Happy Halloween from the Barnes Family!

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Long time no see!

Well, I have been so busy in the last few months that I haven't even had time to get on here. Bad...really bad. So, my pre New Year's resolution is to get around to being more regular on here. So, I will start with Halloween and then I will catch everyone up. Maybe by Thanksgiving I can have that done.

It's good to be back,
Paige

My beautiful balloon...

Sunday I got to take a ride in a hot air balloon. It was my first ride in a balloon and what a ride it was. It was a spiritual experience for me. To be up in the air and see the world, out in the open, the way God created it was amazing! All i could do was applaud the Lord in my mind. I didn't do it out loud because i didn't really know the other three people in the balloon and they might have thought I was crazy and pushed me overboard. Could I do it again, I would applaud the Lord out loud and lift my hands and praise his name. What an awesome God we serve! He is really trying to teach me some things right now and I am being my stubborn self. I wonder if he's up there going "hello...Paige...I am trying to teach you this the easy way, but if you don't cooperate you will have to learn the hard way". I have done some praying, reading, meditating, and talking with the Lord and hopefully I won't be as hard headed anymore. If you are reading this, feel free to say a prayer for me. I think we could all use as much prayer as possible. Anyway, the balloon ride was awesome and I have posted some pics for you to enjoy.
In his excellent name,
Paige

Relay for Life 2007

As promised, finally, here are pictures from this year's Relay for Life. Enjoy!

May is a busy month!!

Hello! It's been awhile since I wrote something. I have been soooo busy! Today's was Matthew's last official day of preschool. They are having a fun day on Monday and then he will be out of school until August when he starts back as a full-fledged Kindergartener. I'm not sure I am handling this well. I will let you know come August! I still need to post pics from Relay for Life. I can't seem to remember to put them on my thumb drive at the office and bring them home. Since I never blog at the office I can't put pics up when I am blogging. Note to self...make to do list and go find brain!

In other news, Matthew's birthday went well. He had lots of his friends and they seemed to have a really great time. Cole and I were worn completely out at the end of the day, but it was worth it. I have posted pics for you to enjoy. The first two weeks of May are insanely crazy at our house. Matthew's birthday, our wedding anniversary, my birthday, and mother's day all fall within two weeks. Poor Cole! He always does well, though. This year he took me to a nice restaurant in town for a date. The best present I could get would be time with my hubby! Thanks to my other mother (mom-in-law) for watching Big Red for us.

Mom update: Mom had gastric bypass surgery on Monday and is home doing well. I think she is firing up to write her memoirs of the last year since it has been a doosey. She has done remarkably well, and I am so proud of her. I think she is quite excited about being skinny and I am happy for her. However, I have always thought she is beautiful and that will not change.

So, enjoy the pics and I will try to remember to post Relay pics soon. Plus I have a new haircut, so I will have to get some pics of that and put those up soon.

Peace,
Paige

Relay for Life was great! Our team collected over $1100! My mom was able to come and be a part of it and that meant a lot to me. I know it meant a lot to her as well. As she walked across the field with the cancer survivors she became emotional. As I walked the path to find the luminary lit in my mom's honor, I walked with an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward the Lord for His guiding hand over my mom. We are so blessed that Mom has come through this battle with cancer. She is heading in on Monday for gastric bypass so I pray that it goes very well for her. She is looking forward to being skinny, and I am so excited for her. However, I have always thought she was one of the two most beautiful people I know (my Maw Maw being the other).

I will have to put up pics from Relay tomorrow. They are on my office computer.

In His most awesome name,
Paige

Birthday Boy!

Ok, so this has been a busy week to say the least. First of all, my hubby was out of town from Monday thru Thursday. Life is not a smooth when he is out of town. He is the calm of our house! Anyway, Matthew's 5th birthday was Tuesday. I can't believe my 8 lb. 5.5oz baby is now 5 years old. He will be in Kindergarten this year! So we are having a big birthday party tomorrow. The theme is outer space and I feel like i've been floating around up there already! We have a moon-bounce coming and we are going to take the kids on an astronaut scavenger hunt and make them feel like astronauts-in-training. Hopefully the kids will have a great time.

Here's what I still have to do:
pick up the rocket cakes and get balloons blown up
sew the tablecloth to go on the cake table (i bought fabric with all the planets on it)
hang the pinata (i did fill it today)
wrap Big Red's presents from me and Cole
fix up the name badges for the kids
get the birthday scrapbook ready
go to the store and buy cups and punch
hmmm....i think that's all!

Also tonight I am participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. I raised almost $800! Our theme is the "Beverly Hillbillies". I think after this weekend, I will need to take a break from decorating for awhile. I will send pictures when I have them.

I did decide to take a trip down memory lane since it's my boy's birthday. Here is our little man when he was little.

In His love,
Paige

This past Saturday my husband and I along with our Sunday school class participated in Rebuilding Together. We were able to do a mini "extreme makeover" on a lady's home. It was a wonderful experience to get the serve this family. Also, it was the first time that my hubby and I were able to do a mission project together. Since I am on church staff I am always the one on the trips and projects and he is watching our son. I really enjoyed getting to work with my wonderful hubby. We have a most awesome Sunday school class and I had a blast working with them. Here are a couple of pictures - one of my and my hubby and another of me and my friend Christy. Here we are in all of our work day glamour!

In His love,
Paige

Are you a wimp?

Ok, so I ran across this today. I thought it quite interesting and had to put it up here. I would love to hear some of your responses to this. Parts of this video made me a tad uncomfortable, but I began to wonder why at church we don't do more talking and learning about what makes men (and women) the way they are? As a Christian, I believe that it's vital that we are continually seeking ways to learn about others and improve our communication and relational skills. Relationships are HUGE if you profess to be a Christian (relationship with God, relationships with others). From now on I will refrain from using the word Christian, because I believe (and this is only my opinion) that most often it has a negative connotation. It breaks my heart that the word "Christian" is more often perceived as negative than positive. I also think that someone can call themselves a Christian when they are a "religious" person, but not necessarily giving themselves over whole-heartedly to Christ. So I will use the term "God-follower". I think there is a difference in those two terms.
While I don't necessarily agree with everything the founders of GodMen have to say, I do think this video sparks some interesting thought and proves a valid point that we maybe should take a deeper look at this. I personally don't think of Jesus as a wimp. To me, He is the strongest, most brave and courageous person that ever lived. (I remind myself that courage isn't simply the absence of fear, but pressing on through the fear to what one is called or led to do). I also think of Jesus as a tender-hearted man. Someone who genuinely loved and cared for others, but in more than one place in scripture He said some things that were probably hard to take. I wonder if when he said to Peter after Peter fell into the water, "Have you no faith?", did he mean, c'mon be a man and trust me on this! I don't know! Another thing I feel the need to put out here is that yes I have known a lot of "wimpy" "Christian" men - those who want to rant and rave about the state of the church and it's people, but refuse to actually get involved in someway trying to point the church toward Christ. My husband is a tender-hearted, soft-spoken man. He is a wonderful father and loving husband. I have seen him cry. I know that his heart has been broken. I know that he has hurt for other people. I have also heard him voice his strong opinion in a godly way. I have seen and heard him stand for his faith. My husband thinks of things in a way that most people don't always. It's one of the things I love most about him. I always have to stretch my mind to see his point of view, but I always get something I never would have had I not opened my mind up to another possibility or another viewpoint that wasn't my own. I also think of my husband as a strong man. He would fight for me in a nanosecond. I bank my life on that. Just like my life depends on the fact that I know Christ gave his life for me and everyone else in all of creation. Just like my entire existence today depends on the fact that I KNOW (i don't just believe this one friends) that my God fights for me. God is not wimpy and since I have been writing for a few minutes I think I have come to resent that caption in the video. Again, I know plenty of "wimpy" "Christian" men and women. So many times I am one of those. I loved the part when the man said that when he watches braveheart he wants to do that same thing. That must be a guy thing! Still, I, too want to be bold for God. Being politically correct has ruined us. I think there is a HUGE difference in being polite and graceful and godly and exhibiting the behavior toward others that Christ would want us to and being politically correct. Maybe it's time that we all (men and women) quit waiting for change to start with others and start the change ourselves. Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world". Right on, Ghandi my man.

Until my next rant,
Paige

We are back in town! We had a wonderful weekend with our friends. Jim and Kristen are now happily married and well on their way to a Hawaiian cruise. (I feel so sorry for them!). It was a lovely wedding. Kristen, the bride, is of Mexican heritage and that was incorporated in several ways in the wedding and reception - right down to the very tasty food. It was really cool to be part of a wedding that had some different elements than the traditional in it. Here are a few pictures.

In other news, Big Red did not want to participate in the Opie look-alike contest at "Mayberry Days". He didn't want "all those people looking at him"!!! Our nephew who is also red-headed won the contest so we are proud. We are glad to have all members of our family back under the same roof. Matthew turns 5 in just a couple of weeks and I can't believe how big he is. You know I am so proud and I have to put up a picture of my boy! This one I took today when he came home. His grandmama had him dressed up all nice for church.

We had a really deep, somewhat frustrating, very educational sunday school lesson today. More to come on that later. I am still trying to gather my thoughts on that one.

Until next time,
Paige

This has been a crazy week. My heart is broken for the victims, families, and students at Virginia Tech. What a horrible tragedy this was. I have prayed for everyone involved, and I pray that God will somehow be present in this situation. This brings back memories for me. When I was a sophomore in high school there was a shooting at my school that I was witness too. This has affected me in many ways since that time. So, this week I have been having nightmares and flashbacks in my mind and I even had a panic attack last night. It didn't help that they showed video from the shooting at my high school and an interview with the killer on CBS's 48 Hours.
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2697320n
This took place in 1995 not 1985 as the story says. I continue to pray for all of those affected by this tragedy and I urge you to as well. May God be present with those who are hurting and bring them come kind of comfort and peace.

In other news, we sent our Big Red off for the rest of the week to his grandmama's and papa's. They are Cole's parents, but I think of them as my own parents. I have said that God has blessed me with two wonderful sets of parents to love! Cole and I are going out of town this weekend for the wedding of a friend. We and several of our friends have rented a cabin and will be staying together this weekend. Cole and I are really looking forward to it. We don't get to see these friends very often and we are looking forward to a great weekend. They are having "Mayberry Days"in the town where Cole's parents live and they are talking about entering Matthew in the Opie look-alike contest. We will see how that goes and I will post pictures if he actually goes through with it!

This morning I got the scare of my life. When Matthew first woke up, he ran to me. When I picked him up to hug and kiss him I noticed a large mass in his neck. Of course this freaked me out. My wonderful husband got him breakfast and then we talked about taking him to the doctor. So I got in the shower and started praying. I was literally scared to death, but I knew that I needed to trust the Lord. As I prayed I got this overwhelming sense of peace. It's like somehow I just knew it was going to be ok. My first reaction was to panic (I am a mom!), but I knew the enemy would love to get me all wound up and take my focus off of God. So, I prayed fervantly during my shower and all morning as i was getting ready and getting Matthew ready to go. The Lord gave me a great sense of peace. We went to the doctor and get this - It was a swollen lymph node! He has been sick with a cold the past week and the doctor said the lymph node was swollen because it was doing its job. He said this was a sign of health and not disease. Now as a nurse maybe I should have known that, but this has not been here before so of course it was abnormal to me. Anyway, I am thrilled that my little man is a-ok and I have spent the rest of the day praising and thanking God that really nothing was wrong when I know it could have been so much worse. God is good!

Paige

Proverbs 31 and Relay for Life

I went to a funeral today. An older lady from the church Cole and I were married in passed away after an illness. At the funeral today the first scripture the minister read was Proverbs 31. This was quite interesting to me because I have never heard that particular scripture read at a funeral before. It really made me think that I would really love to be the kind of wife, mother, servant, friend, and child of God that when I go home to be with the Lord someone would think it fitting to read that particular scripture at my funeral. It was a refreshing change to hear that scripture at a funeral and it really fit the life this lady lived. I know she is receiving her reward in Heaven right now and worshiping at the feet of Jesus. The minister also talked about how her faced glowed every time she talked about her husband. I hope that my face glows when I speak of my love or of my Big Red. They are the loves of my life!

On another note. In a few weeks I am walking the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. It's an event designed to raise awareness and money for cancer research. My mom was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in January. A few friends and I decided to walk in the relay. Please keep us in your prayers and if you feel like donating some money then here's the link:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=190970&lis=1&kntae190970=F9F50AE45B2445369FEA62100EA8B701&supId=171745638

Paige

Well, today was supposed to be my first race. I was running it with a friend of mine , but this morning it was raining when I woke up. Now i know several hard core runners that will run in the rain, but let me say that I do not like to get wet unless I am swimming or taking a shower. I'm fairly confident that I will not melt (ha, ha!), but there are very few things I will stand out in the rain for. It might have been a little fun, but since I tend to be a bit on the clumsy side (imagine that - a clumsy princess!) I figured that I should probably stay on dry ground today and that means staying home. My southern knight appreciates that because he has our son's cold and was not feeling well when he went to bed last night. So i decided not to even wake him up this morning. I am sure that he will return the favor sometime!

On another note, last night I had dinner with some wonderful girlfriends. I haven't visited with them in awhile because time does not permit it. We all used to go to church together, but Cole and I moved two years ago so that I could take a ministry position at a church in a nearby town. Still, these girls are very important to me. They are the first people I email when I need something covered in prayer. They are godly, faithful, funny, and lots of fun! Some of them tell it like it is even if it hurts a little. That's something you can do among friends. Some of them are more quiet, some of them more creative and outgoing, but all of them are wonderful women who love their family, friends, and most of all the Lord. So one of our friends was leaving her ministry position to move to the place God is calling her. We met to wish her well and send her on her way with love and prayers. So, friend, we pray for you as you continue down the road. May God's peace and love surround you and fill you.

Running the race...

Well, this weekend I am running my first race. I have been training for a little while, though not as much as I should. I am running a local one mile. I know it's just a one mile, but it's a starting place for me. I have always wanted to run a race and I am really excited that this is my first one. I can't wait to cross the finish line and have my southern knight and Big red waiting for me! After this one, I will be working toward a 5-k at the end of May.

In other news, my Big Red is sick. Last week it was pink eye. This week his asthma and allergies are acting up. I think the fact that last week it was 80 degrees and this week it's in the 30s has a lot to do with it I don't like it when my boy is sick. I think he will be better to go back to preschool tomorrow. I hope so, because tomorrow they are going to the farm to ride horses! I think tomorrow will be great! I can't wait to have pictures to share with you!

Paige

More Easter pictures

Big Red hunting for eggs.









Southern Knight, Big Red, and Southern Princess
at the egg hunt at our church.

He is Risen!! Easter 2007 !!

So today is the day after Easter. We had a lovely Easter weekend. It really all started on Maundy Thursday with the Seder Meal at church. This year our son went with us and was a part of the meal. I was a little concerned that he wouldn't be able to sit through it with quietness and reverence (not in a 4-year old's vocabulary!). However, I was quite impressed with how involved he got in the meal itself. It was a great teaching time for him and I think that's part of what it was traditionally meant to be about.
Then came Good Friday. We had a Tenebre service, which is a somber service of darkness. After that a progressive stations of the cross with the youth group. We had the Last Supper and ate a meal, went to a beautiful garden in town and realized that Jesus prayed for all believers (I wonder if He actually uttered my name?), went to City Hall and a courtroom to hear about Jesus was tried and convicted, and then wound up in front of a cross holding a crown of thorns and three huge rusty nails. It was really a moving experience, I think, for all involved, but especially for me.
Saturday we had an Easter Egg hunt at church. Then I got to spend some time with my mom while the hubby...aka my southern knight (as in shinning armor) stayed home with Big Red (our son) for daddy and son time. Mom had been diagnosed earlier in the year with thyroid cancer and had a total thyroidectomy. She has had a rough road, but is bouncing back wonderfully, albeit slowly. I was excited to get to spend some time with her. She came and stayed a few days with us.
So Easter morning began early. Big Red was sick and had my mom stayed home with him. Southern knight and myself went to the youth-led sunrise service at our church. They did an amazing job and I was so proud of them. We stayed for the next two services at the church (I am a staff member, so it's what I do) and then back home to make dinner. My dad came and we ate a big meal and hid more Easter eggs for Big Red to find. All in all it was a great day, even though Big Red was sick and my brother and sister weren't able to come.
The very best part is knowing that Christ, our Savior and Lord, is risen and alive!

Paige

I just ran across this and absolutely love it! Check mine out and go do one for yourself.

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