Category Archives: Mesa Baptist Church

Weekly Wrap-Up . . .Boy, am I TIRED!!!

Beginning Sunday, our church had special conference entitled Solve Family Problems, featuring Dr. S.M. Davis. He spoke for the adults and teens during Sunday School, and again in morning service, then we also had him for Sunday evening service, Monday and Tuesday evening. Monday and Tuesday, as our church generally does, a supper was provided at 6:00 p.m. so that those who would need to come straight from work could still eat. And our church is, as our Pastor likes to say, “the eating-est church in town”, so you know the food was really great! Of course, it IS a Baptist church, and I’ve NEVER had a bad meal in a Baptist church, whether it be a pot-luck or a church provided meal! 🙂 The conference was really great, and we got a lot out of it.

Wednesday evening, I needed to hang around after church to practice with the choir, as we’re singing the special Sunday morning, then after that, I practiced with our piano teacher, who also plays when I sing a special. We WERE practicing for my scheduled special at the end of the month, when the music director asked if we could do it this coming Sunday evening instead. Well, we do feel comfortable with it now, so we told him yes. I’ll post that sometime this next week. Y’all are not getting tired of all my videos of either my kids or me singing specials, are you?

This morning we had homeschool co-op at church, where we had the kiddos split into 3 groups based on age/ability range, who then rotated between rotated the 3 moms who were there for things like string art, writing, younger kids writing, and my station, which was using different color paints to put their hand prints on the big banners for the upcoming co-op Creativity Fair. They also had root beer floats for snack.

Next, we went to McDonald’s (I know, I know, don’t judge me!) for a quick dollar menu lunch before heading over to piano lessons. We have an hour and a half block with our teacher, for me, “The Batman”, and “The Artist”. I got my recital piece last week, it’s really pretty. It’s called Appalachian Sunrise by Michael Schwabe. “The Artist” will be doing Solfeggietto by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and “The Batman” is going to be doing Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin. God thing we have until August to practice!

Well, I’ve been very tired lately, and dealing with some stressful stuff, so I believe I’m going to go lie down on the couch and try to rest for a while. I hope you’ve had a good week!

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

If you’d like to join the fun, do write about your week and link up with the rest of us! To find out the guidelines, click the graphic below!

As always, if you enjoy “My Journeys Through Life”, please enter your email into the “sign me up” box at the top of the blog, and never miss an update. Also, please, go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Filed under Church, education, home education, Home-school Group, Homeschool Group Monthly Activity, homeschooling, Kids, Mesa Baptist Church, Piano lessons, Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-up . . . A Week Late!

I didn’t manage a weekly wrap-up last week. I’ve been ill off and on for the past couple of weeks, and then last week, I broke my glasses!!! All is well on that front though, this week I got a replacement pair, though I’m still waiting on my prescription sunglasses (a needful thing in a state with at least 300 sunny days per year).

Anyway, back on February 7, we had another co-op day with our church homeschool group. This time, it was all about nutrition, manners, and physical activity.

My friend Aimee, one of our fabulous homeschool moms, was in charge of putting this one together, and she really made it fun! Here, she is teaching the kids what would NOT be good table manners, LOL!
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Aimee discussed with the kids the importance of good nutrition, and of drinking enough water every day, especially living here in the desert.
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The kids learned about the importance of good posture, and in this video, you can see some of them attempting to practice USING good posture!

After all of this, we moved to another room, where we worked on stretching . . .
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Exercises . . .
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And a game to work on good sportsmanship!
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This is one of MY favorite photos of the day, two of our toddler friends! 🙂
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So, this was a good homeschool day, in the midst of my not feeling well off and on. My kids really enjoy our co-op!

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. To get the guidelines for the weekly wrap up link-up, click the graphic below:

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! And, if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please, go to our Facebook Page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Filed under Church, education, exercise, family, home education, Home-school Group, Homeschool Group Monthly Activity, Kids, Mesa Baptist Church, Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-up . . . Revival Meetings and Some Silliness!

Well! This has been a very busy week! Our church had special meetings this week for our Family and Friends Revival, from Sunday through Wednesday. It was so good, too! Our guest speaker was Brother David Hetzer, and he was just wonderful! He has also been a speaker for our youth camps in years past.

We also were treated to The Epleys coming to sing for us! My family had last seen them many, many years ago, back during the early years we spent in Port Huron, MI. They came with their children and sang at the church we attended at that time, and we just loved them! We still listen to their music in the car! Well, now, We are in New Mexico, and they came to the church we are members of here! These days, their kids are grown and raising families of their own, so it’s just mom and dad singing now. I did not get a good video of them during the meetings, but here is one from youtube of them singing one of the songs they did for us. I hope you enjoy it!

It was a busy but good week! Monday and Tuesday, our church provided a meal at 6:00 for everyone who came before the meeting at 7:00, and then Wednesday we did potluck at the same time. Our pastor says we’re “the eatin’-est church in town”, lol!

Before all the business, we had a bit of silliness at our house one evening after supper, when my husband and some of the boys started fooling around with one of “The Puzzler’s” Christmas gifts, as you’ll see in the video below. They were sure having fun!

All in all, it was a pretty good week! 🙂

This post is being linked up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. If you’d like to write about your week and link up, please click the graphic below for the guidelines.

As always, I’d love it if you’d join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just enter your email into the “sign me up” space at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! And, if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and “Like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Filed under Christian faith, Church, family, Mesa Baptist Church, The Epley Family, Ultimate Blog Challenge January 2014, Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . New Years Week . . .

This week, we had our mid-week service on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. We had a potluck fellowship at 6:00, followed by the service at 7:00. Two of the boys at our church are home from college for Christmas, and they, along with two of the boys from the teen group each were given the opportunity to preach for about 10 minutes each. I thought they did an awesome job! The service ended around 8:30, and we went home to get the boys to bed. In fact, my husband and I did not stay up late, either, because he had to get “The Batman” and “The Artist” up very early, so that he could get them back to the church in time to leave with the youth group for winter retreat, in Colorado.

On New Years Day, the rest of us kind of had a lazy day. I wasn’t feeling real great, and napped off and on, but was better by that night.

On Thursday, friends from church came and got “Mr. Loquacious” and “The puzzler” for an overnight with their kids. I ended up with most of the day yesterday and today to myself!

I told you yesterday what I would be doing with the time, and I did. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve decided to join in with the Pantry Challenge posted by fellow blogger Jessica Fisher over at Good Cheap Eats. As I told I would, I cleaned out and inventoried my pantry, fridge/freezer and deep freezer. I’m embarrassed to say I had to throw out a bunch of stuff. That’s the other reason I’m doing this, so I can learn to keep track of what we have, and use it up, thereby being a better steward.

So, I have rather a lot of odds and ends in the pantry, but very little meat, veggies or fruit. So, before I head out in the morning for groceries, we’ll be going over what we have and figuring out what we need to go with it.

I will update on the pantry challenge at least a couple of times a week. Not necessarily every day, because I have other things scheduled for posting too, but I will keep up to date on this. 🙂 You can find out all about where I got this idea by clicking the graphic below . . .
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Today while the kids were all still gone, I worked on my ministry cards. I have my own tiny ministry at church with my hand-crafted cards. So far, I have eleven ladies and one family on my encouragement list, and I make them a card every week. I bring them to church to give them on Sunday. I really enjoy it, it feels good to encourage others!

I also worked on getting my blog planner printed out so I can either get it into a notebook or have it spiral bound at an office supply store, and printed out the words to the song I’m singing next Sunday evening, so that the pianist and I can practice it.

Then, it was time to go pick everyone up! We got back a little while before my husband got home, and then he cooked supper, hamburgers and hot dogs, the extras we didn’t use on New Years Day. We also had the rest of the potato salad, coleslaw, and some potato chips. It was nice. 🙂

How was your week? Why don’t you write about it and then link up with us over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers? Click the graphic below to read about the guidelines . . .

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss another update! And, if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please do go to our Facebook Page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Filed under card making, Christian faith, Church, family, Kids, Mesa Baptist Church, Pantry Challenge 2014, Ultimate Blog Challenge January 2014, Weekly Wrap-Up

Lots Going On . . .

For the first time, in all of the years I have been singing special music at the various churches we have been part of over the years, this year I was scheduled to sing at Christmas! I really love this song, and our youth pastor’s wife Aubrey Grantham (who is soon also going to be our piano teacher!) did an AWESOME job on the piano! 🙂

Meanwhile, at 8:00 straight up this morning, I called the doctor’s office to get new paper prescriptions for “Mr. Loquacious” and “The puzzler”, as they cannot be faxed or e-filed to the pharmacy. I’m hoping they call me quickly to come get them, I have a few last-minute errands, and really would like to combine the errands with picking up the prescriptions, if possible.

I also need to call the pharmacy itself and check on whether they have ordered a medication for “The Batman”, because it wasn’t in stock for them to fill the other day, and the pharmacist on duty at the time was a floater who couldn’t order anything. 😦

We’re having breakfast, and then I plan to get laundry sorted and started washing, after which, while waiting to hear from the doctor’s office that I can come get the prescriptions, I’m going to work on cards for my wonderful hairstylist, Jody Muniz.  She chose different colors than what I used in the samples I showed her, so I’m trying a different look and will make one of each and send the pictures of them to her by text before making the rest of them. I think they will come out nice! 🙂  I’m also working on a set of cards for someone who won them from a drawing at one of my Close To My Heart gatherings, along with a set of baby scrapbooking pages for a friend who doesn’t scrapbook, but wanted them as a gift for her sister. Which reminds me, as you know, I am a consultant for Close To My Heart, and I want to let you know that there are a bunch of things being retired in order to make room for new, beautiful products! I have seen a sneak peek at the new things, and you’re going to LOVE them, but meanwhile, while you still have a chance to get them, you may view and purchase retiring items here.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! 🙂

 

As always, I would love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys”! Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the page and enter your email, you’ll never miss another update! 🙂 And, if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook Page and “like” it! 🙂

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Filed under card making, Christian faith, Christmas, Church, Close to My Heart, family, Mary Did You Know, Mesa Baptist Church, singing

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . Busy Busy! :-)

So, you already know that this past Sunday night our two older boys, “The Batman” and “The Artist” were in our church’s annual Christmas play. On Monday and Tuesday, I concentrated heavily on laundry and working on finishing up our Christmas cards, which I was making, so I could have them done to bring to church Wednesday. I made it, yay! 🙂 We also needed to be at church early that night, as “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” were singing special music as part of the newly formed group “Cadets For Christ”. Here is a video of their song . . .

Thursday morning, I worked on addressing cards to be mailed out, so that we could get them mailed on our way to homeschool park day. Along with that errand, we stopped at the library to pick up a DVD I had on hold, Mary Poppins. Can you believe, my children have never seen it? Well, since we left the house before lunch, I did stop at McDonald’s near the park and got everyone burgers from the dollar menu. Except for me, I can’t eat them, so I got a grilled honey mustard snack wrap. 🙂

Ah, park day! It is so grand living someplace where we can go to homeschool park day, on December 19th, NOT wearing winter coats!

Here is “The Batman”, he was playing catch with someone, and between throws . . . and do you see the beautiful mountains in the background? 🙂

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And here is “The Puzzler”, also playing catch!
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“The Artist” was wandering with friends, and “Mr. Loquacious” never stopped moving, so I failed to get pictures of them.

“Mr. Loquacious”, who I suspected was catching a cold, but had insisted he was “fine” and wanted to go to the park, definitely has one now. He’s sneezing some, but he’s still running around playing and acting normal, so I think he’ll be just fine.

Today is Friday. Do I have my Christmas shopping done? No, I do not. 😦 So, this evening, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” will be hanging our with their dad. I will be dropping “The Batman” and “The Artist” off at their Youth Pastor’s home, where they will join the rest of the teens caroling, and then having their Christmas party. Since I do all of my grocery shopping fairly near to their home, I will get groceries while the boys are there, then pick them up. That way, I have them handy to unload the car at home (smart, yes?). This frees up tomorrow, when I will be able to shop alone, and get the Christmas shopping completed.

I hope! 🙂

How was your week? Why don’t you write about it and then link up with us at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

For the guidelines, please click the graphic below

As always, I’d love it if you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the page and enter your email, and you’ll be notified whenever there is an update! If you enjoy “My Journeys”, please, go to our Facebook Page and “like it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Christmas 2023 . . . Teen Drama At Mesa Baptist Church

This past Sunday night, December 15, 2013, the teens along with our youth pastor and his wife put on our annual Christmas play. This year, it was a drama, to show what Christmas could be like in the future, if our country continues on the path we are walking.

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This play, Christmas 2023, was originally written by Sam Gipp, and was edited for Mesa Baptist Church by Mrs. Aubrey Grantham.

It is the year 2023, and there have been many changes. We have had another world war, and all mention of the Lord Jesus Christ has been outlawed. Children are now removed from the parents when they reach school age and sent to government “boarding schools”, where they are taught humanistic, atheistic views. There are no true churches anymore, all have been turned into social clubs, and the Bible is outlawed.

The Jamison family, upon whom our drama is focused, has been decorating for the “X-mas” holiday, while waiting for one of their own, John, to come home from the government boarding school for the holiday. They come across a box of things from years past, in which they find a nativity scene, Tom’s (the father) old Bible, some CD’s with Christmas carols on it that sing of faith, not of santa. As they begin to reminisce, they talk about the church they used to go to, Mesa Baptist Church, and Pastor Carr, who has not been seen since he was taken away some years previously. At first Tom’s wife is very nervous about finding all of these things, but then, their two other children, David and Susan, begin asking questions, and their parents tell them all about how it used to be.

But then, John arrives home, and sees the Bible. He becomes very upset, and is ready to report them, when the parents convince him that they should go to bed and talk more in the morning. Susan, however, sneaks back and is reading the Bible, when her brother David finds her. The next day, they all talk much about it, including John, and their parents, who had come to salvation many years ago, are able to lead their children to the Lord as well.

During the holiday time, the Jamisons take opportunity to witness to others, including a group of carolers who come to the door. You can watch the carolers in the video below. My son “The Batman” is one of the carolers.

Later, “Santa” comes to visit, as the government has sent a Santa out to all the homes, bearing a “gift”, as you’ll see in the video below. “The Artist” portrays Santa in this drama . . .

The time comes for John to return to his school, and he asks how to be saved, and then declares he will tell everyone about Jesus, and the Bible, no matter the consequences.

I’m doing this post, not just because I’m proud of my boys for being involved in their teen group, or for being in the play, but because the story really touched my heart. I want all of you to KNOW that you need to be saved, if you have never been. God doesn’t want anyone to go to Hell, but as a Just God, He cannot have sin in Heaven. We MUST either pay for our sins, or we must accept the sacrifice He made to cover our sin, by sending Christ in human flesh, to pay for our sin. Please, watch this video, and consider the truth . . .

If you do not know for certain that if you died today, you would be in Heaven with the Lord, then please, please, speak to someone who can show you the way. If you wish, you can contact me, making sure I have your email.

(before I get comments about the “origins” of the term Xmas, please know that I don’t care about that. In today’s culture, it does not stand for what it may have stood for thousands of years ago. In today’s culture, it most certainly stand for removing “Christ” from the word Christmas.”)
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Weekly Wrap-Up . . . Finishing With a Christmas Party!

Well, this week was a seemingly QUICK week! It seems like the week began just YESTERDAY!

You already know that “The Batman” and “The Artist” both are in the teen choir at our church, and they sang special music this past Sunday night.

During the week, in between packing up all of the autumn décor (now that Thanksgiving is over) and beginning to get the Christmas stuff out, we worked on “household management”, i.e. getting the house under control again, and catching up on laundry, lol!

We’re taking things easy during the holidays, so no “formal” schooling is going on, but the boys did a lot of reading and viewing educational programs.

Today, though, was our church homeschool group’s Christmas party! As we arrived, we were greeted by “Mrs. Peggy”, who had organized everything for us. We began with some Christmas songs, and all of the kids happily sang along while “Mrs. Peggy” led . . .

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Then, we had a story called “The Christmas List”, which I’d never heard of, but I really loved it!

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Next, each of the children who had prepared something was invited up to perform. “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” decided to quote a Bible verse about Jesus’ birth, as you’ll see in this video . . .

“The Artist” played “Angels We Have Heard On High” in this video . . .

and “The Batman played “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” in this video . . .

I’m thinking that we better spend some time practicing before we go back into lessons after the new year, as none of us has practiced in about a year and a half, not since before moving here to New Mexico! 🙂

Next on the agenda, we had visitors, Joseph and Mary, to talk to the kids about their journey to Bethlehem, and the wonderful birth of Jesus . . .

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Followed by another story, “The Tale of Three Trees”, which I HAD read before, and still love!

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“Mrs. Peggy” had arranged for the kids to decorate sugar cookies. They each got an angel and a “ninjabread man”! 🙂

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As you can see below, once they were done decorating their cookies, the PIZZA arrived, so everyone had lunch!

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Finally, the kids each got to go find their gifts. Here are my four boys looking for theirs . . .

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To wrap everything up, we got all of the kids to sit in a group by the tree for a picture. Don’t they look like they had a fun morning?

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How was YOUR homeschool week? Why don’t you join us at the link up and tell us about it? To find out how, please click the graphic below . . .

As always, I would love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go enter your email information into the “sign me up” button at the top of the page and never miss an update! And, if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook Page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Filed under Church, education, family, home education, Home-school Group, Kids, Mesa Baptist Church, Weekly Wrap-Up

Our Church Teen Choir

We have an awesome bunch of teens at Mesa Baptist Church, and Bro. Roger Grantham and his wife Aubrey are so great with the kids! Here they are in a video from last night, singing the song “Glory To God In The Highest” for the special music during the evening service!

I really want to give the Granthams a shout out, because Mike and I have two boys in the teen group and the teen choir. The Granthams have just been wonderful with them, really understanding of their needs, and helping where necessary so that the boys will do well in the group. They’ve even been willing to help with making it possible (in part by having along another couple, the Kuckartz’s, to handle things like medications and keeping “The Batman” on track) for “The Batman” to be included when they go to Winter Retreat, and hopefully summer camp next year, as well.

Thank you, Mesa Baptist, we love you! 🙂

As always, I’d love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go enter your email information into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog and never miss an update! And, if you enjoy this blog, please go to our Facebook page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Weekly Wrap Up . . . Thanksgiving

This has been a busy, busy week! It began with finalizing my lists for Thanksgiving, as we were to be 15 for dinner! So, starting on Monday, the kids and I were working on getting ahead of the laundry and cleaning, among other things.

I was also working hard to finish assembling the base Christmas cards I’m working on for my Hairstylist, Jody Muniz! They are all completed except for adding the bling and stamping the sentiments on the inside! 🙂 I needed to get them to that point so I could put away all of my paper-crafting supplies by Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening, our church, Mesa Baptist held it’s Thanksgiving Feast at 6:00 p.m., followed by our annual Thanksgiving Praise and Thanksgiving service. During the service, our teen choir sang the special music. Both “The Batman” and “The Artist” are in the teen choir, and “The Artist” had one of the duets in the song, so watch for him in this video! 🙂

Thursday, my husband had to work a four hour shift in the morning, and then about an hour after he got home, our guests began arriving. My friend Rose (who actually happens to work with my husband), her husband Bill and their four children (Danny, Andrew, Ian and Ashley) arrived first, at around 11:00. She is a Pampered Chef consultant, and came with stuff to make a veggie tray and a relish tray, complete with Pampered Chef stuff to make and serve them with! We put those out for the football watchers, but it took a bit of time to get them to eat that along with the chips and dip, lol! She also did a lovely tossed salad, a Honey Baked Ham, dinner rolls, and brought two pies.

My friend Ann, her husband Charles and their son Charlie got here later in the afternoon. She had made delicious mashed potatoes, two kinds of green bean casserole, and brought three pies. We had spent Thanksgiving at their home last year. 🙂

I did the Turkey, Coconut-Pecan Sweet Potatoes, stuffing, cranberry celebration, gravy and brownies. I forgot to cook the corn I had bought, but there was certainly plenty of food without it!

We had such a good time, and those who are into football certainly got their fill this year on Thanksgiving!

Here are some pictures of everyone having a good time together . . .

First up, My friend Ann, with her very fun hat!
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Next, we have Charlie, dressed to root for his team . . .
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Here is my husband Mike, with Ann and her husband Charles . . .
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Here, “The Batman” is engrossed in a 3DS game!
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Next, we have my friend Rose, her husband Bill, 2 of their kids plus “The Artist” . . .
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My husband Mike, gabbing with Rose, Ann and Charles . . .
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Two of Rose and Bill’s kids, plus “The Puzzler” at the Wii.
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Well, that’s OUR weekly wrap-up, how was YOUR week? Why don’t you write about it and then go link up with the rest of us? Just click the graphic below!

As always, I’d love it if you’d join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go and enter your email information into the “sign me up” button at the top of the page, and never miss an update! And, if you enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and “Like it. I’d sure love it if you did! 🙂

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Filed under Christian faith, Church, family, food, Kids, Mesa Baptist Church, singing, Teen Choir, Thanksgiving 2013