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| I am having such a hard time keeping up with writing on this thing. My days go so fast then when I DO get home I'm so tired I don't want to do anything, much less write. I have no pictures, no cute stories, no revelations. Just wanted to tell everyone I love you. Thanks for writing what you do. I do read your blogs when I have a moment in between 'things'. I appreciate getting info from your family and your world. Till the next time....diane | | |
| People in our area are such 'fraidy-cats'. Wednesday afternoon about 4:00pm it began to snow. Some of the corps in Atlanta began to cancel their Wednesday activities/services. Sarah called to let us know, (because we have cadets from the college each Wednesday for youth activities, nursing homes, and Wednesday Worship). Well the other corps cancelled causing THEIR cadets to not have to go out in "this" weather. Well, what was I to do? Should I cause our cadets to be the ONLY cadets to have to come out in "this" weather? Of course not. We did fear for our folks coming out on wet/slick roads so we did cancel worship, but went ahead with youth and band practice. We were feeding supper to the afterschool kids (about 45 of them). When the snow started we were in the corps dinning room full of windows. Now these kids hardly ever see snow. When the first two or three (or 700) flakes began to fall, the kids ran screaming to the windows. They laughted and screamed for what seemed like an hour, but only 5 minutes. Supper was over and they were dismissed to go play in the gym. When the kids were in the gym, our Community Center director said, 'let's peek outside the gym door and see what the snow is doing'. She opened the door and several of them ran out in the snow in their socks! Their excitement overruled their sense. Well it snowed again on Saturday. Another corps in Atlanta cancelled services for Sunday. We were wondering if we should??? But then we wondered why? It was an absolutely beautiful day, just very cold (about 18 degrees). We were glad we didn't. Our service...the whole day was wonderful...even corps council was wonderful! Love ya' all. di | | |
| Christmas at the Fultz's House...       
Christmas has been especially outstanding this year. ALL MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN AND US WERE UNDER ONE ROOF. It has been wonderful to be together. That was the best gift Art and I could have ever received. (the gifts were nice too! Sarah took pictures of the only room in our house that got decorated...the family room. We all sat down to open gifts in the decorated family room when Toby said, "don't you think we should pray before we open gifts"? Of course we stopped and allowed Toby to pray for us and out time together. The prayers of a child are always the best and sweetest. What a time we had watching the children open gifts and get excited over the little things. We've already eaten toooooo much. I gave up sweets from Thanksgiving 'till Christmas day. So for breakfast I had a cinnamon roll, followed by two cookies and peanut brittle. What a feast! Hannah made homemade pizza for our lunch. One of those Chef-boy-ardee pizza mixes. It was the best pizza I've ever had. Tomorrow we leave to go to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg Tn. We've rented a cabin for 3 days. The Gilliams, Nelsons and us are going to be together to finish up our holiday. Our cabin has a pool table, ping pong table and hot tub. We are possibly going to the Bear Jamboree dinner and show. It's really for children but enjoyable by all. Just wanting to make memories for my grandkids. God has blessed us so much and glad to have this opportunity to be together. Moves come out in two days. No telling what that holds. We'll take advantage of the time we have. I miss being with my siblings and parents. Christmas is about Christ, but family makes it all the better. Perhaps in the next couple years we can plan another big get-together after the first of that year. Let's start thinking about it. God bless each of you and your families as we enter a new year together. I love you all. diane | | |
| So I didn't wait a whole month to post. Just a short one. Things are moving at such a quick pace some days I can hardly keep up. I have so many project going at the same time it takes ALL my patiences and fake smile occasionally. The other day I had a team of volunteers preparing gifts for Angels in the wareshouse, people wrapping gifts in another room, a couple other people sorting canned goods in the pantry, and I'm trying to prepare lunch for all of them. In the meantime my phone is ringing, people are wanting my attention to make a decision, and... well you get the picture. I hate to say this in such a forum, but somedays I go to the bathroom just to sit down and be quiet for a few minutes. Oh the joy of Christmas. And then Sunday comes around. Thank God for Sundays! They're no slower, just different. The real reason we do all that other 'stuff' becomes clear. I rest and listen with anticipation of the stories of Mary and how Jesus changed her life, and of Joseph and how he followed God's instructions, when it would have been easier not to. And I question myself. How has Jesus chaned my life? Do I follow God's instructions? Well as I'm aging I see the changes and follow closer. (I"m a slow learner). I want to be and live the plan He designed for me. I think I'm getting there. God give us all the energy we need to complete this season with joy and peace. love you all diane | | |
| I can't believe it's been a month since I (Art) wrote last. Life has just picked up the pace. Today is my birthday. I don't mind telling you I am 43 (oh sorry I hit the wrong keys) 54 today. I don't feel bad about saying '54' years because I know my brother is older. This also makes my mom and dad MUCH OLDER too . I have had a wonderful day. Worship was good, congregation was receptive. They sang to me, brought a birthday cake for me. It's wonderful to have your birthday on the Lord's day. Christmas has arrived in Marietta. Friday two trucks arrived to deliver our toys / gifts for Christmas. Only one was supposed to arrive on Friday. One was scheduled to arrive on Monday...SURPRISE! Our Bookkeeper, Secretary, and two other ladies, along with a sick janitor began the 'parade of dollies and carts' loaded with boxes. It was quite a show to behold. It was cold and windy. The first truck driver had a little incident as he came up our street. He was not a happy-driver. Then when I told him he had to come on our property (up a hill down a drive with a semi) he doubted he could do it. But he did. Still not happy, he sat in the cab of his truck waiting for us ladies and sick janitor to finish unloading. Oh I forgot to tell you their was NO LIFT on the truck so we had to throw the boxes one at a time out of the truck, load them and cart them into the gym, where distribution will be held again this year. To make the story even better...as he was leaving, his truck snapped our cable wire and he took our some of our landscaping. I'm sure he was mad as a hornet when he did that. I told his company he was not a nice person. Tomorrow we have another truck arrving, Advisory Board luncheon and kettles. It's going to be a fun Monday. Today we went to the CFOT (which is now the EBC- Evangeline Booth College) to had Thanksgiving lunch with the Nelsons. It was beautiful with a very nice spread of food. They had a short devotion following the lunch by the Principal Major Howell. We all held hands around our tables as he prayed. What a blessed time to be with the kids. Wednesday we head to Dothan for 24hours of family fun with the Gilliams. We are looking forward to a great Christmas season. We will pray for you as you go through the season with busy schedules, kids to manage, budgets to stick to, duties to complete, people to serve, and we will pray that in the midst of it all we don't lose sight of the joy that can be found at the finale, our Lord and Savior. Please pray for us too. (especially my mouth). Love you all. diane | | |
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