Family

I usually put family pictures on my http://www.papalyndel.blogspot.com/ blog, but I've been asked for a picture of me and my brothers. I'm still working on getting the two of them to get in a picture with me.

In the mean time, I thought you might like to see the group that has made this such a fun and exciting week. My six grandchildren and my baby brother's two boys. The ages of this non-stop action group are 6, 4 1/2, 3, 2 1/2, and two that are 20 months. (The newborn isn't sitting up at the table yet.)

the important things

I'm typing this with just one finger, left-handed. Why? Because Haven and Hannah are asleep on top of me. I think my right arm has lost most of its feeling. I've often had choir members apologize for missing choir when they needed to be with family for one thing or another. I've always assured them and want to emphasize to you now, that it is important to be with family when you need to be. that doesn't mean you need to skip church to watch a football game, but it is important to take care of your parents or children or others when they need you.

I'm not saying that you should schedule a family gathering every Sunday at 10:30 so you don't have to show up for Sunday morning worship, but I do know that there are times when you need to miss a service or a rehearsal or some other happening. The purpose of these church things is to give you opportunity to worship, serve, be discipled or disciple someone else, but you must be careful. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for not taking care of family by saying what they had was dedicated to God.

I'll not keep on preaching. I'm sure you get the point.

So here I am in Oklahoma, wishing I could be at choir, but totally glad I'm not going to be there. With both of my brothers here at Mom's house, I'm soooo glad I'm here. With all three of us in full-time vocational ministry we rarely get to see each other. It has been great spending time with them and their children all week.

When you have those family moments available, please take them. Then be sure to be faithful to choir or teaching your Sunday School class or attending worship or whatever/however you are involved in church. That's important too.

Sorry, no picture. (My niece Alyssa only looks at the pictures.) I'm on my dad's computer.

I'm on my computer now. I found a picture you all need to see. (Alyssa probably won't care.) Pretty amazing! If you've seen posts from the past fews days you'll notice how fast a dramatic the drop in price has been! I sure hope it's doing this in Tennessee!

Invasion!

I was actually going to post about something else when I got to Mom's house today. (The internet at Andrew's house is so bad that if every one's internet was like that we would all go back to telephones or actually talking to our friends in person!)

but, when we pulled up to Mom's house on this very windy day, this is what we saw - tumbleweeds!!

We had to go in through the garage.

Here's the view from the inside out.

Amazing. They aren't really the big tumbleweeds, they are just little baby weed things that probably technically aren't tumbleweeds, but when your door is covered it doesn't really matter what they are.

For my Oklahoma readers, WE DON'T DO THIS IN TENNESSEE!!!

Oh, and gas keeps dropping in price. Look at this $2.83! (This does not make up for your house being covered in tumbleweeds.)

Beau

I figured you all needed to see a picture of my new grandbaby, Beau.

Here we are in the hospital just before he went home.

Here's a picture of my mom with Beau. We all spent Sunday afternoon at the funeral home. I'm glad she felt like coming over to Andrew's house later Sunday evening.

Dad's service is today at 2:00. We'll go to the church at noon for a lunch. There will be about 75 or so family members.

Here's something totally unrelated, but I know you wouldn't believe me without a picture. Look how much gas is!!! Yes!!! That's a 2 at the beginning of that price!

Roller Coaster Ride

4Him recorded a song a few years back called "Roller Coaster Ride of Life". That's what we've been on today.

Cheryl and I got up early and went to downtown Nashville to pick up a van so Christy, Hannah and Benjamin could ride with us to Oklahoma. We were very excited that grandbaby #6 was soon to arrive.

At 8:30 my baby brother called and said that Dad had a stroke and the EMT guys had just left to take him to the hospital.

At 9:30 my younger brother called to say that Dad didn't make it. His heart stopped and they couldn't get it going again.

I called my son to tell him and he said that Haley was having very strong contractions.

We had problems with the van and had to go back to the rental place where we traded out our loaded to the ceiling van for another van.

12:30 we were finally leaving Nashville for a 12 hour drive.

At 1:30 my son called. Beau Ryder Littleton had arrived. "How much did he weigh?" I asked. "I don't know", was his response. I guess he doesn't understand how important those kinds of things are to grandmothers. We later found out he was 8lbs 10 oz.

"How long is he?" I figured he would know by now since he now knew the weight.

"I don't know. He goes form the tip of my fingers to just past my elbow." Close enough!

It's now 2:00 AM. The 12 hour drive went well. We're in a hotel for the night because all the beds in families' homes are full and they didn't know we would make it all the way in tonight.

Tomorrow we'll get up early, go to the hospital to see Beau then by 8:00 go to Mom's house then hopefully see Gibson play soccer at 9:00.

Wheeeeeee! Up and down and up and down again.

I'll have grandbaby pictures up later too at www.papalyndel.blogspot.com

Dad's funeral service will be Monday at 2:00 at Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

The funeral home making the arrangements is Smith and Kernke on North May http://www.smithandkernke.com/FuneralHome/

You can read about my dad here where I wrote about him on Father's Day.

http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/06/happy-fathers-day.html

I'll post more later this week. Have a wonderful time of worship Sunday. We'll pray for you. Thank you for your prayers for us.

Sunday's Music 10-5

Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing)

Days of Elijah

Welcome - How Great Is Our God

Hmmm, I think the next one is Blessed Assurance

Draw Me Close

Rick Hammer (the guy who sang at our Golden Granny Awards Dinner http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/05/and-winners-are.html) will be leading worship because I am on my way to Oklahoma to see grandbaby #6 who will be here very soon. Woohoo!

You can keep up with grandbaby news at http://www.papalyndel.blogspot.com/

Clay Crosse

Clay will be at Hilldale on October 15 for our Wednesday night service. It will be at 6:30 in the FLC worship area. Invite someone to come with you. He has a great testimony and sings wonderfully!