God is GOOD

So, have I told you lately how blessed I am? I am very blessed. I don't deserve the blessings I have, material and spiritual likewise, but I am SO glad God has given them to me. I especially appreciate my wonderful husband. He is sooooooo patient with me (lol) and he really tries to do right by me, so you can imagine my horror when he called me last night to inform me he had just been in a wreck!! OMW!!!!! I was positively beside myself, because I know how calm he can be in very, very stressful situations and I just really had no idea how bad it was. As it all turned out, he was rear-ended by a little rice burner in the rental truck he (Ralph) was driving. The other car was demolished, but the rental truck's bumper was all that was damaged. Today, as I prayed and thanked God for his love and mercy, I just started to cry. I really don't deserve it, but I am so glad that God kept my love from any serious injury. (His neck and back are strained, but he should pull through fine...) We did end up in the ER, just to make sure he would be fine, but the x-rays were normal. I just thank GOD for keeping his hand on Ralph!!

I found this quote online and wanted to share it with any "passers-by"... Have a GREAT day!!

"Whoever is happy will make others happy too. He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery." -Anne Frank

What I've Been Doing For the Last Week...

Well, my friends, it has been too long! I have been very busy, and as a result, unable to fill everyone in on the latest happenings. Since my last entry, Logan and I went to Disneyland on Valentine's Day and Ralphie and I went to Marriage Retreat in Costa Mesa. I guess I've really been busy in the most exciting ways!

Valentine's Day @ Disneyland was wonderful with my little man. We did everything he wanted to do - or ALMOST everything. We had to be at church by seven, so we weren't able to totally wear ourselves out staying all day long. I thought it would be busy, but there weren't very many people there at all. We had both parks to ourselves! When we got home after going straight to church from Disneyland, my MAIN man had gifts for us on the kitchen table. Logan got some new Axe products, which he loves, and I got Gucci shower gel, which I love!!! So, overall it was a very nice day.

Thursday was just business busy and I won't bore everyone with the details here. One thing that was fun was I went "junking" with my friend for Easter drama props. We found some really neat stuff, and I, of course had a great time.

Friday my hubby and I left for Marriage Retreat. (Logan, by this time, was already @ Grama McCorkles getting spoiled silly...) Bro. and Sis. Stevenson were the speakers for this year's retreat and it was a HOOT just as much as it was enlightening. Friday night after the session we had a karaoke contest and it was over the top!! Really hilarious! I didn't know some of these people had it in them, I really didn't. I sang "You're Still the One" to Ralphie and I started CRYING!! Oh, my! (As Sis. Stevenson would say, "I was touching myself...") Good times. We ate at Maggiano's on Saturday and I'm still full. Honestly, it's a sin. Gluttony. Blech! I'm fine with once a year there. It literally took us 3 hours to consume our 5 course dinner and we still took a bag full of leftovers back to the hotel. That's a lot of food.

Sunday was good and we actually made it in the group pic this year. Every year we miss the pic for one reason or another. After we were dismissed, we went to The Container Store, and can I just say that is my new favorite store!! Wow! There's a container for EVERYTHING in there. We were shopping for something nifty to put all of the drama make-up/hair products in and we came up with something really cool. It should be very organized, which will hopefully make the hair/make-up lady's job more comfortable and fun.

So, that's it. That's what I've been doing. Oh, yeah! I put a slide show at the bottom of this page, so check it out! There's a pic in it of me and Ralphie from Marriage Retreat. Well, that's all folks! For now...

The BIG Move

It is now absolutely OFFICIAL!! The McCorkles are moving back to Yucaipa. That's right folks, we are outta here. We are moving into a beautiful house and I just feel so very blessed. Anyway, we can't wait to have all of our friends over again and again. (Mexican Train anyone?)

Happy Valentine's Day! I probably won't be on here tomorrow, so I'll go ahead and get that out of the way. I am taking Log to Disneyland tomorrow so we can ride the rides he likes and what-not. We do have to be back in time for church tomorrow night, so it won't be a real long day, but who cares? It's DISNEYLAND!!!!!!! :)

We are now paging all friends who are willing to help us to move on the 10th of March.... True friends only need apply. ;0) (YES, I am trying to guilt everyone into helping...) Toodles!

A Week-end of "Brilliantness"

This week-end has been so full with laughter and good times, I don't even know where to begin. Saturday my friends and I went shopping around, trying to find good bargains. It turned out to be a bit of a wash and we came home pretty empty-handed - even Ralph was surprised at the absence of many bags when we finally arrived home. Yes, my foot killed me, but it was fun nonetheless. After much fruitless searching, we finally came home and quickly changed from flip-flops to boots (these SoCal winters drive me up a WALL!) and then carried on to Claim Jumper for our seven-thirty reservation. We met up there with John and Casey, who turned out to be the entertainment for the night, coming up with one witty quip after another. Several times I ran completely out of air for all of the laughing they caused with their shenanigans. It was quite hilarious.

Today my friends had to leave and I miss them already. Their visit just didn't seem quite long enough.

As for other eventful events (that sounds redundant, I know...), Ralph, Logan, and I went to look at a house that we may rent in Yucaipa. It's really beautiful and the owners have all but given us a final approval for move-in. I pray that if it is God's will, it will come about easily, but if not, He will make it near impossible. We as humans will always find a way, whether it be God's will or not, but I am praying for wisdom and insight into what God wants for us. Help us pray!

One final note on the week-end, tonight's service was exceptionally good in reference to the preached word of God. My pastor really "got after it" tonight and I have a more profound respect and love for him because of it. I love my pastor anyway, but like I said, tonight was very exceptional.

That's all, for now...

Disneyland! YAY!!!!!!

I had an absolutely "fantabulous" time at Disneyland today with two of my very best and oldest friends. Logan went with us as well and rode all the rides like a pro except for the Tower of Terror. He didn't quite like that one and I will try to post the pic that was taken between stomach-churning drops. It is priceless. I think we got on every ride that we wanted to and four of the rides we rode twice. It was a great day to be at Disneyland! Also, since this is the second time in about a month that I have been, I talked Ralph into buying the "bottom-of-the-barrel" annual pass. It's only available to SoCal residents, and it's really a good deal, so I am now the proud owner of an annual pass!!!! Yay for me! (BTW - if you ever can't get me, it may be because I am riding Indiana Jones or something else equally exciting!) ;) We got a good seat for the fireworks and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the show. It was particularly spectacular, I thought, which reminds me... Fireworks make me cry. I am not for sure why, although I have a theory which I am not inclined to share at this juncture. Without fail, tonight's show was no exception. As the grand finale neared and the symphonic orchestrations rose to a great crescendo, I teared up and felt a lump in my throat the size of Texas. (I don't know why Texas, so don't ask!) I LOVE fireworks, which is one of the reasons why the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. Now that reminds me, I made a couple of unusual purchases (FOR ME) today. First, I purchased a pack of antenna Mickeys that are made up of all the major holidays. How cool is that??? Then, I also had a profile of Logan done. It turned out very nice, but that's a given - right? (He's just a gorgeous kid...) Anyway, those are things I wouldn't have normally picked out, but it just struck me the right way today.

I guess that's enough raving about Disneyland. Next week I plan to take Logan again so he can try to be a part of the Jedi Training Academy show they put on 10 times a day and I wanna see Fantasmic! I will get lots of use out of this pass and make it worth our while!! :D

EM-EYE-SEE-KAY-EE-WHY EM-OH-YOU-ESS-EE......

Oh, yeah! I forgot to mention that Bonnie found one of the hidden Mickeys on Pirates of the Caribbean!! Yay for her! (I am TOTALLY into that kind of stuff...)

Glory BE!

I think I was born on a soap box. No matter how hard I try to be meek and humble, I somehow inexplicably find myself in the same position - feet firmly planted on my soap box, mouth open, preaching about something. I really wish I could stop. Lord knows I have tried, but it hasn't happened yet... Tonight's soap box? Consecration. In all fairness to...myself, it was tonight's lesson in my class. (Oh, yeah and some history on Pentecost that I never got to, because class was cut short!) Not just a general consecration, but my rant was more channeled into girls cutting their hair tonight. The ten and eleven-year old kiddos that I teach were very attentive when I started talking about the blessings of God being linked to obedience and consecration and hair-cutting in particular. I know there are many ways to consecrate to God, but it took me a long time to get the revelation of not cutting my own hair and I have a burden for those who haven't yet realized it themselves. I see so much suffering withing Pentecostal ranks that just seems unnecessary. I feel strongly that much of it may be linked to a lack of dedication and/or consecration to God. (I told you I had a soap box going on tonight!!) I don't know. I'm just a "laywoman" and not anyone very inspirational, but I hope that the girls that I have a direct influence over will be influenced by me in at least this respect. Keep the scissors out of your glory! Don't shave it, break it, burn it, cut it, dye it, or otherwise alter its appearance. God WILL bless your obedience. I am living proof. I won't elaborate further here, but I'd be more than happy to one on one, if this is a struggle in your life. Soap box relinquished! (For now!) ;)

Judas, Cleaning, etc....

Well, after having a rambunctious practice tonight with very capable "dramatacizers" I decided I'd rather "dramatize" than direct. Too late! LOL I did have a TON of fun playing a crazed Judas who has realized the error of his ways and becomes suicidal. Whoa! It was a little heavy, but I can do heavy! (No pun intended, my friends! ;) I must say I am having a good time experimenting with the different characters of the script and working on their various moods, voice inflections, and body movements. There's a ton of stuff to remember, but I love the challenge.

In other news, my carpet is freshly shampooed and for the first time in my nearly ten years of marriage I am having someone come to clean my house tomorrow. My very dearest friends of some twenty-plus years are coming into town Thursday for an extended week-end visit and I just haven't been keeping up on the house. Now I am so far behind I am actually paying someone to help me get caught up. I have mixed emotions about this, because I was reared in such a manner that only lazy or rich people got housekeepers. I'm definitely not rich, so YOU do the math! I made a good dinner tonight to help ease the pain of my guilt... *sob!* :D So, if you were planning on dropping in on the McCorkle's tomorrow afternoon would be a GREAT time to do that and you can use either bathroom and even rummage through closets, if you like! LOLOL It will be clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Profundity Lost

Alright, so I had this really great post on the how deep and profound life can be and my computer puked out on me, so... Bummer!!

In a nutshell, "...ALL things work together for good to them that love God..." Romans 8:28

Sorry, you'll have to fill in the blanks since I had already stretched my brain to capacity on the aforementioned tragedy of a post.

Have a great night!

Some day, I'll laugh...

There will be times in life that something will happen that is so positively and absolutely horrifyingly EMBARRASSING, you won't ever want to think about it AGAIN. But I can't STOP thinking about it. Of course, I am not indiscreet or lame enough to post it on my blog, but I am not too proud to address it. Lots of really infamous "JoniAyn-isms" are popping into my ever-loving brain right now, but I can't repeat those EITHER! LOLOL Ugh! God is working on my humility, I'm sure of it. I need more, obviously.

Good news, though, I am getting to a certain point in a certain situation that I will be able to talk about it on my blog and I am BURSTING. I really am and it will be great fun to blog about.

ANYhoo, I am trying to regroup from the last couple of days of non-stop busy-ness. It was a great opportunity to be able to be involved with the SCC conference in Ontario, and we had a wonderful time. I think we're just going to move out of our apartment and take up new residence! LOL I know "that" would probably get old, but I still love those precious times with wonderful people. Good times.

Have a blessed evening and I'll be back!