100 Things I'm Thankful For by Cali

I'm thankful for the people in my life...

My dad, who has taught me all I needed to know

Mom, who takes care of the family

Cameron, my brother and best friend

Christen, a fun sister that provides joy for the family

Grandparents

Camp Counselors at Twin Lakes Camp

Best friends that are always there

My Pastor

Teachers, who help me learn

Most of all, my Savior, who died for me

I'm thankful for the places I've been and the places I'm going...

Cancun, Mexico, or any tropical place

Ladoga, my favorite place to live

Florida, for fun in the sun

Crawfordsville, my home

New York

The soccer field, where dreams come true

Lucas Oil Stadium

Twin Lakes Camp

United States, our country of freedom

Heaven, I will be going there someday

I'm thankful for the taste of...

Chocolate

French fries

Corn on the cob, coated in salt and butter

Pumpkin Pie

Barbeque Sauce

Crispy Bacon

Pizza crust, with cheese filling

Lemonade

CCD (Chocolate Chip Delight)

Ice cream of any flavor

I'm thankful for the smell of...

Pumpkin seeds fresh out of the oven

The ocean

Grandpapaw's barn

A bale of hay

Grammy's gravy

Baby lotion

Chlorine

Oranges

And other tasty fruits

Thanksgiving dinner

I'm thankful for the feel of...

My warm, furry blanket

North Face jackets

Hot Chocolate on cold days

Winning a game

New slippers

Jell-O

Diving off the high dive

Wet sand on the beach

Whipped Cream in my mouth

Kicking the winning goal in soccer

I'm thankful for the sound of...

Ocean waves crashing against the shore

My sister's laugh

Dad's car pulling into the driveway

The oven bell signaling that the cookies are done

Water running

A flaming campfire

The crunch of an apple

The first praise song Sunday morning

Anything coming out of my iPod

I'm thankful for the sight of...

Sunset over the beach

All of God's creation

Snow

Trees in the fall

Nana and Papaw's car pulling into the driveway

A new chocolate cake

Christmas lights at night

Stars in the sky

The mountains

Tall buildings overlooking a river

I'm thankful for the enjoyment of...

Family

Friends to play with

Amusement parks and vacations

Slumber Parties without the slumber

Playing soccer, or any sport

Campfires

Baking cookies with Grandma

Looking at pictures that Papaw took

Reading the Bible with family

Going to watch sporting events

Swimming

Hanging out with friends

I'm thankful for the convenience of...

Cars-much better than a horse and carriage

Computers

My dad's job, so we can have money for necessities

Drive-Thru restaurants

Hairbrushes

Toilet Paper

Shoes, socks, and clothes

Electricity

My bed

Toothbrushes and toothpaste

I'm thankful for the memories of...

Going on vacations to New York, Canada, Mexico, and Florida

Birthdays

Holiday Gatherings

Going to concerts

Winning Championships in Soccer, Softball, Basketball, and Volleyball

Riding in a limo for my tenth birthday

Going Four-wheeling

Twin Lakes Camp

Competing in a neighborhood triathlon

Meeting Luke Menard (American Idol) at Arni's

Going to the Fox 59 News Station

Without Accountablitly, I'm No Good

To be accountable to someone means that you have to report, that you are responsible for holding up your end of the deal or that you have to have an answer for your actions.

For some things, I'm okay if I don't have to be accountable to someone but for the most part, I'm no good. Who is on his own?

Two things that come to my mind that I know would fizzle if I weren't held accountable or if I didn't have accountability partners are 1) our home school-preschool venture. If I didn't have Nancy counting on me to teach her kid, I wouldn't be very good. I'm not disciplined enough to do it on my own. 2) my exercise routine. I'm no good exercising on my own. Someone has to meet me at the gym or I'll just say, "nah, I'll just stay home". I'm no good on my own.

So why aren't we better at holding each other accountable in society? Can you imagine how much better things would be if we held each other accountable to be responsible for our actions. Better yet, what if we held each other accountable to higher standards, even Biblical standards?

But instead, we tend to say, "that's none of our business" or even worse...we enable people to fail morally.

Let me tell you something about my church. We practice church discipline. Church discipline is the practice of holding its members accountable to living to Biblical principals. I was not at all comfortable with it at first. My thoughts were, "this is none of our business, they should be able to deal with this privately". And then I saw the whole process and wow! It was amazing. It doesn't always turn out the way you hope but sometimes it does and those people are so blessed for persevering through the trial and doing it God's way. Matthew 18:15-20 outlines the process of church discipline. It is a long but loving process.

Clearly, there are some misconceptions or misunderstandings among those outside our church. Sometimes when I say where I go to church, people will say, "oh, that's the church that will kick you out if you do something wrong." No, that's not correct. I actually enjoy it when the topic comes up because it gives me a chance to tell how it has changed lives. There have been some impacting testimonies that have come from church discipline. It makes you see that if we all held each other accountable rather than minding our own business, marriages wouldn't fail, adultery wouldn't happen, people would parent responsibly, effectively and Godly children would be going out into society. If we held each other accountable, what comes out of our mouths, what we do on the weekend, what we watch on TV, our actions would not be in question morally because we would know that we had to answer to someone else.

Evidently answering to God isn't enough so we need something more!

Good News for Teresa

Praise God! Teresa's numbers were down. No chemo again. Next blood
test January 20, 2010. Happy Thanksgiving to the Ramey family!

Sent from my iPhone

Don't Get Too Proud!

If you ask me what I enjoy most, I would say watching my kids play sports and watching my husband coach. I finally found my niche in life when my kids played soccer for the first time. I was meant to be a soccer mom. I love it. Not only a soccer mom, but a football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, etc. mom. I love being an athletic supporter:)

And Brian, he has what it takes to coach. He is patient, he works hard to make sure everyone gets equal playing time, he is encouraging, he is positive, he doesn't yell and he focuses on teamwork. His teams have been very successful.

Last week we were both very blessed when our friend, Kelly Stanley posted this on her blog. Click to read.

I have to be careful not to swell up in pride. When it comes to my kids, I battle it. I am a proud mama. I love to watch my kids succeed on the playing field. I love to watch them win and I don't love it when they lose.

Every time I feel myself "swelling", I remind myself that it's all from God. God has blessed my kids and God has blessed us as parents and me as a wife. So rather than saying, "that's my kid", I turn all the praise and glory back to God.

Our family has a several verses that we live by. Some of our "sport" verses include,

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

Ephesians 3:20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Our kids know that all of their gifts come from God. They know they could do nothing without Him. They know they have been blessed. We thank God after every game. We give God all the glory.

Cameron loves Tim Tebow. He dreams to be a quarterback someday. I would love to have him grow up to be a Tim Tebow.



Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I am so thankful for my kids and their gifts and my husband and his many talents but I will not brag and I will not boast. It is all a gift from God!

I've Had It!

Uggh! I have had it with stupid people. I have had it with selfish people. I'm done!

Or maybe not...

I woke up this morning in the worst mood. I can't explain it. Hormones, interrupted sleep, I don't know but the first thoughts that came to my mind annoyed me. I really just wanted to sit on the couch and watch the morning news shows. I didn't want anyone saying, "mom". I just wanted to lock myself in a room and be by myself.

That wasn't possible. Today was preschool morning. I had to teach. Brian is off work for the week. My only choice was to shake it. Or at least try. I wasn't grouchy at anyone in my family and I didn't snap at anyone. In fact, I told Brian, "I'm grouchy. I've got to shake it before preschool starts." He asked why. I couldn't explain it.

My morning routine is usually that I wake up and read my devotion on my phone and then I go to Bible Gateway.com and see what the verse of the day is. Then I usually post that on Facebook or I find a verse somewhere to post on Facebook. I didn't even post today. Just didn't feel like sharing today. I'm sure God was smiling down on me...NOT:( I have been so annoyed by Facebook lately with some people having to air their opinions, get the last word in on my posts or insert their interests into my posts so I just need a break from it.

That was the first thing that set me off.

Then there are some relationship issues. You know, we try and try to reach out to people and our intentions are meant to be for the good but sometimes good intentions go wrong.

While I'd really like to let it all out right here and right now...I won't. But I will tell you, some people crossed my mind this morning; people who I could just let go because out of sight, out of mind...that would be the easy way out. But something in my heart won't let them go. Something won't let me give up on them.

I get frustrated because I see the pain they cause others, the pain they cause my family and me. I see the damage they are doing to themselves. I see that they are trying to fill a void in their life that only God can fill. But there is only so much I can do...and that is not give up.

Even though this morning, there were some people that I pray for daily that I said, "God, I give up on these people...I've had it!"

God responded.

This is how my answer came from God tonight. It came via Twitter from Rick Warren. He tweeted this: Jesus calls us to be involved in each other's lives. If u know someone wavering, its your responsibility to go after them.

and then this: "If you know people who've wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them.Get them back" James5:19(Mes)

James 5:19 from the Message says this: My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

Today I was likening it to someone being in a hole. We, among others are offering help to pull our "friend(s)" out. They keep digging deeper, farther away from us, farther away from God but we are still there with our hands stretched out and God is still there. Rather than me pulling back my outstretched arm and saying, "I'm done", I need to get down on my knees and stay as long as it takes. My knees may get sore, but being there to pull them out of that hole would be one of the greatest rewards ever.

What's in a Name?

Today our church will decide if it will stay Pleasant View or become Rock Point(e)...not sure of the spelling. You see, in January, we will move into a rock laden building with lots of points in the architecture; a building that doesn't really have a pleasant view.

Some people like change, some don't and some don't care. I really don't care on this one. I'm typically one who doesn't like change. I kind of like the idea of a fresh start with a new name but Pleasant View has a good name in the community too. It really makes no difference to me.

Here's the biggie: We are thinking of taking 'Baptist' off of the sign. Here is why: there are many people out there, and I've had a few people say it to me too, people won't walk through our front doors because it is a BAPTIST church. But there are some people who have been Baptists all their lives want to stay Baptist and it is important to them that we "advertise" that we are Baptist. To me, it makes no difference. I didn't come to Pleasant View because it is a Baptist church. I had no idea what Baptist meant. Brian will still say, "tell me in the Bible where it says I have to be Baptist to make it to heaven." So you see where he stands. It doesn't matter to us.

But as I was reading my friend Jordan's blog this morning, I was thinking like him, which is scary:)...if people associate us with the Baptist that people see in the news, then I want no part of it. Jordan grew up Baptist, went to Bethesda Christian School and he's okay with dropping the Baptist from the sign.

Let me tell you another interesting thing. Every once in awhile, we go over to Carmel and visit Brian's cousin Rachel. She attends Northview Christian Life Church. It's a huge NON-DENOMINATIONAL church. We were amazed that their service was identical to ours. They start out with music and singing from a praise band, do all of their singing and then their pastor preaches right from the Word for the second 1/2 hour. My point is that service wise, a Baptist church and a non-denominational church were exactly the same. We say that if we ever move to Indy, we already have our church. That is where we would go.

I went to Pleasant View because I was invited to MOPS. I went to MOPS for a year before I tried the service because we already had a church. I saw that the ladies that attended MOPS (many attend Pleasant View) were different. They had something I didn't. They were all at the same stage of life as me but they were happy, joyful. They loved life and had good friendships in their church. I didn't have that. So I convinced Brian that we should try Pleasant View. We did and loved it.

But Baptist had nothing to do with it. It was the people that drew us there and something about them and once I attended a few months, I saw why. It was God and God's word and it was being taught and read and LIVED!

My life, our lives, our marriage, our parenting, our relationships changed and changed for the better because I came to Pleasant View but again, not because it is a Baptist church, but because of solid preaching of God's Word.

So my final thought is that I would not want to lose any member because we take Baptist out, but I also don't want people to not come in the doors because the sign in the front yard says something that they think we are.

We have been reassured that nothing will change. The music won't change, PT's preaching won't change and we know the Bible is not going to change. As long as that all stays the same, the name makes no difference to me.

Cali's silly hat won first place