Christmas 2008

Treasuring The Little Things

Seems like when we least expect it … Our lives get busier.

There is always time to be put in at the “job”
The clothes that need to be washed, dried or folded and put away:
The house-work that needs to be done:
The dishes that need to be washed:
The meals that need to be cooked:
And Ladies you know the list could go on and on …
Seems like there is always something that can be done to take our minds off of what is most important.

So, this Christmas Season Our wish for you is for you to Slow Down. Take things one day at a time. Pray and ask the Lord to guide you during that day. So that everything you say and do will be to honor and glorify Him. We should always remember that without Him in our lives we are nothing. There is no need for worrying over what will happen tomorrow, next week or even next month. As we have seen this year: We have no promises of tomorrow.
The “chores” of this life will be here long after we are gone. A lesson that we need to learn is to treasure the things that are in our lives right now … whether it be your Husband or Dad, your Wife or Mom, your Children, your Grandma or Grandpa or even your Pet. Treasure them while they are near and hold them dear to you heart. One day they may be gone …

With Love To All...
Bro. Gordon, Angela Zach, Nathan, & Rachel

My Christmas Is Ruined ...

WOW! Who knew that being employed could ruin your Christmas!

They always put out these sign up sheets for Holidays ... but this time they put the sign up sheets out while most of us were either at break or lunch ... so by the time we got back in the office the day time shifts were already gone.

I was willing to work on Christmas Eve if I absolutely had to. BUT NO! They put me working on Christmas Eve from 4:00 PM getting off work at 12:30 AM ... so I actually do not get home until 1:00 AM! Then coming back in at 7:00 AM and working until 3:30 PM on Christmas Day ... I will miss everything!

Christmas Eve is always hard for me because we always went to Mom's and ate with them and opened gifts. But now I get to spend that night with people I do not even know ... What fun that is going to be!

Christmas morning we always get up bright and early and the children open thier gifts ... they play around with what they got for a little while then we are usually at my Mother N Laws (Suzie) by 7:00 AM ... cause the children just cannot wait ... and after not getting much sleep the night before we are always starving ... Granny always cooks breakfast for all of us. We open gifts and spend some time with them ... normally then we come home and everyone crashes ... take a nap then we get up and go to Suzie's sister Norma's house for Christmas supper.

But now I do not get to do any of that ... I have to work ... PLEASE PRAY FOR ME! I am not very happy with this at all. I did not have to worry about this last year because I was still in training and we automatically got Christmas and Christmas Eve off.

This Christmas was hard enough on me ... I keep remembering Christmas past and it saddens me. Even before I found out that I had to work I knew that I will not even be able to spend time with any of my earthly family Christmas Season. But now this ... it is kind of like the icing on the cake for me. And people wonder why I sit around crying all the time ... I anxiously await the day that I can quit that job and come back to spending time at home and taking care of my family again.

Buddy And Scamp

Here are Rachel's 2 new puppies. I name the brown one Buddy ... Rachel named the black one Scamp.

They are doing pretty good "House-Training."

We have NO IDEA what kind of dogs they are ... so they may not be in the house for long.

This morning I thought that Scamp was going to die. He was very sick, but now he is doing much better. He is up running around and playing having a good old time.

Gordon does not like the puppies ... I am hoping that he "WARMS" up to them ... SOON!

Our Christmas Tree

Well, here is a picture of "The BIG Tree" The other 4 are mostly from the waist down.

Tonight the children and Gordon are all gone to the church for the Christmas Lock - In. I have to get up early in the morning and go to work, so I do not get to go tonight. This is the 2nd Lock - In that I have had to miss. I really do not like missing activities at the church. But I have to be up at 5:30 in the morning and be at work by 7:00. I cannot stay up all night and work all day ... I am way too old for that anymore! I know they are all gonna have a great time!

FBC's Annual Christmas Supper 2008

We had our Annual Christmas supper at FBC last night! What a glorious time we all had!

There was enough food to fill an army ... deep fried turkey, dressing, dumplins, scallopped potatos, corn, cornbread salad, veg all casserole, ham, baked turkey, devilled eggs, broccoli casserole, spaghetti bake, green beans with or without potatos, oh my goodness and the list goes on and on!

Now on to the desserts, there was Italian Creme', orange cake, bananna pudding, stawberry cake, strawberry pies, OH MY OH MY ...

we had a SPEACIAL set of visitors ... Bro. Gerald and Sis. Becky from TN came to enjoy this evening with us.

We had a great time of FOOD and FELLOWSHIP!

Straight From The Berrys' House

Well, here we are again one more day and we will be entering the month of December! WOW, this year sure has gone by super fast!

Gordon and I will be married 19 years on December 9th!

My children have grown up way too fast. Zach is now talking of which college he is going to attend: Nathan is always talking about his "girl-friend" Casey and Rachel ... well she is still the little girl in my eyes. I do not like it when she talks to me about BOYS! To me she should still think that all boys have cooteys! I am sure we all remember that stage!

Anyhow ... what I want to talk about today is my FAVORITE web site! It is www.picnik.com! You can take pictures from your computer that you have taken or that others have taken and do so many wonderful things with them. If you LOVe taking pictures like I do you should relaly enjoy this web site! BUT PLEASE ... do not go on that site unless you have a LOT OF TIME on your hands. I simply could spend hours on there doind this or that ... Rachel really loves it to! There are a LOT of things that you can do simply by going on the web site but then if you join and pay thier $25.00 fee ... you can have UNLIMITED access to everything on that web site for a whole year! I signed up for a year this past January it was a super great investment!

Take a look at the site and have FUN!

With Love ... Angela

Christmas At The Berry's House

Well, Christmas will soon be upon us again. My how the time does fly. It just seems like a few days ago I was wiping noses and changing diapers ... now I am working and trying to keep everything done.

Life does sometimes seem complicated and busy. But still yet Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I go to great lengths to make sure that everything gets decorated. Inside the house, outside the house.

Last year between jobs I had 3 weeks free. During those three weeks I decorated everything that would not move! I had several new things (well, new to me but these things are special they belonged to my Mom.) I put up Mom's wreath, Christmas balls that she had made for each of her grandchildren and the "Mopsie" family, the church that was given to me at her funeral and combined this all with the picture that Friendship bought for me when Mom passed away.

These were Mom's Santa & Mrs. Claus ... I put them up along with her little tree in the dining room and combined it with all he icicles that she had collected throughout the years.

I helped her collect these over about a 10 year peiod of time, she loved Angels, Icicles, & Snowmen!

I made this for Mom several years ago ... I cried when I put it on the tree.

Secret Pal 2008

Sunday was A LOT of fun! After church all the women met and we had food galore!

We played "Dirty Santa" I am displaying the Christmas ornament that I took that my sister n law ended up taking home with her.

We had a great time of games fun and lots of laughter. We drew names for next year!

Secret Pal

Well, I am anxious for tomorrow to get here! After church we are having our Annual Secret Pal Dinner! We will be eating and gabbing and exchanging gifts and playing "Dirty Santa" but mostly enjoying one anothers company.

As most of you already know Christmas is my favorite time of the year ... I really wish that I had my tree up already but my physical problems have me limited to what I am able to do. So, I am hoping to get it up here in the next week or so.

I was hoping to do it on Thanksgiving (my day off) but we have 2 places to go and visit with Family ... so that is ruled out. Maybe we can get to working on it sometime that week.

Wish me luck!

Rough Day!

Well, today was a rough day! I had a lot of trouble motivating around yesterday. After cooking supper, cleaning up the mess and getting all the laundry done I was having a lot of trouble just walking around. Then I was up most of the night simply because I was in pain.

I got up this morning and went to work. Left the house it was freezing outside! Got to work and the more I sat there the more the pain increased. So, when I went out for my first break I called the doctor. I got in to see Jamie today. I laid all the cards out on the table and told her I was not there for her to tell me that I needed to lose my leg. I was there to find a cure to help me with the pain and to help me get the leg better. So, she decided that we would try and get the water weight gain down and then go from there. She said that she could not determine how much the leg would decrease because to her it looked like there was about 8 - 10 lbs of water in the one leg alone. Needless to say she put me off of work until Monday. She said that I was supposed to go home and go to bed with my feet up. We as Mom's like sitting down and putting our feet up until someone tells us that we have to ... then we find excuses to do things. But I am trying to be a good little girl and stay with my feet propped up.

Today is Nathan & Kasey's 2nd month ... so he worked yesterday to make enough money to take her out to supper and a movie. With Kasey's Mom as a shaperone. He will be home sometime this evening.

Gordon and Zach went to a Boy Scout Camp Out ... YEAH and it 27 outside! They are crazy! They will be home sometime tomorrow afternoon.

So, that leaves me and Rachel. We have laready watched a movie together and now she is on the desktop and I am on Gordon's laptop. Sitting on the couch with my feet propped up!

It's Not About Us ... It's All About Him!

It's Not About Us ... It's All ABout Him.

We are getting ready to release this Friendship Youth Choir's 3rd CD.

Here are the songs that will be on this CD.

1. It's Not ABout You
2. Make Me A Blessing
3. Jesus Never Fails
4. Ask The Blind Man
5. He Is Really All That Matters
6. I Have Been Blessed
7. It Is Well
8. Calvary Conquered It All
9. Testimony ~ Bro. Gordon Berry
10. Mephibasheth
11. Amazing Love
12. Every Need Supplied
13. I've Been Through The Blood
14. Come To Jesus
15. What Sins Are You Talking About
16. He Is Mine
17. Because He Loved Me
18. Whoever You Are
19. The Man In The Middle
20. The Blood Sacrifice

Inside Message:

The Lord has been so good to us here at Friendship Baptist Church. The blessings of our youth group and the parents that support them have been a great strength and inspiration to our congregation. The hard work of the choir director, the musicians, and the helpers has paid off multiple times and we are very grateful.

It is because of this understanding of the goodness of the Lord that we desire to be real in our service to him. We make no claim of professionalism or perfection. We are simply a group of believers that God has blessed, and due to his blessings we desire to be a blessing to others.

With this desire to “be what we are” in mind, I have struggled to know the will of God in the making of this CD. And although the quality of the music and sound is not professional, I believe the quality of the blessing within it is excellent. We have taken an accumulation of songs that the youth have sung at various churches and events and put them together to make this CD.

As I listen to it I can not help but believe that this is the direction the Lord would like for us to take in providing others with this blessing. Over the years the Lord has made many of you a part of our spiritual family and friends. The letters we receive are a strength and an encouragement to us and we thank you. I truly hope the sincerity of this CD will touch your heart as well as the presence of the Lord.

May God bless you all.
Bro. Tim Shirley

I am presently taking orders for this CD. Send me an email and let me know if you want one. angiesayshowdy@yahoo.com

Thanksgiving At Work

Well today we had our Thanksgiving Meal. YUM YUM! I fixed home-made scallopped potatoes, mac & cheese bake, a HUGE bowl of dumplins, then 2 creamy pumpkin pies! WOW! Most of the people who came brought something. Not sure what, but they did bring something. Anyhow, we had turkey and dressing too! It was great!

After I got off work, I went to get Kasey. She goes to church with us each Wednesday night. We went to church and Bro. Tim preached (what he considered may be the last message on the King James Bible) It was GREAT!

I took Kasey to meet her mom and then I came home ... I am VERY thankful to be at home with my family tonight!

Missing Mom

Hard Times ... Dad had a massive heart attack on Jun 9, 2006. He ended up having to have a triple by-pass done. He was in U of L for almost 2 weeks. Mom stayed by his side and took care of him like any wife would do. After Dad got to come home Mom was trying to take care of him and work at her Beauty shop too. She told me one day late in August that she knew something was wrong with her ... she just did not know what it was. She kept getting worse. So, finally she went to the doctor. After many many tests they told her that she did not have cancer. She went back for another set of tests a few days later and they finally found out the problem. She was disnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. She went through Chemotherapy and Radiation treatments all they did was make her sick. They did noto shrink the cancer like the doctors thought. After spending several days in the hospital Mom got to come home on Thanksgiving day 2006. She told the doctor that she wanted to die at home with her family and friends and that is exactly what she did. The morning that she passed away there was a hosuefull of people that she loved.

I sat by her side for many hours. Not knowing what to say or what else that I could do but simply be there. She got to the point that even though she kne she was going to a better place she was afraid. She was hainvg panic attacks right and left. I was listening one day to The Rochesters and I heard a song called "Brighter Day" I learned the song and sang it for Mom and she seemed to be eased from the fear of death. That would result in that song being sang atleast 5 times each day, she simply loved that song. Another song that they sing is "In His Time" was a blessing as well. We were all praying that the Lord would see fit for the cancer to be gone. But that was not his plan.

Christmas is and was OUR favorite time of the year. We would always go to Elizabethtown and go Christmas Shopping together (whenever we could) and we would buy the prettiest Christmas ornament that we could find and exchange them. I really miss that. I miss going Christmas shopping with her. I miss talking to her. I miss fussing with her. I miss sitting at the shop and gabbing with her. I miss having her fix my hair: only she could get this almost black hair frosted to the shade that I liked! I miss our phone conversations. I miss eating her cooking: especially Chocolate Gravy & Biscuits. All Moms can be grouchy or even seem mean at times but you never know what you truly have until they are gone. I have a lot of the things that were hers, and I cry every time that I use them. Moms should never be taken for granted because as with everything else in life one day ... they are no longer there.

Mom had not even been gone a year and Dad had a massive stroke. He now resides with my brother in Franklin. My sister never comes around or calls. When you think about it except for my husband and my 3 children my earthly family is gone. Thank GOD for my CHURCH family! I truly believe without them I would have gone crazy a long time ago!

Well, Mom will soon be gone to Heaven 2 years this up and coming December 2nd. I know that I am a grown married woman and mother of 3 ... But I still miss my Mom.

Good Smelling Saturday

I got up this morning at 5:30 and got ready for work. I left later than usual today, no biggy. I got there just in time to clock in and get the morning started. I took my first break at 8:30 - 8:45 like always. Headed back in and took some more calls. My normal lunch is at 10:30 clocking back in at 11:00. Not today though I went to lunch alsmost 15 minutes late, no worries. Came back in and took more calls. FINALLY, I left work at early at 12:00 (I am not supposed to leave until 3:30) Anhow, I came home and picked up Rachel and Sis. Lisa and we headed to Elizabethtown. Our first stop was at the Mall. I wanted to go into Bath And Body because I had a coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket. They had a SALE going on today! Buy one get one at half price! I got two tubes of Vanilla Bean Noel body cream, a oil burner, and a tube of thier wonderful peppermint lip gloss while Rachel picked out Vanilla Bean Noel lotion a body spray. Sis. Lisa got her some Vanilla Bean Noel body cream too. Rachel went to another store and got her some more body spray this time she picked out Coconut. Then we headed over to Cracker Barrell to get some Christmas Ornaments. While we were there we decided to get a bite to eat. We all 3 ordered salads ... I LOVE thier homemade croutons! I gathered all of the left over salad and was taking it home to my husband when less than 5 miles from the house ... it slid out of the seat and landed upside down in the floor! No More Salad! We headed home after taking Sis. Lisa to her house. I have to say my spirits were a little higher after spending some time out of the house and away from work. It was a great day!