her profession of faith, her baptism and some baptism photos all on one DVD. He put music to the photos. It will be a very special keepsake for years to come.

We are hopeful that the business will take over once we begin to advertise. The contacts we have made have all been through friends. It's been a great journey so far and we look forward to doing this for years to come.

School Is Officially Over

And I am one HAPPY mother!

Monday was Awards Day at Brooke's school. I had several proud moments. First, she sang two songs with The Notables. The group is quite good and I am sad that is over. The good news is that she made the 6th Grade Choir at the Middle School so there are more concerts to come. Secondly, she won the class Citizenship Award. She was chosen by her teacher as a well-rounded student with a positive attitude, a willingness to help and a good example for others. I am quite proud of that accomplishment. She also won a reading award, which surprised us both! AND, she made the A-B Honor Roll for the year.

So, the next time I blog about school, I will be the mother of a 6th and a 9th grader. Middle school one more time and the beginning of high school ---- OH NO!

End of School Update

At last, the end of school is close! Adrienne's last day is tomorrow since she is exempt from all exams and Brooke's last day is Tuesday (they don't have exams, just a couple of days to waste).

I am anxiously anticipating sleeping until 5:45 a.m. every morning since I will not be transporting a kid to school!

Here's the latest update about the end of school:

1. All projects are complete and graded.

2. Brooke played Countess Olivia in Shakespeare's "A Twelfth Night." Nothing can compare to 5th graders acting in Shakespeare! It was quite a grand way to start my week on Monday at 9 a.m.

3. Adrienne's Awards Day was yesterday. She was recognized for having the 3rd highest average overall in the 8th grade (actually two people ahead of her tied so she really was second by 1/4 of a point). She was also recognized as one of 20 students that have had A averages in all subjects since 6th grade. In addition, she had the highest class average in Algebra, History and Science for this year.

4. Brooke's Awards Day is Monday. Her audition choir, The Notables, will be performing two songs. They completed their "Spring Tour" last week. They also sang the National Anthem at the Mississippi Braves game recently. I am hopeful to have the video of that on the blog soon.

Though I am very proud of my daughters' academic accomplishments and their God-given talents, I am most proud of their character, their love for others and their love for God. Parenting is not a task David and I take lightly or even feel slightly qualified for but God has truly blessed us with two beautiful, smart and talented girls (inside and out) and we are very grateful.

To God Be the Glory!

We have finally purchased our tickets to Thailand. The dates of the trip are June 22-July 2. There will be 5 adults and 6 students traveling. Please add us to your prayer list as we prepare for the mission. Also, pray for my family. They will be traveling the week before I leave so I will not see them for 18 days!

God continues to amaze me with the way He works out details. Please pray for us as we plan fund-raisers to help us offset the cost of our travel.

Check back here for the latest updates!

Happy Birthday, Brooke

Today is Brooke's 11th birthday. It seems like only yesterday, I was lying in the hospital anxiously awaiting her arrival. I was so hopeful that I would soon see a beautiful blue-eyed, redheaded baby girl. And she didn't disappoint us!

Today Brooke is a precious happy-go-lucky, free-spirited, bubbly 11 year old. I can't wait to see what God has in store for her. Happy Birthday, Brooke!

The Revelation

I had a revelation today...divine in one sense of the word. The truth of the matter is that if you have parented a teenager, you also have had this revelation.

Here it is. There is a reason that God gives us children as infants. I realized today that if God gave us children as teenagers, we would refuse this precious gift from Him. You see, the truth of the matter is this - God gives us infants that 1. can't talk (that's a really good thing even if they do cry all the time) 2. are cute and cuddly and 3. can't talk. If our children came into this world talking, we would probably send them back.

Teenagers can talk and they are not really cute and cuddly (unless they want something from you). You cannot reason with teenagers -their reasoning defies understanding. They argue and they believe that they are smarter than anyone, including doctors. But because you received them as infants and nurtured them as children, you find that you love them very much and would give you very own life for them. It doesn't matter that they are unreasonable and difficult. They are simply spreading their wings (not so pretty as a butterfly spreads it's wings) and it is frightening because all too soon they will fly away.

So I've come to this conclusion. I wouldn't trade my smarter than anyone, even doctors, most unreasonable and uncooperative teenager for all the fame, fortune and even a most peaceful life. I LOVE MY TEENAGER.

Thailand

God has granted me an incredible opportunity to join a team of college students and young singles to travel to Thailand in June to help with ESL camps in two universities (English as a Second Language). Though I had felt Him leading me to go to Cambodia, the details were not worked out. The Thailand mission seemed an answer to prayer in more ways than I can describe. However, we are now facing a tremendous obstacle that only God can overcome. There are not enough seats on any flights that our travel agent has found to accommodate our team. Also, the increased fuel surcharges have made ticket prices extremely high. Please pray for our team and for God to provide clear direction about Thailand. He has worked out so many other details for this mission such as the date, the field personnel and many other things...we truly believe this is where God wants us to serve. Thank you for your prayers.

John McCain

John McCain was in Jackson, MS, today and I saw him! He was speaking at a $1,000 a plate luncheon at the University Club. NO, I wasn't at the luncheon but I had just finished my $5.00 Chik-fil-A combo. As my friend, Karen, and I were leaving, his bus pulled up and out he walked! Another friend from work happened to be there and took these photos.

Governor Haley Barbour was following him. He stopped to be interviewed by a television station and I am pretty sure Karen and I will be on the news. We were standing right behind him.

Childless

David and I are childless this weekend. We are not quite sure how to spend our free time. Last night we went out to eat and WE got to choose the place. We then went shopping and bought what WE wanted. As it would turn out, we bought a movie for the girls. They just seemed to keep coming up in conversation and everything we saw reminded us of them.

Adrienne is in Chicago on a school trip. Her teacher called me yesterday to tell me that she was chosen to interact with the dolphins at the Shedd Aquarium. I got to listen as they introduced her and Marla gave me a play by play of what was happening - the dolphin kissed her hand, etc. It was so exciting! Hopefully, I will have photos or a video clip that I can post when she returns home.

Brooke is at our church's kid version of DiscipleNow, called PoweredUp Weekend. It is a great time of fun and spiritual growth for kids in 4th through 6th grade. She left yesterday at 5:30 and we'll see her again tomorrow at church. Their plans were to go Gattitown, a kid's pizza and game place. We will probably join them tonight for their worship time.

I am hopeful to have new photos of their experiences to post next week.

Best Aunt

Here are a couple of photos of my sister, Gail, and my niece, Kelly. I'm not Kelly's Great Aunt, I am her Best Aunt, though Julia would disagree! Looking at Kelly, I realize just how very old I am!

Great Aunt

I know that I am already a great aunt but now I'm going to be a real Great Aunt times 2! Both of our nieces, Amber and Ashley, are pregnant. Amber is due in June and Ashley is due in December. We are hopeful the babies will be born on my birthday in June and either on Adrienne or Jannie's birthday in December. Above is the Meadows family photo.

Easter 2008

Tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I suppose it's because it marks a time of new beginning. Spring is finally in the air and school is almost out. But most importantly, Easter represents the freedom God has given us from the bondage of sin. It is indeed a day of new beginnings. Check back soon for photos of the Bridges at Easter!

Captured Images

I want to thank those of you that have prayed and supported us as David has begun a new business, Captured Images. He purchased a very nice camera about a year ago (and a second one recently) and has been practicing capturing weddings, school events and anything else interesting in hopes of beginning a nice side business.

Business has finally taken off! His first real "project" was videotaping 3 musical performances at the lower elementary school. He did a super job of capturing the musicals and then editing them into a very nice product. Today he learned that the school has taken 70+ pre-orders for DVDs and VHS tapes. He has a wedding booked later in the year, he'll be videotaping the 5th grade trip to Williamsburg in April and he will be the official videographer of the Florence High School football team in the fall. I am very excited for him because he has worked so hard to make this a great business.

I am also proud of David because he has become the unofficial videographer for our church. He has done a 2 hour season highlight DVD of our Upward Basketball/Cheerleading program that has pre-sold 40 copies. He also has videotaped our services almost every Sunday this year. David now sees this as his ministry in the church.

So....thank you for praying, for supporting and for encouraging us in this new endeavor. We are hopeful that it will not be as seasonal as the boat business!

Surrender on YouTube

I have finally arrived on YouTube! This is a video of the most recent song Surrender sang in church. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed singing it.

What About Adrienne?

You may notice the next two entries in my blog do not mention Adrienne. So...what about Adrienne? Adrienne is too old to participate in Upward basketball and cheerleading (not that she would if she were younger). But she continues to do things that make her parents proud. She is still in the Beta Club at the school and she will take part in the induction ceremony of the new members this week.

Adrienne continues earning CA$H as a baby-sitter. I know it won't be long before she is no longer a tax deduction for us. She'll be making more money than us, and will perhaps claim us on her tax return.

She will be participating in Disciple Now at the end of March with the youth group. We are always pleased when she is involved in those activities that will help her grow spiritually.

She will officially be enrolled in Driver's Education in April and will qualify to get her learner's permit, IF she passes the test. For those who know Adrienne, there aren't many tests she cannot pass.....except for the "getting up quickly in the morning test."

So, though I don't have any photos posted of her, you can be sure she's very busy baby-sitting or doing something at church or school. If I can get her still long enough, perhaps I'll take a picture. You know what they say, "Take a picture, it lasts longer!" HOW TRUE THAT IS OF ONE'S CHILDREN.

Speaking of growing up....watch this youtube.com video of Steven Curtis Chapman. Get your kleenex.

Poverty Point, Louisiana

Recently Brooke and I went on a Venture field trip to Poverty Point, Louisiana. This is one of the oldest identifiable civilizations in the United States. We learned that over the last 50 years, archeologists have explored and excavated numerous Louisiana earthwork sites. Located in northeastern Louisiana, the site at Poverty Point Plantation includes some of the largest American earthworks of the prehistoric period. We were able to see mounds, ridges and artifacts from this old civilization where it is estimated more than 5,000 people lived over 7,000 years ago. Based on Biblical evidence, I'm not sure it's really that old but it was fascinating to see, nonetheless. Here's an aerial photo (from their website) that shows the complexity of the mounds and ridges.

We were very, very cold!

Brooke and Alexis....The Mississippi River in the background~

Some pretty amazing artifacts:

New Upward Photos

These are photos taken by my friend, Angie, at an Upward game. We are two games from the end of a fun, fun season of basketball and cheerleading. God has done (and will continue to do) some amazing things through this program. The awards night is March 4 and the gospel will be presented. Please pray that God will reach kids and families that night!

Rambo

If you've read the entire blog, you will notice from time to time that I talk about my beloved hound dog. Since I've had him longer than my kids, I've grown quite attached. I've threatened to put him up for adoption on the Internet because he's been a bit cantankerous lately as he has aged. But who could possibly give up the best dog in the world. Below are some Christmas photos of him.

MSU vs Alabama

In October, the Bridges journeyed to Starkville to see Alabama take on MSU. It was a sad day for the Alabama fans but we look forward to next year. Please enjoy photos of our day at the BIG game.