Good Morning ...

We had a great birthday party for the Daytona 500 :) It was soo good to see Robyn & Darold as we don't get together enough in the winter (at all!).

There was food, food, food galore - I made pulled pork sandwiches by crock-potting a couple of pork tenderloins from Sams for 24 hours with a bottle of honey barbecue sauce. They were wonderful. The meat was pretty tough until about the 18 hour mark, so not an undertaking without a chunk of time! I was surprised I had to cook it all night, but so thankful it finally came out great. We also had baked beans and brownies, and a fruit salad with mango, blackberries, and small green grapes. Appetizers included shrimp, specialty cheeses and crackers, Jules guacamole with blue chips, and potatoes-au-bratin from John (brautin because they had brats in them :) I made a french vanilla layer cake with white frosting for Robyn's birthday and it was wonderful. Every surface in the kitchen was filled with food and drink!

More special that the eatings were family & friends ... Darold & Robyn. Dave and I, Trey, Sean and Lars. Harp, Julie, Sam & Bailey. Jules & Hannah. Henry, Susan, Caitlin & Bridget. John & Michelle. Ryan & Josh. Ryan Newmann won the Daytona and it was a fun race. We all watched America's Funniest Videos afterward (which is a show that is always better with a crowd.) We finished up pretty early so everyone could ready to go skiing today. So much fun to be had, so little time.

Today I'm getting ready for Bible Study here at my house. I've started a Monday study with some girlfriends in my neighborhood to walk through the whole bible. We have a new believer and I offered to do this because when I came to know the Lord, the biggest mystery to me was the bible and how it is put together and what it means / covers. We've been having a great time in the study as well as knitting our hearts and lives together. Today we are movoing on from the Pentateuch (which is the first five books of the Old Testament, sometimes called the Books of Moses) to the 12 history books of the OT (Joshua thru Esther). We'll focus on Joshua today ... after Moses brought the jews out of slavery in Egypt and they wandered for 40 years, then Joshua took the jews into the Promised Land. The book of Joshua is about the conquest, division, and settlement of the land and as Joshua nears the end of his life, he transfers leadership to the judges.

Busy season is pushing along well and hard ... a lot more work for the year-end filings to do in the next 2 weeks. Fortunately, when busy season ends I as also scheduled to get my skiing privileges back as this is when my meniscus is anticipated to have healed.

I'm continuing to pray for and love on my friends with infirmities and challenges ... there are a number of them so my prayer life has been quite full. I am also praying specifically for the sale of our motorhome to a buyer that has been expressing great interest over the past two weeks... oh Lord, please let that happen.

Ryan & Drew are grown up and away at college and that is still such a strange thing after you have your kids your life for years and years and years ... I'm still incredibly thankful for the younger boys and our lives with them at home. Four kids is quite an undertaking, but it is a blessed one. Dave is happy & healthy and my daily prayers include thanks for him and his love. He's continuing to work out a lot and to take care of our home and every need. He's so cute in regularly bringing me popsicles as I slave over my computer.

Okay, so that's a pretty complete update :) I hope it finds you have a full and wonderful day that includes time with your creator father as well as fun and love with your family and/or friends. We are blessed beyond measure and one of my greatest follies is to take for granted the comfort and joys that we have.

Hugs and love, Sherrie

Here is a great line from today's Carolyn Hax whose opinion column I enjoy: "Jealousy is like anger. In rare flare-ups, it warns us of others. When it's chronic, it warns of ourselves." I wonder what other emotions we could analyze like that?